FRISCO, Texas – FC Dallas reached their breaking point tonight after losing 2-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes at Toyota Stadium Saturday night, and head coach Oscar Pareja said as much after the loss.
“I’m very upset,” Pareja said bluntly. “There is no excuse for not getting the points tonight, and we take the full responsibility.”
The club has not gotten a win since a 2-1 win over Toronto FC in Frisco on April 19, a stretch of eight matches in which the team went 0-6-2.
“I would like to talk about many positive things tonight, but I’m going to take this game very personally with myself and my group of players, and stop talking about positive things,” Pareja said. “It’s not good enough. We need to be better.”
At one point, it looked like FC Dallas was going to get the monkey off their back. But an old nemesis – a first-half red card – reared its ugly head and doomed the club to another loss, despite another solid effort from the remaining players.
With a goal from Blas Perez leading the way, the home side had the lead and was looking the stronger team for the first 25 minutes of the game.
But two yellow cards to Adam Moffat sandwiched around a goal by Atiba Harris extinguished any chances of a home victory. A wonder-goal by Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi, followed shortly thereafter by a penalty miss by Fabian Castillo, sealed FCD's fate.
“When you take the opportunity, you take the responsibility as well,” Pareja said of Castillo’s penalty miss. Castillo had earned the penalty when he was fouled by Jordan Stewart in the San Jose penalty area.
A first-half ejection is usually pretty detrimental to a team, and it has happened often to FC Dallas this year. It was the sixth red card for Dallas in 15 games, one shy of the team record for a season – seven – from the 2008 season. Four of those red cards have come in the first half of matches.
Once again, the team attacked despite being a man down, and earned a number of scoring chances while staying relatively safe at the back. Unfortunately for FCD, their lack of finishing touch continued to haunt them.
“I’m very upset, especially with myself and us as a team not to provide results with the effort, with the energy, the way we work, but we don’t provide results,” Pareja said. “We feel bad for our fans and the people who support this club. I could talk again about many good things, but no excuses. It has to be better and it is not good enough.”
