FC Dallas draws familiar playoff opponent in Seattle Sounders; Luchi Gonzalez pays tribute to Diego Maradona

FC Dallas now knows its playoff opponent, once again traveling to Seattle to meet the Sounders after the reigning MLS Cup champions topped Los Angeles FC 3-1 on Tuesday night.

FCD and Seattle are used to seeing each other at this time of year, with the Sounders knocking off FCD in the first round of the playoffs last year with a 4-3 win in extra time. Seattle also bounced Dallas from the 2016 MLS Cup playoffs, perhaps exacting revenge from 2015, when FCD topped the Sounders in the conference semifinals.

“Excellent. What a beautiful opportunity,” FC Dallas coach Luchi Gonzalez said with a laugh when asked how he felt to see the Sounders again.

The coach said rather than worrying about whether his team would be facing Seattle or LAFC, most of his time since Sunday’s shootout victory against the Portland Timbers in the first round has been spent considering what to fine-tune ahead of Tuesday’s conference semifinal.

“We have probably our hardest game of the season. We thought Portland was going to be our hardest game. This game’s going to be harder. We know that the bar has risen, and the stakes are higher,” the coach said.

“We’re happy to be in this next step but want to improve a lot of things we didn’t feel were good enough against Portland. We certainly need to do better if we want to get a result against Seattle.”

The Sounders were thrilled with their performance in the victory Tuesday night, with each member of their attacking trio of Nicolás Lodeiro, Raúl Ruidíaz and Jordan Morris getting a goal, but now begin preparations for the conference semifinal.

“We know we have Dallas next, so our focus shifts to that and what we can do better,” Morris said after the game.

Lineup choices await: Gonzalez has plenty to consider as he puts together his starting 11 for Tuesday’s contest. Against the Timbers, the coach opted to push typical fullback Ryan Hollingshead to the winger position on the left side and shift normal left winger Fafá Picault to the right while Michael Barrios dropped to the bench.

But Gonzalez was pleased with the energy Barrios injected into the game off the bench and also saw Ricardo Pepi come in as a substitute and score the most important goal of the season so far.

The second-year head coach says choosing a lineup requires taking a little bit of everything into consideration.

“It’s not depending on just the training. It’s not just depending on the last game. It’s not depending on the potential of someone. It’s not 100% on just the opponent — that’s overly reactive,” he said. “We’ve got to read the moments of our guys. We’ve got to read their health.”

The club expected to have more midfield depth in Portland with Bryan Acosta recovering from a hamstring injury that had caused him to miss a month of action. But Gonzalez said Wednesday while the Honduras international made the trip, he suffered a setback and is once again in doubt for next week.

“He picked up something in the warmup similar to his injury before, so it will be very difficult. We’re going to analyze it, but it could be difficult for him to make the next roster,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez pays tribute to Maradona: Diego Maradona, a World Cup winner with Argentina who along with Pele was named FIFA Player of the 20th Century, died at the age of 60 on Wednesday, and Gonzalez joined the tributes to “El Pibe de Oro”

“Maradona was a big reason why I played the game. I 100% saw him on television in the 80s and 90s, in the World Cup, with Napoli, even with Boca Juniors when he was more or less ending his career,” said Gonzalez, who grew up in Miami and often has spoken of his love for Argentine soccer. “He was an incredible personality, not only with his technicality but with his different ideas and celebrating the goals like it was his last game. May he rest in peace.”

Picualt also was among those sharing his thoughts on Maradona’s passing, writing “You made us dream,” in a tribute on social media, while the club’s official account called Maradona, “an inspiration to us all.”

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