seeing action only as a second-half substitute in a 4-0 loss at Toronto FC on June 17.
• "Ramon played very well and scored a great goal. I've been telling him for a few weeks that he needed to keep his head up, keep working hard and wait for his chance to get back in the lineup again. It's been a difficult few weeks for him, trying to get his place back in the team again, and he got that tonight and took a chance for a great goal. I thought he did a lot of other good things in the game, as well."
• Said Nunez: "I haven't been happy, but I was professional about it. I had to come in and do a great job for my team. I'm not up to a 90-(minute) level game because I haven't played in a while, but I was thankful to get in there and score a goal to help my team out. I'm working hard to get back in the team in a fair manner. It was unfortunate for Marcelo to go down for me to come in, but I was able to step in there and I think I did a pretty good job for the team."
• The Hoops did suffer a blow when Saragosa went out to an injury in the first half. Morrow concerned it was a recurrence of Saragosa's knee injury, suffered on April 12 in a game at the Los Angeles Galaxy. He then missed a month with a sprained MCL in his right knee.
• "I think losing Marcelo affected the overall shape of the game. Our shape was a bit messy and we didn't always have guys in the right spots defensively," Morrow said. "In the last few weeks, we have had a good shape to our team defensively and I think Marcelo early in the game certainly affected that."
• Ruiz led FCD with four shots but is still without a goal since April 12. "Another frustrating evening for Carlos (Ruiz) and I'm frustrated for him as well," Morrow said. "He got a few more good opportunities tonight, a couple he made himself and a couple he made good moves on. It's just not going his way at the moment."
• In the U.S. Open Cup on Monday, FC Dallas survived a penalty kick shootout for the second consecutive season, playing to a 1-1 draw with the Atlanta Silverbacks over 120 minutes before advancing 4-3 over six rounds in the shootout. Ruiz scored in the 74th minute before Dan Antoniuk equalized for the USL First Division team four minutes later; three minutes later he was then sent off.
• "A lot of credit goes to them. It's the U.S. Open Cup and shockers can happen. That's what it's all about. In the end, we got the result we wanted. ... Offensively, we could have been better at times and our finishing in and around the box could have been better," Morrow said. "It's a difficult game. It's difficult to break a team down when they sit behind the ball, but we have to find ways to do it."
• Here's Morrow's team: Dario Sala, Drew Moor (Abe Thompson 91), Clarence Goodson (David Wagenfuhr 12), Chris Gbandi, Bobby Rhine (Michael Dello-Russo 12), Aaron Pitchkolan, Pablo Richetti, Juan Toja, Ramon Nunez (Dominic Oduro 69), Carlos Ruiz, Arturo Alvarez.
• On Wednesday, FC Dallas played the second leg of the Rio Grande Plate against Mexican partner club Tigres UANL, falling 1-0 at Pizza Hut Park to a 76th-minute goal from Walter Gaitan. Tigres claimed the cup 3-0 on aggregate after FCD had won it a year ago. Gaitan had also scored from the penalty spot in Tigres' 2-0 victory in Monterrey the previous Saturday in the first leg.
• "I look over both games and we didn't deserve to lose by three goals over both games. I thought that tonight we performed well and dominated the game. But we probably didn't create enough around the goal and had a few chances but probably not enough," Morrow said. " ... I'm very pleased with the effort that a lot of the boys put in and we found out a lot about some of our younger guys as well. I was certainly pleased with performances from some of the younger guys as well. I think we got a lot out of the two games but am disappointed that we gave up our trophy."
• Here's Morrow's team: Ray Burse; Blake Wagner (Sandi Gbandi 80), Adrian Serioux (Aaron Pitchkolan 65), Alex Yi (Arturo Alvarez 71), Andrew Daniels, David Wagenfuhr, Michael Dello-Russo, Ramon Nunez (Chase Wileman 65), Abe Thompson (Scott Jones 65), Francis Doe (Carlos Ruiz 81), Ricardinho
• If there was a downside, it was the loss of defender Alex Yi, who re-injured the left hamstring that he originally hurt earlier this season. "It looks like he has done something to his hamstring," Morrow said. "We'll assess it [Thursday] but it looks bad -- another injury."
