FRISCO, Texas – Despite adding defensive midfielder Julian de Guzman early Friday, Schellas Hyndman made it very clear that FC Dallas are continuing the search for a forward as Blas Pérez recovers from an ankle injury.
According to Hyndman, FCD have come close on a couple deals in the past few weeks only to see them fall through at the end.
“There’s other trades we’ve planned on and we’ve been working on for over a month,” Hyndman told reporters on Friday. “A couple things have gone wrong with those trades or else we would’ve been making a different announcement and it was for forwards. So it’s not that we’re done.”
Hyndman revealed one player Dallas made a push for was Justin Braun, the 25-year-old American forward who Montreal dealt to Real Salt Lake on Tuesday.
“We made a strong play for him,” Hyndman said. “When we finally got to the final discussion point, it was something we could not do.”
FCD add another Homegrown
Lost in the shuffle of the de Guzman news was the addition of a seventh Homegrown player with the Thursday signing of US U-17 World Cup veteran Kellyn Acosta.
Playing as a defensive midfield anchor, Acosta has spent time with both the U-16 and U-18 US Soccer Development Academy squads. He started in all three shutout victories in the recent USSDA playoffs, leading Dallas to the Finals Week, starting on Monday in Houston.
He also recently scored a goal in an MLS Reserve League start against Houston.
“He’s always been a little bit more mature physically player than most people in that [U-16] age group, and because of that maturity I think he started developing confidence,” Hyndman said of the youngster.
Acosta had originally signed to play for the University of Maryland, with an eye toward Europe. But signing him for FCD turned out to be in the best interest of both parties.
“I also know he’s being internationally targeted,” Hyndman said. “People know who he is and we didn’t want to get into a situation where he may end up overseas because we weren’t willing to pull this trigger.”
Death in the family
Pérez and the FC Dallas family are mourning the Thursday afternoon death the striker’s father, Blas “Toro” Pérez.
The elder Pérez was admitted to the hospital earlier this week prompting the FCD forward to travel down to Panama on Tuesday.
Blas Sr. passed away on Thursday, reportedly due to a stroke.
“As a coach, I’m so glad I was able to say to him to go home and I’m so glad he did go home,” Hyndman said. “I called him [last night] and he was very thankful for the call and very appreciative that we had the empathy of letting him be a part of that.”
“Thanks again to everyone who prayed for my dad!” Pérez tweeted in Spanish on Thursday evening. “I have no way show my gratitude at this time.”
