Photo and video: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Jim Curtin’s postgame press conference

Postgame interviews with Zach Pfeffer, Andrew Wenger and Sebastien Le Toux

PSP post game wrap with Eli Pearlman-Storch and Kevin Kinkead

Philadelphia Union postgame quotes

Opening Statement

I thought the game had a good tempo to it, good start. I thought we had some good chances in the first 10 minutes. We had some real good looks at goal. Weren’t kind of clinical in our chances. And from that, I would say the red card happened and from there, credit to Dallas, they out-played us from that point on. They’re a good team and anytime you’re going to play down a man, with stoppage time, 55-60 minutes, it’s going to be difficult.

Having said that, I still think that the chances we gave up on the day were self-inflicted. Silly mistakes. They had some restarts where they were most dangerous. Obviously, Castillo is a handful, he gets in behind a lot. I thought we did an OK job limiting that in the first half, and once they go up a man, he’s going to have some runs at goal while we’re pushing some numbers forward.

But, another day where — and this is in general — I think it’s starting to become, across maybe the world in soccer, its becoming very easy to get kicked out of games. I thought that there were some tackles and collisions that went on that were maybe harsher than even the red card, but we deal with the decision that was made. You know, the fourth official said he had it as a yellow; he’s ten yards in front of the referee, right there, and you’d like to think that they could communicate and get it right. But the ref made the decision it was a red card and we have to live with that.

What did you see with the card from your angle?

I’ll have to look at the tape again, but, you know, it’s two short guys running at full speed. Diaz is low to the ground, Zach’s low to the ground. Diaz looked to make a sharp cut-back, and there is contact with the face, which I know that was a big crackdown — they always have these initiatives every offseason, what they’re going to crack down on, and that was one of them. So I guess, maybe premature to immediately flash the red, maybe calm down and ask your fourth and your linesmen who are right in front. I think that would have been maybe the better decision, and talk through it. If they still concur and its a red, then you go that way. But, I think it was a bang-bang play and, again, I’ll have to look at it, but it really went straight red in a game that was a good game, a real game, up until that point. And then to end one where they had some chances, we had some chances…but, you know, that’s the way its going right now for us.

On Dallas

Like I said, they’re a competitive team, Oscar Pareja is a competitor, he is a very good team that he has out there, and they kind of are an example of him, a reflection of him — they compete for everything. They get after it in the right way, and I thought we did to up until that decision that went that way.

On Sheanon Williams leaving the game injured

It hurts, injuries are always going to affect you, because now you’re going to your bench. Shea, the idea was to make Castillo have to defend him a little bit. Castillo’s going to get forward, but, at the same time it left some space open. I thought we exploited that. I thought his final ball could have been a little better on about three of them; I think he mishit a cross or two, and then cam up with some hamstring issues. We’ll have to deal with that, see what the severity is.

On easy turnovers out of the back

At halftime, I talked about them — the only chances we gave up were our own doing. Like you said, soft passes that get turned over, and now they’re running full speed — whether its four-on- three, or three-on-two — running at us. I think the message is to make a clear decision and get it off your foot. Ethan had a few plays today where he got caught on the ball. Sloppy conditions may lead to it but, as a center back, you should always err on playing forward. You don’t want to get caught making a five-yard pass because, at the end of the day, it’s going to be coming right back down your throat. They picked off a few, to their credit. The goal, obviously, Fabi made a mistake where it gets blocked, it spins right into Akindele’s stride; he worked hard to break it up, and it’s one Fabi would like back. Again, just making a clear, first decision, and sticking with it, I think is something to learn from from tonight.

On Sebastien Le Toux moving inside as a second striker in the second half

We knew we were conceding a lot of possession. And when we would finally win it, the idea was when we finally did win it to have someone join in with Fernando, who was kind of alone on the day, just running around a lot and kind of not having too much help up there. We tried to get Seba a little closer to him. Andrew ran out of gas, he was tired, fatigued. Being down a man, I think, took a little steam out of him.

