FC DALLAS vs SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
TOYOTA STADIUM, Frisco, Texas
May 31, 2014 (WEEK 13, MLS Game #120)
7:30 p.m. CT (UDN; TWCSN-TX; CSN-BA)
FC Dallas and the San Jose Earthquakes meet for the second time this season when the Western Conference clubs face off at Toyota Stadium on Saturday evening. FCD return home following a two-game road swing that concluded with a scoreless draw at Real Salt Lake last weekend. The Quakes extended their home undefeated run with a 3-0 win against the Houston Dynamo at Buck Shaw Stadium, a streak that also includes a 2-1 win against FC Dallas on May 10.
DOWNLOAD FULL GAME GUIDE (PDF)
REFEREE: Jose Carlos Rivero. AR1 (bench): Philippe Briere; AR2 (opposite): Jonathan Johnson; 4th: Kevin Terry Jr.
MLS Career: 24 games; FC/gm: 27.3; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 7; pens: 12
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: DAL: Fabian Castillo
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: DAL: Matt Hedges, Michel, Je-Vaughn Watson, Victor Ulloa … SJ: Steven Lenhart
DISABLED LIST: SJ: Tommy Muller
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: SJ: Chris Wondolowski (USA); Victor Bernardez (HON)
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (51 meetings): FC Dallas 16 wins (3 shootout), 58 goals … Earthquakes 24 wins (4 shootout), 84 goals … Ties 11
AT DALLAS (25 meetings): FC Dallas 10 wins (1 shootout), 32 goals … Earthquakes 9 wins (0 shootout), 35 goals … Ties 6
FUTURE MATCH: 8/16: San Jose Earthquakes vs. FC Dallas, 7:30 p.m. PT
- The teams are meeting for the second time this season. A first-half goal from Cordell Cato and a second-half own goal propelled the Earthquakes to a 2-1 win, May 10 at Buck Shaw Stadium.
- FC Dallas hasn’t won in Santa Clara since 2009. The Quakes have won four of the six home meetings since, with two draws.
- When FCD defeated San Jose 1-0 last May 25, it ended a six-game Dallas winless streak in the series. FC Dallas had last defeated the Earthquakes on June 5, 2010, a 2-0 victory in Frisco.
- Coaches record: Mark Watson v DAL: P3 W2 L0 D1 … Oscar Pareja vs. SJ: P7 W0 L6 D1
LAST MEETING
5/10: SJ 2, DAL 1 (Cato 23; own goal 73 – Michel 76)
- The Quakes took the lead in the 23rd minute. Goalkeeper Jon Busch sent a long ball back downfield after a cleared corner kick, and center back Clarence Goodson flicked it goalward. Cordell Cato burst past a defender, chested it down and slotted home between the legs of FCD goalkeeper Raul Fernandez.
- But just before the break the Quakes were reduced to 10 men when Shea Salinas drew a straight red from referee Chris Penso after a one-footed studs-up tackle on Dallas right back Zach Loyd.
- The Quakes used some good fortune to double their lead in the 73rd minute. Marking Chris Wondolowski on a free kick from the right flank, FCD striker David Texeira wound up twisting around and knocking the ball off his back just inside the near post.
- FC Dallas pulled a goal back just three minutes later following a foul just outside the top of the San Jose penalty area. Michel stepped up and hammered a stunning free kick into the top of the goal in the upper left corner.
- SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (4-4-2): Jon Busch - Brandon Barklage, Clarence Goodson, Victor Bernardez, Jordan Stewart - Cordell Cato (Ty Harden 85), Khari Stephenson (Mike Fucito 60), Sam Cronin, Shea Salinas (ejected 44) - Chris Wondolowski, Alan Gordon (JJ Koval 56).
- FC DALLAS (4-2-3-1): Raul Fernandez - Zach Loyd (David Texeira 46), Walker Zimmerman, Matt Hedges, Michel - Hendry Thomas (Jair Benitez 73), Victor Ulloa - Tesho Akindele (Andrew Jacobson 89), Danny Garcia, Fabian Castillo - Blas Perez.
FC DALLAS
FC Dallas concluded their two-game road jaunt with their winless run stretched to seven matches, reaching a scoreless draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday evening at Rio Tinto Stadium. FC Dallas sit in a tie for third place in the Western Conference with 18 points from 14 games.
LAST MATCH
- The closest either team came to scoring was in the 55th minute when RSL defender Nat Borchers nearly put in a header in, only to see it cleared off the line.
- RSL goalkeeper Jeff Attinella was called upon to make three saves to extend his club's long undefeated run, while FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz made just one save.
- FCD head coach Oscar Pareja made five changes to the team that fell 2-1 to the LA Galaxy at StubHub Center. Chris Seitz came in between the posts for Raul Fernandez, Walker Zimmerman and Moises Hernandez started in the back four in place of Stephen Keel and Jair Benitez, and Adam Moffat and Blas Perez came into the team for Andrew Jacobson and Danny Garcia.
- FC DALLAS (4-2-3-1): Chris Seitz - Zach Loyd, Walker Zimmerman, Matt Hedges, Moises Hernandez (Jair Benitez 90) - Adam Moffat, Victor Ulloa - Je-Vaughn Watson, Tesho Akindele (Andres Escobar 82), Fabian Castillo (Stephen Keel 90) - Blas Perez.
