Jesus Ferreira and Nkosi Tafari scored goals and interim coach Peter Luccin won in his debut as FC Dallas notched a 2-0 victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night at Frisco, Texas.
Ferreira scored on a first-half penalty kick and Tafari’s second-half header provided insurance and helped FC Dallas ended a five-match winless stretch (0-2-3).
Luccin was promoted when Nico Estevez was fired last Sunday, and FC Dallas (4-8-5, 17 points) seemed inspired by the change in leadership.
St. Louis City (3-5-9, 18 points) drops to 0-4-2 over their past six minutes.
Maarten Paes made eight saves while recording his fourth shutout of the season.
Roman Burki had three stops for St. Louis, which held a 22-10 advantage in shots. St. Louis had an 8-5 edge in shots on target.
First-half stoppage time totaled 14 minutes, partly due to an apparent serious leg injury sustained by St. Louis midfielder Celio Pompeu in the 13th minute.
Pompeu and Tafari were battling for possession, and Tafari ended up landing on the lower left leg of Pompeu in an awkward fall. Pompeu was in visible anguish for several minutes and was loaded on a stretcher and taken off the field in a medical cart.
Dallas was awarded the penalty kick on a foul by Joakim Nilsson of St. Louis. Ferreira stepped up to the spot in the 28th minute and drilled a right-footed shot into the net. It was his third goal of the season.
St. Louis had two big chances later in the first half. Paes got his left hand on the ball to thwart Joao Klauss on a right-footer in the 38th minute, and he also made the stop of Eduard Lowen’s right-footed shot in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Klauss had another solid opportunity in the second half, but his left-footed blast in the 61st minute was saved by Paes.
Nine minutes later, Dallas’ Logan Farrington put the ball in the net, but the goal was negated due to Petar Musa being offside.
But Dallas got goal No. 2 in the 81st minute as Sebastian Lletget booted a corner back toward the net and Tafari was well-positioned and knocked it in. It was his first goal of the season.
–Field Level Media