But, yeah, Seba tried to join in there, but the chances were few and far in between today. It was tough, a tough day.

What did you tell Zach Pfeffer before the game?

I told him to enjoy it, you know, he’s earned it. This isn’t, obviously, how we wanted it to go, to get cut short in the forty-somethingth minute was not the way we envisioned it. I though he made some good plays, he showed that he’s dynamic on the ball. He had a good chance when he got in one-on-one with the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper bailed him out, made a good save. I thought he was active and busy, and you just would’ve liked to have seen what the rest of the day would look like. But, you know, before the game started I told him to have fun. He’s earned this spot and, if you get forward, take a chance at goal; it’s what he does best. He had a look or two; again, it;s a shame it got cut short. You would have liked to have seen what that game would have looked like if both teams are even strength the rest of the way because, again, Dallas is a very good team, and I think we are too.

Have other teams figured out Andrew Wenger?

Other teams are game-planning for him, for sure. That’s clear, you can tell. I had a talk with him this week. He’s starting to recognize it. You have to find different ways when the ball’s not finding you to drift inside sometimes. He always seems to receive the ball on the touchline at his feet, and it’s facing up on-on-one. I was telling him, if five-ten minutes go by and you’re not getting the ball, try and find a spot inside, maybe underneath Fernando, just to mix things up. Because, once the outside back sees where you’re going to be, and knows you’re going to be there all the time, that’s when they get comfortable and it becomes easy to mark. So, he has to do a better job of mixing that up. He’s still dangerous once he gets that head of steam going, he still creates a lot, I just think he ran out of gas a little bit today. But, teams certainly are starting to game plan, it’s no secret that he’s a guy that’s kind of got an “X” on him going into the weekly preparations for other teams.

Thoughts on the first goal. Could Rais Mbolhi have done more?

We’ll have to look at it, but as soon as it…it’s a freaky play. As soon as it gets tackled by Fabi, it kind of jumps off Akindele’s foot. There’s a moment where you think maybe, you know, but I’ll have to look at the tape again and talk with him. It did backspin and kind of came right back into Akindele’s stride, so it could have been one if he came, then trouble as well. So, tough to tell. But, I don’t think we recovered well on that play. As defenders, you’re supposed to expect the worst, expect the worst thing to happen, and I don’t think the alarm bells went off quick enough when the mistake was made.

On how Pfeffer’s suspension affects lineup decisions for the next game away at Chicago

It sets up we have to go on the road and get a result now, you know, we’ve got behind the 8-ball. You have to win your home games, and we should, ideally, I had us on six points through three games if you just say win your home, and on the road you may drop points against a tough Salt Lake team. We’re on two points now; I had planned for six, and the goal was at least six or more, so we’re behind the 8-ball. We have to go somewhere now and win on the road, which is difficult in our league; it’s difficult to get wins in our league, let alone win on the road.

Central midfield wise, we have a few early ideas, but, again, you know, we’ll see the severity of some of the injuries, because, obviously, Zach will be out. Cristian is doing better, but we’ll see, it’ll be close for Chicago. It that’s the case, there’s a couple of options we could go to, but I don’t want to get into that right now.

Zach Pfeffer

On the red card

Talked to some of the guys and watched the replay in slow motion plenty of times and I realized on the replay it doesn’t look great but I explained to my teammates that there was absolutely no intent whatsoever.

I was going so fast, I don’t even think there was enough time to slow down and I slipped a little bit and he tried to cut it back so he turned into my arm which was extended more with absolutely no intent.

I was trying to get around him and bump him off the ball. It didn’t help too that he was a shorter player.

It’s unfortunate and I’m just gonna get a move on from it.

Were you expecting shoulder to shoulder and higher contact?

I was expecting to go shoulder to shoulder with him and bump him off the ball but that is not what happened.” “We just collided and the ref pulled a red card, you can’t change that. They thought I raised my elbow and did it intentionally so that was the decision.

