The first career MLS starts for Ruben Luna and Fabián Castillo were not enough for FC Dallas as they struggled en route to a 2-0 loss to the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium on Friday night.
WATCH: FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
Head coach Schellas Hyndman expressed his disappointment after the first leg of the Pioneer Cup in Columbus.
“We did not have a good night tonight,” Hyndman told MLSsoccer.com over the phone after the game. “We had a difficult time getting possession of the ball, keeping the ball, and we lost our emotional intelligence.”
The emotional intelligence was Jackson Goncalves’ two yellow cards in the 32th and 33rd minutes of the game, one a reckless foul, the other a reckless tackle.
In FC Dallas’s first road game of the 2011 campaign, Hyndman opted to start FCD Academy product Luna at forward in place of Colombian veteran Milton Rodriguez and 18-year-old Castillo at left midfield in place of last game’s starter, Ricardo Villar.
[inline_node:329510]Luna had mixed feelings in his starting debut and FC Dallas’ second consecutive loss of 2011.
“I'm very thankful for the coaching staff before anything else,” said Luna. “I couldn’t believe it when I was stepping onto the field, but its much more than that and I’m very disappointed from the result that we had.”
Luna and Castillo joined a youthful starting line up that already included 21-year-old Brek Shea and 22-year-old Jackson. Inserting the youth players was an opportunity that the coaching staff believes they deserved.
“You want to get young guys out there,” said Hyndman. “You want to give them opportunities. Castillo had some very good moments and I thought Ruben played well, especially in the second half. It’s not those two guys that are hurting the team. I think the more established players can help a little bit more by calming things down, but for FC Dallas, it was a very disappointing night and you didn’t see a lot of very good soccer.”
Among the few highlights for Dallas were two headers on the Crew goal by Luna, the latter forcing William Hesmer to make a diving parry.
WATCH: Luna header forces Hesmer save
Castillo also had an opportunity in the second half, running half the length of the field only to send his shot into the near post netting without troubling Hesmer.
Luna says the young players kept searching for the equalizer late into the game.
“In the second half, we were told to stay back and defend a little more, but Columbus wasn’t pressing us too much so we pushed a little higher,” said Luna. “We were trying to get that goal at the end but its either us score or they score. But the young guys, we did what we could to stay alive in the game."
The team fought until Eddie Gaven’s added time goal put the game out of reach, sending Dallas to their first back-to-back shutout loss since April 29, 2007.
When asked whether the youth of the team was exposed in the loss, Hyndman was unsure.
“I don’t know," he said. "I would imagine anytime you have young players on the field you are going to have ups and downs. You can expect your inconsistencies.”
