FRISCO - It started out on the right foot for FC Dallas on Saturday night in Minneapolis, but things quickly deteriorated as the club dropped a 4-1 result to Minnesota United - pushing their winless run to now 10 games dating back to July 22.
“We started the game with a lot of intensity and created a lot of options to score. And then suddenly the game just changed,” head coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “It started a rollercoaster for us.”
Right from the opening whistle, Dallas controlled the game. All-told, Dallas put up eight shots in the opening 25 minutes with three on-target, including Tesho Akindele’s fourth goal of the year, and more importantly three from within the 18-yard box, where Dallas has lacked in chances in recent games.
From there, though, Minnesota capitalized on two quick counters to take a 2-1 lead at the break and in the second half, the wheels fell off for the visitors, allowing two more goals en route to their most lopsided loss since the winless streak began with a 4-0 loss to Vancouver in late July.
“That’s the team that we are,” Akindele said of the quick start Saturday night. “And then after that, I don’t know if we lost focus and just relaxed - for the first 10 minutes we showed the team that we are, the team that we can be, but after we scored, I feel like we just let off the gas and that’s on everybody.”
“In the second half, I think we were very disorganized defensively and I have to take full responsibility not just for that, but from the way we managed and just controlled the game,” Pareja continued. “We lost our heads. We lost control of the game.”
Dallas heads into a double-match week with a home leg against Colorado on Wednesday and a road trip to Orlando Saturday desperately in need of points. With just five games remaining, the team still has a defined path to make the postseason, but if they continue to leave points on the table, it could be the first time in Oscar Pareja’s tenure his team misses the postseason.
“I know they are going to keep looking for answers and looking for a way that will put us into the playoffs. This is a moment where I have to come and say this is something that needs to be fixed from me,” the head man said. “Today, I’ll just keep fighting with them. It’s what it is. The game is like that, and we have to have the character to face it and say that we are going to keep fighting.”
