ATLANTA - Frustration and urgency are setting in for FC Dallas, but it’s motivation the team will take with them into next weekend as they look to snap an eight-game winless streak with the defending champions heading to Frisco.
“Obviously, we don’t feel good. The fact that we loss - and more so by three goals - I think that leaves us with a big message,” Maynor Figueroa said after the team’s 3-0 loss to Atlanta United on Sunday. “There are a lot of games left. Many more points to dispute and from now on, there’s no margin for error.”
“Absolutely, frustration,” midfielder Victor Ulloa said. “We’re in a funk and we need to find our way out of it. We have to find a way. It’s coming down to the last games of the season and we need to get points.”
In order to get those points, Dallas will have to play better from the very start in their remaining seven contests. In their last nine games, FCD has found themselves chasing the game, allowing their opponent to strike first eight times. The lone match they didn’t was in a 0-0 draw to Colorado.
The club is giving full credit to the performance ATL UTD put forth in their homecoming, but knows they didn’t come out with the fight they needed to to set the tempo of the match. If not for Jesse Gonzalez’s season-best eight saves Sunday, they match could’ve been even more lopsided.
“We did not play well today,” head coach Oscar Pareja said. “We were short in energy and many other areas that we couldn’t match the game and our opponent. I thought the first half and the first 20 minutes they overwhelmed us. We were lucky not to concede more goals. After that, I think we had reactions and then created our own chances. Giving up that second goal took us out of the game.”
Dallas still holds possession of the sixth and final playoff spot through Week 27, but in order to hold onto it come late October, they need to start accumulating points - and fast.
“We are in a difficult position, but the next team in front us is Seattle,” Pareja added. “We are going to need three points at home to try to straighten the ship.”