TEAM NEWS
- FC Dallas return home after a two-game road swing where their current winless streak was extended to seven games, their last victory coming April 19. The FCD club record is 13 consecutive games without a win, set in 2012.
- “It has been one of our best performances as a team. The discipline, character, and the fight the boys showed today just made us feel like we won more than one point,” said FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja. “We want credibility for ourselves after the struggle we had during the week. We have played three games in seven days, we came out big.”
- FC Dallas did record their first clean sheet of the season, leaving Chicago and Chivas USA as the only teams yet to record a defensive shutout in MLS this year.
- “It’s our first clean sheet of the year, something that we’ve been looking to do,” said center back Matt Hedges. “Coming into Salt Lake is never an easy place to play and getting a point here and doing it with two or three games in a week is never easy.”
- Chris Seitz returned between the posts, his first start since April 12, the last of his eight consecutive starts in goal to open the season.
- “We came in with the mindset of being hard to beat. We knew we were going to create some chances and our goal was to get out of here with a good result,” Seitz said. “Obviously we didn’t get the three points but we got a clean sheet in a tough place to play so we’re going to take the positives out of this for sure, and try to build for a little home stretch that we can build off this with.”
- Moises Hernandez made his first MLS start since the season opener, coming in at left back and playing nearly the entire match.
- Walker Zimmerman also returned to the FCD starting lineup after missing the last two matches, playing in central defense.
- “Everyone in the back four was really great. We stayed organized, we stayed disciplined and it was just a good performance from everybody. No mistakes and we did what we came here to do,” said Hedges.
- Tesho Akindele started his second consecutive match and third in the last four, dropping into an underneath role after playing as the target forward vs. LA.
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
The San Jose Earthquakes made it five consecutive home games without loss, rolling to a 3-0 win against the Houston Dynamo on Sunday evening at Buck Shaw Stadium. The Quakes are in seventh place in the Western Conference with 13 points from 11 games.
LAST MATCH
- The Quakes took the lead after Dynamo defender David Horst played the ball back to goalkeeper Tally Hall, who picked it up just outside his own six-yard box, giving the Quakes an indirect free kick. Shea Salinas nudged the ball into the path of Khari Stephenson, who hammered a shot to the back post for the 38th-minute opener.
- The lead was doubled just before hour mark. Steven Lenhart went down in a collision with Houston fullback Corey Ashe after being playing in by Yannick Djalo, and referee Geoff Gamble pointed to the spot. Stephenson coolly converted the penalty for his second goal.
- It was 3-0 in the in the 70th minute. Chasing down a long ball out of the back, Atiba Harris caught Hall outside of his box and in no-man’s land. Harris saw his header go off the right post, but he won the footrace and touched home the rebound.
- Quakes boss Mark Watson made three changes to the team that dropped a 1-0 decision to Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field. Shea Salinas, Yannick Djalo and Steven Lenhart all came back into the side, in place of Sam Cronin, Cordell Cato and Billy Schuler
- SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (4-4-1-1): Jon Busch - Brandon Barklage, Ty Harden, Jordan Stewart, Shaun Francis - Atiba Harris, Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi, Khari Stephenson (JJ Koval 86), Shea Salinas - Yannick Djalo (Billy Schuler 73) - Steven Lenhart (Alan Gordon 80).
TEAM NEWS
- The Quakes are now undefeated in their five games at Buck Shaw Stadium, winning three of those, but now face back-to-back road matches, where they have not won this season.
- “The first half was a bit slow, but when we started the second half we played with energy and moved the ball well. That’s nice to see – that’s a good quality for a team to have is if you start slow, to find your way through the game and end up with a very good performance,” Quakes head coach Mark Watson said.
- Khari Stephenson scored two goals in a game for the first time in his MLS career, his first two goals in 2014, in hitting for the brace against Houston.
- “It’s a great feeling. It’s the first time in my career that I’ve scored two goals in a game, so tonight’s match is up there,” said Stephenson. “At the same time, I don’t think I had a very good game, but it was important for the team to get the win and that’s what really matters.”
- Said Watson: “From the first time he was part of the starting XI, he’s done really well for us, and given us something we maybe haven’t had in the past. His performances have been good, he’s been really good on the ball, he’s been going past people. We know he’s very dangerous going to goal, and he showed that tonight. … He’s a central midfielder that can score goals. That’s something that we want.”
- Moving back to a wide midfield role, Atiba Harris also scored his first goal of the season.
- “I think everyone knows the situation, and everyone’s giving a little bit extra knowing that Wondo scores most of our goals,” Watson said. “I think they’ve taken that on themselves to try to do that as a unit. Tonight was a good example of that.”
- Steven Lenhart also returned to the lineup for the first time since March 29, when he suffered a sprained knee ligament.
- Yannick Djalo made his first start since May 3, when he was forced from the field injured after only 14 minutes of the Vancouver match when he suffered a muscle strain.
- “Our game plan was to try to get balls in behind so Yannick [Djalo] could run on and Lenny could run on,” said Stephenson. “We didn’t get that much going in terms of that, but we created chances and we scored goals, and that’s what’s important in any game.”
- The Quakes also recorded their third shutout in the last four games at home, their fourth in the last seven overall. “Jon [Busch] made some great saves. He had some point-blank shots to deal with and if it weren’t for him it might have been a different outcome,” said Stephenson. “Everyone is fighting and we’re all on the same page defensively and things are going well. I think you have to applaud everyone on the team for their effort.”
