FRISCO, Texas – A stretch of three games in eight days didn’t end the way Sporting Kansas City wanted it to.
SKC have now lost three of their last four contests after Sunday’s 2-1 road loss to FC Dallas, a skid that's dropped them to fourth place in the Western Conference. But in head coach Peter Vermes’ eyes, his squad did not show the effects of their busy week.
“I thought we were good tonight. I thought we could have easily scored a couple of goals,” Vermes said. “We got great looks 1v1 on the 'keeper. I thought we gave up two soft goals, to be honest. That’s the way it goes.”
It took five saves by FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz to thwart KC from earning a point on the road, including one on a dangerous late free kick by Brad Davis as they made a late push to try and salvage a result.
In an open affair, the difference on the scoreboard could largely be chalked up to SKC failing to capitalize on their opportunities, while Dallas seized theirs, most tellingly on Mauro Rosales' free-kick goal in the 68th minute, a set piece earned by Maxi Urruti.
“It looked like [Urruti and Amadou Dia] knocked each other over – I don’t know if it was much of a foul,” midfielder Benny Feilhaber said of the fateful foul. “But either way, he took a good set piece and scored, and Seitz made a good save on ours. Other than that, there’s another 89 minutes we played in the game. But a frustrating result.”
Added Vermes: “I thought we didn’t do a good enough job with our wall,” he said, with the disclaimer that he didn’t get a good look at either play. “Seitz made a good save. I don’t know if [Davis] could have gone over the other side with the ball or not, but it seems like they had a pretty solid group there.”
Vermes thought the loss was more about his team missing than it was Dallas defending, saying they were shooting right at Seitz, who has been starting in net for Dallas for the last five games.
“We definitely need to finish them,” Feilhaber said of the scoring opportunities. The midfielder notched an assist on Lawrence Olum's corner-kick goal, but completed just six of 13 passes in the attacking third on the evening. Sporting finished the night with 14 shots, six of them were on target.
Vermes maintained that his side did enough to leave Frisco with one point, if not three.
“It’s a shame because we had some very good looks, and when you have that many, you have to sneak one in,” Vermes said. “But they did a good job too of defending. They fought for it. That’s why they got the three.”
