FRISCO, Texas – As FC Dallas prepared this week for their Saturday home match against the Colorado Rapids (8:30 pm ET; MLS Live), the attitude in the locker room reflects the simple reality of an eight-game winless streak and the importance of a win.
“We know that we have three points on the table, and three points at home, and for us, we need to take full advantage of those,” said goalkeeper Chris Seitz.
Understandably, the tone coming from the coaching staff changed significantly after Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the San Jose Earhtquakes, which included the team’s sixth red card of the season, one shy of the team record for a season. During his club’s recent struggles, head coach Oscar Pareja has worked hard to focus on the positives. Earlier this week, however, he demanded more accountability in fixing the problems on the field.
Even though the club’s current slide – winless in eight games – has featured some successful moments, they never amounted to a win.
And not everything from last weekend’s game was negative. Pareja cited the positive response after going down a man when midfielder Adam Moffat was shown a second yellow.
“The boys responded really well to the adjustments we made in the second half, playing with the three at the back and giving us a chance to tie the game with one player down,” Pareja said.
Now, it’s just translating that into a full game.
- Get the latest FC news at FCDallas.com
“The guys in front of me were awesome,” Seitz said. “You look at us in the second half, we basically went man on man for a majority of the time and they didn’t get a single shot. We need to start putting that together with the other end, and hopefully we’ll put a 90-minute performance together.”
And the team is hoping Blas Perez’s quality goal in the first half implies that such a 90-minute performance might be in the making.
“Getting Blas on the scoreboard is great,” Pareja said. “Any time the forwards show up and help us to do what they need to do is healthy for the group.”
Said defender Matt Hedges: “We just have to keep believing. At any point we can get two good results in a row and everyone’s confidence is high and we go on another run.”
