FRISCO, Texas – As the Sounders three-match, 12-day road trip came to an end on Wednesday, something seemed to be lacking from their game in the 3-1 loss to FC Dallas.
“We have to be a little bit tougher. A little meaner. Maybe a little dirtier at times. I don’t think we were tough enough at times so that’s something that we have to address with ourselves,” said Schmid, noting the impact that a first-half injury to Zach Scott had on the team’s mentality. “I think losing Zach Scott hurt us. Zach’s been a very solid part of our defense.”
For the second straight match, Sounders FC put itself in an early deficit and, though there were second-half bursts, couldn’t get on the winning end.
Dallas snared the lead in the eight minute when David Texeira corralled the ball on the left side of the box and cut a shot inside the far post for his second goal of the season and a 1-0 Dallas lead.
That held until halftime without much of a threat from Seattle, who lost Scott to an ankle injury in the 32nd minute. Things shifted in favor of the visitors at the start of the second half.
Lamar Neagle evened it up in the 58th minute, just one minute after coming into the match to replace Andy Rose.
Neagle pressed up the left side, then cut back to the middle to take a pass from Clint Dempsey at the top of the box. He was left with some space and blistered a shot into the top corner, just inside the far post for his seventh goal of the season and second in the last three matches, leveling the match at 1-1.
Seattle would continue to press for that second goal to take a lead, as it did in two previous matches against Dallas when Sounders FC came from behind in the second half to win.
“It was an amazing strike from Lamar, once again,” midfielder Brad Evans said. “I thought that Clint was able to pick up the ball in the midfield and create and push forward. We had a number of chances.”
Dallas would regain the lead through Texeira in the 78th minute. Escobar knifed a ball across the edge of the six-yard box and Texeira was there to smash it in the net for his second goal of the night and third of the season, all of which have come against Seattle.
“I felt we had some good looks and some good possession. But again, some individual mistakes … they had good pace and ran past some people and scored two goals,” Schmid said. “We’ve got to stay on our feet when we defend and we’ve got to defend better than that.”
Blas Perez made it 3-1 in the 88th minute, getting his head to a corner kick from Michel to put the game out of reach.
The loss ends a tough 12-day road trip for Seattle that started with a victory in the U.S. Open Cup final before dropping the last two matches to the New York Red Bulls and FC Dallas. Now, Sounders FC returns home to face Chivas USA with five matches remaining on the schedule.
Although the team has hit a rough part of the schedule, Schmid can’t help but approach the final five matches with optimism.
“Everything is still in our own hands. If we win our home games, we put ourselves in a very good situation. We have three home games still left out of five and the first one is Saturday and we have to be ready to win that one,” Schmid said. “I’m confident in the group. We have a good group and we know that we can play better soccer than we did tonight.”