MATCH NOTES
- Sebastien Ibeagha scored his first FC Dallas and MLS goal.
- Jesús Ferreira made his 100th MLS start
- Sam Junqua made his FC Dallas debut
- MLS Box Score
VANCOUVER, BC (March 11, 2023) – FC Dallas (1-1-1, 4 points) and Vancouver Whitecaps FC (0-2-1, 1 point) share points during a 1-1 draw at BC Place on Saturday afternoon.
CENTURION
Homegrown forward Jesús Ferreira made his 100th-career MLS start in tonight’s match. His first start came on March 23, 2019 against the Colorado Rapids, almost two years after he made his debut as substitute on June 3, 2017.
BREAKTHROUGH
Defender Sebastien Ibeagha opened the scoring with his first-ever MLS goal in his 97th league appearance. The goal was assisted by his center back partner Nkosi Tafari, the third of his career. Ibeagha’s goal is the fastest goal scored in the 2023 MLS Regular season at four minutes and three seconds.
DEBUT
Defender Sam Junqua made his FC Dallas debut as a substitute in the 89th minute. Junqua is the 281st different player to make an MLS appearance for the club.
FACING THE WHITECAPS
FC Dallas is 10-9-8 in regular season matches against the Vancouver Whitecaps with a 3-7-5 record in Vancouver. FC Dallas had lost the three last meetings at BC Place with its last road win on Sept. 23, 2018. Vancouver was the only team to win both regular season games against Dallas last season.
UP NEXT
FC Dallas returns home to face Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, March 18 at Toyota Stadium. The match kicks off at 7:30PM CT on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Lineups
FC Dallas — Maarten Paes; Ema Twumasi (Geovane Jesus – 77’), Sebastien Ibeagha, Nkosi Tafari, Marco Farfan (Sam Junqua – 89’); Paxton Pomykal, Edwin Cerrillo, Sebastian Lletget (José Martínez – 60’); Paul Arriola © (Jáder Obrian – 60’), Jesús Ferreira, Alan Velasco.
Substitutes not used — Jimmy Maurer, Nolan Norris, Tsiki Ntsabeleng, Bernard Kamungo, José Mulato.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC — Yohei Takaoka; Ryan Raposo (Ali Ahmed – 83’), Ranko Veselinovic, Javain Brown, Tristan Blackmon; Julian Gressel (Mathías Laborda – 83’), Ryan Gauld ©, Adrián Cubas, Alessandro Schöpf (Sebastian Berhalter – 78’), Cristian Dájome (Sergio Córdova – 45’), Brian White (Pedro Vite – 70’).
Substitutes not used — Russell Teibert, Thomas Hasal, Jean-Claude Ngando, Karifa Yao.
Scoring Summary:
DAL: Sebastien Ibeagha (Nkosi Tafari) — 5’
VAN: Paul Arriola (own goal) — 34’
Misconduct Summary:
VAN: Adrián Cubas (caution) — 42’
DAL: Nkosi Tafari (caution) — 69’
VAN: Alessandro Schöpf (caution) — 75’
DAL: Jader Obrían (caution) – 88’
Weather: Showers, 44°F
Attendance: 16,780
FC DALLAS POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Nico Estévez
General thoughts on the match…
“We had a very good game, playing away and dictating the tempo. We knew that they were a good team, they have quality. We had a good start and scored a goal. And then it was a moment there that we should have been more aggressive, we should be more determined to score the second goal. And even though we were having the possession, we were dominating, we weren't creating those goal scoring opportunities.”
On the second half…
“In the second half, things started better. We tried to modify to defending to a 4-4-2. But that didn't didn't work well. And then we switched to a three in the back and it helped us. Sometimes people think that switch which introduces a center back, it means you want to defend - it was the opposite. We were looking to give more forward players the ball, to have more width with our winbacks and then trying to exploit the wide areas to score goals. And we did a good job on that, we created some good chances to score the second goal. But we couldn't and at least we got a point.”
Defender Sebastien Ibeagha
On scoring his first FC Dallas goal…
“It’s been a long time since I scored a goal, so it is good to be back on the score sheet. For it to be assisted by Kos (Tafari) is great because he’s my guy. We looked at each other and I told him to put the ball in the box and that is exactly what he did. It was a good goal and it makes it a little extra special that Kos assisted it for me.”
On the change formation mid game…
“Switching to a back three means we will be more aggressive and attack more. We missed the chance to get in the lead in the first half and Nico saw that. We tried to push the game more and go forward in the second half. Changing us to three at the back allowed us to go more forward and that is exactly what we did.”
On the different pairings at the center back position…
“José (Martínez) and Kos (Tafari) are two different players. Kos is similar to the athletic play style I have, while José has that technical play and is very good on the ball. It’s about knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we can push each other and become better. We always rotate in training and try different pairings because we don’t know what could happen in a game and we need to all be on the same page.”
