U-18, U-15 and U-13 Academy teams all qualify for Dallas Cup Finals
FRISCO - For the first time in club history, the FC Dallas U-18s are headed to the Dallas Cup Gordon Jago Super Group Final on Sunday evening.
Dallas booked their spot by topping Brazilian-side Coritiba FC, 2-1, in the Semifinal on the back of Homegrown signings Jesus Ferreira and Paxton Pomykal.
After a back-and-forth opening 79 minutes to the match, it was Ferreira who put FCD up in the 80th minute, pulling up at the top of the 18-yard box before sending a blistering shot into the low, far corner for a 1-0 lead.
Coritiba responded in the 87th minute, but less than 60 seconds later, Ferreira sent a chip into the penalty area off the rush and right to the foot of Pomykal, who sent a shot to the same corner Ferreira hit minutes prior to seal the win.
“Being able to score in the last 10 minutes, then to get scored on and still keep our heads, that’s amazing,” Ferreira said. “There’s no words to describe this feeling because it’s just amazing.”
“All day, they were a little shaky in behind. We couldn’t find our forwards in behind, but I kept making those runs and Jesus found me brilliantly,” Pomykal added. “Eventually your hard work will pay off, and that’s what happened. We kept going, we kept pushing, we had the energy to push it to our limits and we worked our asses off at the end and got the extra goal.”
Ferreira’s goal and assist in the match brings his total to three of each on the week, having a hand in six of Dallas’ eight tournament goals.
On Sunday, the 18s will look to become the first MLS side to win the Super Group title, and they’ll do so on their home turf against C.F. Monterrey - who Dallas drew 1-1 with in their second group stage match of the tournament.
“It says a lot about this group, and I’m proud of them,” head coach Francisco Molina said after the match of the comeback. “They’re a very dangerous team, but we know their two or three most dangerous players. We played them, we studied them, we’re going to keep on studying them tonight - we start playing the Final tonight. We didn’t celebrate, we’re focusing on the next game now.”
The FC Dallas U-18s and Monterrey will kick off the tournament finale at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are available by visiting DallasCup.com
Dallas-Centric Finals
The U-18s were the only team to punch their ticket to a Dallas Cup Final on Friday. Both the U-13 and U-15 Academy teams will play on Saturday for the title in the U-14 and U-16 age brackets, respectively.
FCD’s U-15 side took a Quarterfinal match-up on Friday morning against West Side Alliance, 6-0, with six different goal scorers, before topping West Coast FC, 3-0, on Friday night. They’ll face FC Boulder at 3 p.m. inside Toyota Stadium for tournament championship.
The U-13s took 2-1 and 2-0 wins in their Quarterfinal against FC Golden State and Semifinal against Rush Canada Academy on Friday to secure their spot on Saturday. They’ll face Queretaro FC at 1:00 p.m. in the stadium.
The U-14 Academy team fell just short of making their Final, earning a 6-1 win in their Quarterfinal match Friday morning, before falling in the Semifinal, 2-1, to Maebashi FC.
