FC Dallas were without three influential players for their match against Portland Timbers, and it clearly showed as they were defeated 1-0. Dallas started the match without two of their important players unavailable due to various reasons. Blas Perez was on international duty, while Kenny Cooper had to attend a family problem. This meant that Eric Hassli was used as the striker, but he was on the pitch for only 8 min after suffering a back injury. Despite the loss, manager Schellas Hyndman has said that he is happy with the performance of his players.

He has said that the team created enough chances over the course of 90 min to have warranted at least a draw from the match, but he is confident that the team will return to winning ways once he gets the big names back in the team. Hyndman has said that Dallas have one of the best attacking line-ups in the division, but he did not have them for this match due to various reasons. Despite this, he has recalled how Dallas made Portland Timbers goalkeeper Ricketts work to the best of his abilities.

Portland’s Darlington Nagbe scored a goal in the 52th minute and that proved to be the difference between the two teams.

“Scoring chances were there, on the road, Ricketts [Timbers goalkeeper] had to make seven saves. So those were scoring chances. We also went into the game with no strikers. Eric Hassli got injured. I found out today at 11 o’clock we lost Kenny Cooper to a family emergency. And, also Blas Perez is with Panama. I think we have arguably the best strikers in the league. So take those three guys and we might have been a little different today,” said the Dallas manager after the match.

Dallas will be facing Portland in the US Open cup in two weeks time.