FRISCO, Texas — With a goal in the fourth of four Dante Sealy sent the San Jose Earthquakes to a 2-1 loss to FC Dallas in a season opener on Saturday night
The Quakes jumped out to a 1-0 lead just six minutes into the match on a goal by Benjamin Kikanović. The 24-year-old San Jose native scored on a rebound from Jack Skahan’s deflected shot, putting the ball past Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes to open the scoring.
Dallas pulled even in the 25th minute on Asier Illarramendi’s first career goal, a left-footed strike from outside the box after controlling the ball when Quakes keeper Daniel punched a corner kick out from the goal mouth.
“I like a lot of the things we did for 93 minutes, but I was really disappointed with 30 seconds left to get disorganized there,” head coach Luchi Gonzalez told media members after. “We needed numbers in the midfield and gave up not just the initial shot, but multiple shots. They went for it, and credit to them.”
The Quakes’ top offseason signing, former Norwegian Player of the Year Amahl Pellegrino, came on for Kikanović in the 74th minute and had a late shot go wide of the right post.
Dallas took 22 shots (nine on goal) to The Earthquakes’ 10 (six on goal).
Dallas played without all three of its designated players. Jesús Ferreira is nursing a muscle injury. Alan Velasco is still recovering from an ACL injury suffered in the playoffs last season. Newcomer Petar Musa is in Croatia awaiting a work visa.
San Jose leads the all-time series 29-22-22, but Dallas improved to 14-12-10 at home.
The Quakes will have their home opener next Saturday in a California Clasico match against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