About being in the starting lineup and then having this happen

I was happy with how the game was going both for myself and for us collectively as a team. I thought we were doing well and creating some opportunities to score, we almost put a couple in the back of the net. So for that reason, it was disappointing to see a red card and get sent off. But we’re going to stick together as a team, we have a great locker room, we’re going to stick through it and look forward to the next game against Chicago.

Ray Gaddis

On the game

It was fun. It was tough in regards to playing with ten men because they always had one extra man. That was the difficult part especially with him being such a quality player. It’s hard to bottle him up

After the half, it seemed like Sebastian was moving inwards more and you were on the right side by yourself. Do you feel like that was a tactic decision or was that just play by play

We were just playing with what the game gave us. Sebastian was doing his defensive responsibilities inside the frame of the field. I applaud all my teammates for the effort that they gave today being down a man and playing against the best.

When tempers were getting heated in the first half, was it tough to take it a step back and cool down and continue to play soccer?

We were just trying to get through the half and we did get through the half. There’s nothing we can control as players when the decision is made to give a red card. But we stayed together.

FC Dallas postgame quotes 

FC Dallas Head Coach Oscar Pareja

Reflecting now with 3 wins under your belt, how do you feel about the upcoming game against Seattle?

We enjoyed a big 3 points today (and 9 to the season out of 9), but the team understands it’s a journey. We’re focusing on the next one. That’s the way we operate here. Now we are going to start our preparation for the next match, which is not just important but against a very good team and at our home, so we keep going. This is the time that we need to keep looking at things one step at a time.

Which players do you think will be key for you next week? Who came up big today?

For me, I see the team effort as a unit – I don’t really single one out, I think it’s everybody’s effort what’s taken us to this point so far. Everybody is doing a great job, our boys including the guys who come from the bench, they are doing a lot of stuff to help the team get points.

How do you think your team will be prepared to handle Clint Dempsey next week – is he your biggest threat or does someone else pose it?

We know Seattle, we know their strength, we know the team they have. Some outstanding players, we’ll try to neutralize them, and we’ll try to do the best we can not just to neutralize them but to also show them what we can do, and what we’re good at and fight for those 3 points. But so far it’s time to just enjoy these points and keep looking up – you know preparation for seattle is starting tomorrow.

Chris Seitz

Opening

This is our first game on the road. Had 2 at home and then we’ll go out next week at home, as well.

How do you feel for the Seattle game upcoming next week? How are the team’s spirits?

It’s good, you know, we’ve had a hot start but at the same time we’ve been smart about it. We’re finding places we need to continue to work on and we work on those throughout the week and continue to get better. It’s super early in the season so we know that success is not easy and we are going to continue to push for it, and continue next week at home.

Reflecting on the game today, when were you most concerned as a goalkeeper about the Union’s attack and when did they come closest?

They broke us on our left side early on once or twice. I’m not sure who it was, but he had a ball across and I got a little leg to it, but outside of that, everything defensively was really, really strong today. We limited them to terrible angles to shoot on me and made things really easy for me and look, our team came out and beat a good team today. Obviously being down a man is not easy but its not easy to attack a team that just sits back as well. So for us we took our time and knew we were gonna get our chances in the second half and we made sure we finished them.

Tesho Akindele

Reflecting today on the win, was this your first goal of the season for FCDallas? And looking forward, how do you feel about the next game against Seattle? You guys have the hottest start in the MLS right now with 3 wins in 3 games, how will you be able to continue it?

Yeah it was my first goal. I think it’s just all about confidence, right now our team is feeling confident. We feel like our defense is playing well – shutting people out – and we’re finding goals everywhere, and on offense we’re pretty confident.

Any areas in particular you see the team needing for improvement?

Right now, I think we just need to keep playing the way we are. I feel like we’re doing well, we’ve obviously won 3 games so not really improving anywhere, just playing the way we are.

Reflect a bit more on the goal you scored

I think that their left back – Fabinho – just held the ball a little too long so I got up on him, stole it from him, and then I had a one on one with the keeper and that was the end of it.