Marbella, Spain – FC Dallas earned the first win of its preseason training camp in Spain Monday afternoon, defeating Denmark’s Aalborg BK 3-1 thanks to two goals from Dante Sealy.
"It was a tough game, it was a real challenge, it felt like a real game," said head coach Nico Estévez. "I think it was good to analyze things that we can get better at. I liked the response from our team in the second half. We keep growing as a team. We nearly scored a couple times in the first half. In the second half, the mentality and the mindset that came here was just great and we were able to score. I think the things that we work on in practice are working really well. We created very good chances, we just have to score more consistently."
First half lineup: Maarten Paes, Sebastien Ibeagha, Nkosi Tafari, Mads Westergren; Bernard Kamungo, Liam Fraser, Tsiki Ntsabeleng, Marco Farfan; Enes Sali, Sebastian Lletget; Eugene Ansah
Aalborg was the dominant side in the early going, almost scoring in the 8th minute but the open shot was just wide of Maarten Paes’ far post. Four minutes later, Aalborg had another excellent chance from close range but Paes was equal to it, pushing it past the post for a corner.
Aalborg’s early pressure paid off 14 minutes in when defender Lars Kramer gave the Danes the lead with a towering header off a corner kick. Dallas almost replied immediately when Liam Fraser won the ball outside Aalborg’s box and laid it off to Eugene Ansah but his shot was saved by the goalkeeper.
Dallas continued to build pressure, winning a corner that draft pick Mads Westergren nearly scored after rising highest to meet the header. The last 10 minutes of the half devolved into a physical contest from both sides. FCD’s Tsiki Ntsabeleng and Liam Fraser were cautioned while an Aalborg attacker was shown a yellow for a hard foul on Westergren.
Second half lineup: Jimmy Maurer; Carl Sainte, Omar Gonzalez, Amet Korça; Dante Sealy, Nolan Norris, Asier Illarramendi, Herbert Endeley; Paul Arriola, Pedrinho; Logan Farrington
Not even three minutes had elapsed before Dallas was back in the game early in the second half. Dante Sealy surged forward from his wingback position before cutting inside and curling a shot into the bottom corner with his weaker right foot.
Not satisfied with just one goal, Sealy stepped up and gave Dallas the lead with a precision free kick from outside the box. And with four minutes remaining, Sealy put the icing on the cake of a fantastic individual performance by setting up Logan Farrington for FCD’s third goal of the day.
Since his move to wing back, Sealy (who originally signed with FCD in 2019 and is still only 20 years old) is showing the talent that made him a standout at the academy and youth national team levels.
"The wingback position helps him create spaces," Estévez said. "This is why we analyzed our roster in the off season to see the profile of the players that we had in that position, he fit it very well. He came in the middle of the season and he had to learn the way we wanted to play last year. But having the entire preseason with the team is helping him to understand better things in this formation. It’s very important."
