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FC Dallas

FC Dallas Suffers 3-0 Defeat in Austin

June 22, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Dallas News Release


AUSTIN, Texas - FC Dallas (7-7-5, 26 points) suffered a 3-0 loss to Austin FC (6-8-4, 22 points) on Wednesday evening at Q2 Stadium.

MISSING PIECES

FC Dallas was without eight regular starters with six players missing because of injuries (Paul Arriola, Jesús Jiménez, Paxton Pomykal, Tsiki Ntsabeleng, Ema Twumasi, José Martínez), one yellow card accumulation suspension (Jáder Obrian) and Jesús Ferreira who was called into USMNT duty for Concacaf Gold Cup. Sebastian Lletget returned to the lineup in the 72nd minute for the first time since May 13.

WEATHER HITS AGAIN

Tonight's match was originally scheduled to kick off at 8:39PM. Severe weather in the Austin area pushed kickoff to 10:07PM. It's the fourth weather delay Dallas has faced in league play in 2023.

MLS DEBUT

Amet Korça checked in as a sub during the 75th minute to make his MLS debut. The 22-year old Arlington native is the sixth FC Dallas player to make his MLS debut this season.

RECORD AGAINST AUSTIN

FC Dallas suffered its first defeat at Q2 Stadium in regular season play. The club now holds a 4-1-2 regular season record when playing Austin. Dallas is 2-5-3 on the road this year.

SEARCHING FOR 3 POINTS

With the result, FC Dallas remains on a six-game winless streak (0-4-2) which is the team's longest victory drought of the season.

UP NEXT

FC Dallas hosts LAFC on Saturday, July 1 for Military Appreciation Night in a match presented by Toyota (FCDallasTickets.com). The match kicks off at 7:30PM CT on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, the FC Dallas App, Talk Radio 1190AM and TUDN 1270AM.

Lineups

FC Dallas - Maarten Paes; Marco Farfan, Nkosi Tafari, Sebastien Ibeagha, Geovane Jesus (Amet Korça - 75'); Sam Junqua, Edwin Cerrillo, Facundo Quignon (Sebastian Lletget - 71'), Collin Smith (José Mulato - 54'); Alan Velasco, Herbert Endeley (Bernard Kamungo - 71').

Substitutes not used - Jimmy Maurer, Nolan Norris.

Austin FC - Brad Stuver; Jon Gallagher, Aleksandar Radovanović (Kipp Keller - 85'), Julio Cascante, Nick Lima; Diego Fagundez (Emiliano Rigoni - 81'), Dani Pereira (Jhojan Valencia - 73'), Owen Wolff, Ethan Finlay (Hector Jimenez - 85'); Sebastián Driussi, Gyasi Zardes (Maxi Urruti - 73').

Substitutes not used - Matt Bersano, Adam Lundkvist, Rodney Redes, Will Bruin.

Scoring Summary:

ATX: Ethan Finlay (Julio Cascante) - 17'

ATX: Diego Fagundez (Ethan Finlay) - 42'

ATX: Nick Lima (Ethan Finlay) - 58'

Misconduct Summary:

DAL: Facundo Quignon (caution) - 25'

Weather at kick: Clear, 85ºF

Attendance: 20,738

FC DALLAS POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Nico Estévez

General thoughts on the match...

"I don't like excuses, especially me. As a team, I think we have to know that we came here to compete in this game. I'm disappointed with our focus on the defensive side; (that) is this something that we had to do better. I expressed that to the players but, overall, in the first half besides a couple plays that we had to defend, we had some good possessions, good crosses into the box. We lacked a little bit of confidence in the last third. I think we had a really good set piece right at the beginning of the game where we could have scored a goal.

I think in the second half they came out strong and I think we came up a little bit hesitant. When you come in hesitant to a game against Austin - you cannot do that. This is the difference. On May 13th we didn't hesitate and today we hesitated."

On dealing with so many players out...

Thing about that is that we're very unlucky because now that Jesús (Ferreira) is gone Jesús Jimenez could take that chance and help us. This is why we brought him and he was very unlucky to get injured in the game against Portland.

Overall for not having a striker, I think we created really good chances. Sam Junqua had a really good shot in the second half that was close to scoring. Edwin Cerrillo had a good shot outside the box. Alan (Velasco) also had a good shot. We had a couple good crosses there. We had the set piece. Overall, we want to better but we learned a lot in this game in terms of what we can do without Jesús Ferreira and Jesús Jimenez.

On Maarten Paes' play tonight

"If you look at you look at the second-half, what a great response from Maarten. What an amazing response after we were unlucky to concede that goal. What an amazing response that he had. Only the big players have that mentality to switch, you know, to go and just win the next moment, the next action. I think that it shows how strong he is and how good he is, you know, because he could just start thinking about what happened and not the next action. He won every other action that he had in the game and I think that is impressive for me and I looked a lot from that."

Defender Amet Korça

On making his MLS debut with FC Dallas...

"It means a lot to my family and I. Unfortunate to lose like that in the Texas Derby. I am grateful for the coaching staff who gave me the opportunity to come in and make my debut."

On moving on to the next game...

"We will move on from this match. There were some mistakes and miscommunications throughout the match tonight. I know we will work hard and look to bounce back in our upcoming match."

On the team effort put in tonight...

"I believe we could have done a bit better. Sometimes the game of football doesn't go your way and the only thing you can do is just move on."

Defender Collin Smith

General thoughts on the match...

"It's an unlucky result but we are looking to bounce back against LAFC. We want to put this behind us and head into the next match to earn some points. It's behind us now and we are moving on."

On keeping focus throughout weather delays...

"You could say we are accustomed to the delays. It's more about being ready at any given moment. It's about keeping that focus whether the game is delayed 30 minutes or up to two hours. You have to be ready to perform once the game starts."

On playing in a forward position...

"It's been a great transition, I am always ready to learn on the fly. That is one of my quality traits. It's great being able to come back and help the team with a 60 minute shift. Having the support from the guys makes the transition easier. We tried our best tonight, but we will come back harder next game."

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