FRISCO, Texas – Zach Loyd has been a staple of the FC Dallas backline for years. He has started at least 28 games in four of the last five seasons, and has made countless clearances that have kept his team in games in 2015.
But in leg one of the Audi 2015 Western Conference Championship against the Portland Timbers, Loyd had one of his worst games of the season, playing a big part in two of the Timbers’ three goals in a 3-1 loss at Providence Park.
“Individually, disappointed,” Loyd told MLSsoccer.com about his performance last Sunday. “Everyone knows I lost [Liam] Ridgewell on the first one. And the second goal, everything is a collective effort, but at the same time that turnover leads to [Dairon] Asprilla hitting a fantastic goal. Frustrating individually, but at the same time, I can’t dwell on it.”
In May, Loyd became only the eighth player in franchise history to start 150 games for the club – a sign of consistency and reliability, especially considering he’s still only 28.
It’s why head coach Oscar Pareja doesn’t look at Loyd’s two critical mistakes last weekend and worry going into the decisive fixture coming up on Sunday (5pm ET, ESPN).
“Zach is a player that I trust,” Pareja told MLSsoccer.com. “I back him up all the time because he has backed me up also during the season. Unfortunately, all players make mistakes. But we’ll sort that out, and Zach has had a tremendous season. That’s what is important for me.”
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Although Loyd’s shortcomings were easy to point out, maybe easier to notice was the team’s inability to defend corner kicks. The Timbers scored twice from the corner, one of those in stoppage time, which prompted FCD to hunker down this week and make sure set pieces don’t haunt them for a third time this postseason.
“We’ve already watched several hours on film, really trying to dial in,” Loyd said. “We know our guys' movements, so at the end of the day, it’s just a 1-v-1 match-up. And you’ve got to stick with them. In the playoffs, whenever you make a mistake, you get punished. And that’s what happened to us last game.”
Pareja also didn’t mince words about the team’s set-piece problems, but also is trying to focus on the positives given their playoff positioning.
“It’s obviously a big concern,” Pareja said. “But we’re in the final part of the season, and that means we have done many good things.”
The Timbers caught the Dallas backline on its heels in leg one when they came out more aggressively than anticipated, given Diego Valeri and Rodney Wallace were both unavailable due to yellow-card accumulation.
Now with a two-goal disadvantage heading to Frisco, Dallas are on their heels again, not knowing exactly how the visitors will tactically approach the match: Defend their lead, or hunt the road goal that could put FCD behind the 8-ball?
“They could try to box it in and keep that two-goal lead, or they could be very aggressive and try to get that one goal. So we’re not really sure what their approach is going to be,” Loyd said. “But we know our approach is: We’ve got to score at least two, so we’re going to be aggressive and come out with the confidence we’ve had all year here at home.”
Dallas have been a vastly different and better team at Toyota Stadium this campaign, posting a 13-2-2 record in the regular season and scoring two or more goals 14 times when adding the postseason win over Seattle. The last time they failed to score two goals at home was Aug. 15 against the LA Galaxy.
Having leg two at home, especially when considering Dallas dominated Portland at home in August 4-1, gives Loyd & Co. confidence people will forget about leg one’s defensive lapses.
“The playoffs are a two-game series. It’s not just one game,” Loyd said. “So hopefully we can turn it around and get the result here Sunday and it’ll be all forgotten.”
