The Vancouver Whitecaps will look to earn points in a third consecutive match to start the season when they travel to Texas to face FC Dallas on Saturday.
Vancouver (1-0-1, 4 points) enters the match after a 2-0 victory in San Jose last weekend.
Alessandro Schopf and Ali Ahmed scored second-half goals in the win over the Earthquakes. The Whitecaps also earned a point in a 1-1 draw against Charlotte to open the MLS season.
“We had a very good performance in San Jose — I would say solid mostly (the type of performance) you like to see as coach,” Vancouver coach Vanni Sartini said. “Very solid in terms of defensive organization and what to do tactically and we got the result — the results have been very good.
“We’ll go (to Dallas) with the intention to repeat the same performance in terms of being solid and very well structured.”
Dallas (1-2-0, 3 points) returns home in hopes of getting back into the win column after losses in New York and at home to Montreal.
Injuries and learning a different formation under new coach Nico Estevez have led to some early-season growing pains for FC Dallas, who opened the season with a 2-1 home victory over San Jose last month but have failed to pick up points in back-to-back matches.
Estevez knows it doesn’t get any easier Saturday against Vancouver.
“I’m seeing a very difficult team. They were (difficult) last year and have been in past years,” Estevez said. “They’re a team that has won the Canadian Cup two years in a row, played in the CONCACAF Champions League games, finished in a playoff spot last year and gave difficulties to LAFC. It’s a very difficult team.”
Dallas is 11-9-8 all-time against Vancouver and 8-2-3 at home against the Whitecaps.
–Field Level Media