FRISCO, Texas — Sevilla FC broke FC Dallas’ pressure a few times during the 2019 Summer Classic on Wednesday, but that’s OK because the match was a learning experience against one of Spain’s best. It was an opportunity to grow and to fix the mistakes made in order to improve as the MLS season moves along.
FC Dallas Head Coach Luchi Gonzalez described learning from mistakes as “beautiful” following the 3-1 defeat to the La Liga side, which has won numerous European trophies in its history.
“Now, I can go to the video and see, ‘Look, they broke our pressure because one player didn’t have the timing to squeeze.’ And that’s how we grow, that’s how we get better, and I thought we accomplished that today.”
The Sevilla match was another chance for the club to measure how far it has come under Gonzalez’s first season as head coach — a year focused on growth, doing things the right way, and learning to play beautiful, dominant soccer.
With the Sevilla match in the rearview, FC Dallas now turns its attention back to MLS play and this Saturday’s road match against Sporting Kansas City. Everything that FCD learned Wednesday night will be put to the test in one of MLS’ toughest road environments in Children’s Mercy Park.
On top of putting a goal past Sevilla, FC Dallas was able to put its opponent under duress and it attacked with aggressiveness.
“We’re not going to just play this game and sit for 90 minutes and expect to grow and develop,” Gonzalez said. “We’re going to stick to our concepts of trying to play out of the back against pressure, which cost us a goal, but that’s the learning process… It’s going to help us now prepare for Kansas City.”
Sporting KC is coming off of two-straight clean sheet victories against the Chicago Fire and Vancouver Whitecaps. Coached by one of MLS’ most decorated individuals, Peter Vermes, Sporting has been historically solid at home. FC Dallas managed to grab a win in 2018 at Children’s Mercy Park, and it will look to do the same this year while taking advantage of the Sevilla experience for the rest of the season.
“It’s more motivation, no?” FC Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez said. “Just for me and for the team. They have a great fan base out there, and I think some of the players just love the environment. It’s something that’s going to give us more of the feel that we need to go out there and get the result.”
“Peter has helped that program be where it is in the history of Kansas City and MLS,” Luchi said. “I respect that, we respect that. That’s a difficult environment to play in, a challenging environment, and we embrace that. I feel, away, we’ve been showing courage to get on the ball, to attack, to press, to try to dictate and control the game.”
Some of FCD’s focuses will be to pounce on Sporting early on and finish with relentlessness. It’s a tall task in a loud, rowdy environment, but the team has learned from past road results this season. The players know what it feels like to let points slip away at the last second, and they want to make sure it doesn’t happen again in 2019.
“Just take it minute-by-minute,” Jesse said. “I think if we go out there with a poor mentality, we’re not going to get a result. That’s a team that we have to put pressure on right away because we know what they’re capable of. As long as we go out there with a positive mindset, I think we can get out of there with the three points.”
