On Saturday’s visit to Austin, FC Dallas will look to avoid its longest losing streak since 2018, when it lost four games in a row.
After winning the season’s opening game, FC Dallas has lost its last three games. The last time FCD lost four games in a row was Oct. 13-31, 2018, when it dropped the last three regular-season games and a playoff match.
“It certainly hasn’t been a good start to the season,” said FC Dallas coach Nico Estévez.
FCD had a week off after its last defeat, on March 16 against Vancouver, and Estévez thinks the break came at a good time for his team.
“It was a good moment for us to stop and review things, to see what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong,” said Estévez.
The FCD coach was self-critical when pointing out that his team has lost intensity and is defensively less solid than in previous seasons.
“We have become a team that is somewhat weak defensively, and we have forgotten basic things like competing with intensity and defending better, but we are going to go step by step to change this negative dynamic,” said Estévez.
FC Dallas midfielder Sebastian Lletget agrees with his coach regarding the low intensity the team has shown in some parts of its games.
“We have good players and we can play better, but more than that, we must have the intensity to fight and compete,” Lletget said. “We had a whole week to think very well about what we must do to improve.”
The Texas Derby finds two teams going through a tough stretch.
FC Dallas is in 11th place in the Western Conference, while Austin FC has not won any of its five games and has a record of two draws and three losses to occupy the second-to-last place in the conference.
Despite that, Estévez thinks the match in Austin will be difficult.
“Austin is a good team that plays very well at home and they will surely come out to put pressure on us. We must be ready to match their intensity and speed,” said Estévez.
Saturday’s game will be the first of the Copa Tejas, the fan-driven regular-season competition between Dallas, Austin and Houston.
Unlike previous editions, this year’s Copa Tejas will be decided by whichever Texas team earns the highest points per game in matches against one another.
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