FC Dallas will look to continue its early-season home success when it hosts Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday in a Western Conference match in Frisco, Texas.
Dallas (4-1-4, 16 points) is unbeaten in all five of its home matches this season (4-0-1) and carries a seven-match unbeaten streak (four wins, three draws) into Saturday’s contest.
Dallas extended its run without a loss with a 2-2 draw at Sporting Kansas City on April 30.
The current streak marks Dallas’ longest unbeaten stretch since racking up 10 straight matches without a loss from Nov. 2016-May 2017.
Seattle will be flying high after beating Pumas on aggregate on Wednesday to become the first MLS team in the modern era to become CONCACAF champions.
Dallas coach Nico Estevez said Thursday that his side will be focused on itself and the improvement the team has shown over the first quarter of the season.
“We’ve got to continue taking advantage of the moment we have right now where we’re getting better in a lot of aspects, keep improving, (stay) focused on ourselves,” Estevez said. “Above all, we have to be able to interpret what the opponent shows us, think about ourselves and, from there, play our game to be able to get the win.”
While their international accomplishment is impressive, the Sounders (2-4-1, 7 points) have struggled thus far in league play and head to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex on a two-game MLS losing streak.
Seattle’s most recent outing was a 4-3 defeat at San Jose on April 23. The Sounders led 3-1 in the match — the first time in the team’s MLS history that it lost a match in which it led by a least two goals, snapping a 123-match winning streak when leading by multiple goals.
Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer lauded his team for their win in the CONCACAF final but added that it was time to move forward.
“It’s been a team effort to push this over the line — again, I can’t understate it,” Schmetzer said Wednesday after the victory. “This is a hard tournament to win, and (the players are) all happy in there. And, you know, we’re gonna move forward. We (have) got a game against Dallas on the weekend.”
History favors the Sounders on Saturday as they are unbeaten in five straight MLS matches against FC Dallas, recording three wins and two draws over that stretch.
–Field Level Media
