FC Dallas Tekuk San Jose Earthquakes Melalui Gol Larut Sam Sarver

FC Dallas memetik kemenangan dramatis 3-2 atas tuan rumah San Jose Earthquakes dalam laga lanjutan Major League Soccer (MLS) Wilayah Barat di PayPal Park pada Sabtu, 16 Mei 2026 malam waktu setempat. Gol penentu kemenangan dicetak oleh Sam Sarver pada masa injury time babak kedua.

Hasil pertandingan ini membuat San Jose Earthquakes menelan kekalahan beruntun setelah rekor tak terkalahkan mereka terhenti. Penyerang FC Dallas Petar Musa sempat membawa timnya unggul sebelum disamakan oleh gol pertama bek San Jose Reid Roberts di kompetisi MLS.

"It was a good goal, obviously coming in the first couple minutes of the game. ... Nick played a good 90 minutes," kata Bruce Arena, pelatih San Jose Earthquakes.

Bruce Arena memberikan tanggapan mengenai penampilan penyerang tengah andalannya pascakekalahan pada laga pertengahan pekan. Penyerang Preston Judd terus menunjukkan konsistensi dengan mencetak gol dalam lima pertandingan berturut-turut.

"And Preston Judd continues to do his job as a center forward and scored another goal, so that's a real positive," kata Bruce Arena.

Manajer berpengalaman ini juga menyoroti tantangan yang akan dihadapi timnya menjelang jeda kompetisi liga karena adanya turnamen internasional.

"The break is the break," kata Bruce Arena.

Bruce Arena menambahkan bahwa waktu jeda kali ini menghadirkan situasi penjadwalan yang unik bagi liga domestik karena berlangsung di pertengahan musim profesional.

"It'll certainly be different in this league. We're not used to something like this. Obviously, most leagues in the world are off during this time. The odd part with us is it’s the middle of our season, so that’ll be challenging. But we are prepared to have a good schedule during the break where we can get our guys back into form and hopefully be ready for the second half of the season," kata Bruce Arena.

Sementara itu, pelatih FC Dallas Eric Quill harus menghadapi tindakan disipliner setelah mendapat kartu merah pada menit ke-87 dalam laga sebelumnya melawan Vancouver akibat memasuki area lapangan permainan.

"This was a missed opportunity," kata Eric Quill, pelatih FC Dallas.

Eric Quill menekankan pentingnya tanggung jawab kolektif di dalam skuad klub asal Texas tersebut demi memperbaiki posisi mereka di papan klasemen.

"We all need to take accountability, myself included, and find ways to improve because we're capable of being at the top of the standings," kata Eric Quill.

Penyerang San Jose Earthquakes Jamar Ricketts turut memberikan komentar mengenai tekanan fisik akibat padatnya jadwal liga dan kompetisi U.S. Open Cup baru-baru ini.

"There's a little fatigue," kata Jamar Ricketts, penyerang San Jose Earthquakes.

Jamar Ricketts membandingkan padatnya jadwal profesional ini dengan pengalaman kompetisi universitas yang pernah ia jalani sebelumnya.

"But a lot of these guys have played in college, and college is like this, where you play on the weekend and you play in the midweek. Obviously, you're not playing against the same caliber of players that you're playing here. That's what takes a toll. But we embrace it. Everybody's focused. There are really no days off," kata Jamar Ricketts.

Dilansir dari Field Level Media, pertandingan seru antara kedua tim ini disiarkan secara global melalui Apple TV, dan kompetisi reguler MLS dijadwalkan kembali bergulir pada 22 Juli setelah jeda turnamen.