Update, 1:45 p.m. Thursday: FC Dallas on Thursday released a statement addressing Wednesday night’s national anthem, when FCD and Nashville SC players, joined by referees, knelt in protesting police brutality and racial injustice.
Some of the 2,912 fans in attendance booed the players and officials. One fan even threw a water bottle at the players and was reportedly escorted out.
“FC Dallas supports our players and fans in their right to express themselves in a peaceful manner,” the statement reads. “The National Anthem was played before last night’s match while the players were on the field which Major League Soccer requires when fans are in attendance. While we understand the decision to stand or kneel for the National Anthem is a polarizing issue, we hope that FC Dallas can be a leader in helping our community accept diverse viewpoints in a respectful way as we all work together in the ongoing fight for racial equality.”
— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) August 13, 2020
FCD defender Reggie Cannon said players were in talks with not only Nashville SC, but also the league about their plans for the national anthem. In fact, they requested for the national anthem not to be played, but that wasn’t done.
“You’ve got fans booing you for people taking a stand in what they believe in when millions of other people support this cause,” Cannon said after the match. “We’ve got fans booing us in our own stadium. How disgraceful is that. Honestly, for a lack of a better word, it pissed me off.”
The Major League Soccer Players Association on Thursday also showed support for Cannon and FCD, tweeting, “Your PA supports you. Keep demonstrating. Keep speaking up.”
Your teammates support you. Your opponents support you. Your PA supports you. Keep demonstrating. Keep speaking up. @ReggieCannon15 https://t.co/QuVnjggH0c
— MLSPA (@MLSPA) August 13, 2020
Read the original story below.
Editor’s note: The following story was updated with more context after it was originally published.
FRISCO — Jeff Files and his 9-year-old son, Bentley, were the first fans in line at the west-side entrance of Toyota Stadium and were two of 2,912 supporters who attended FC Dallas’ 1-0 loss to Nashville SC on Wednesday.
The father-son duo stood in line for an hour to be among the first to enter the stadium — partly because they didn’t know gates opened an hour before kickoff as opposed to two hours before, which had been the case before the pandemic.
Wednesday marked the first game that fans were allowed to attend in any of the five major North American team sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS) since the coronavirus pandemic halted the sports world in March.
Some fans, however, did not appreciate when players and referees knelt during the national anthem, protesting police brutality and racism against Black people. One fan threw a water bottle at the players and was reportedly escorted out. Others booed from the stands.
Homegrown defender Reggie Cannon said he was “disgusted” that FCD’s home fans were booing them for kneeling.
“You’ve got fans booing you for people taking a stand in what they believe in when millions of other people support this cause,” Cannon said. “We’ve got fans booing us in our own stadium. How disgraceful is that. Honestly, for a lack of a better word, it pissed me off.”
Cannon said players were in talks with not only Nashville SC, but also the league about their plans for the national anthem. In fact, they requested for the national anthem not to be played, but that wasn’t done.
“We don’t feel it’s right for the anthem to be played at this moment. They ignored our wishes,” Cannon said. “We were going to kneel regardless if the anthem was played or not.
“It pisses me off that you can’t even have support from your own fans in your own stadium. It’s baffling to me. These last six months have been absolute hell for us, because we’ve had to watch other people play soccer while we were at home unfortunately contracting COVID-19. I was pissed. Everyone around me was pissed.”
Per Texas guidelines, open-air stadiums are allowed to have up to 50% capacity, and, before Wednesday, FCD had planned to allow 5,110 fans or a little under 25% percent. At 11:30 a.m., FCD announced they had reduced capacity to 3,000.
“It was amazing, exciting to see our guys express themselves of the field,” FCD head coach Luchi Gonzalez said. “To connect with [fans] was amazing. I don’t know how many soccer games have allowed fans other than this one. So, that’s a positive step.”
Fans were sprinkled throughout the seats, and from the press box vantage point it appeared that most fans were wearing masks as they watched FCD attempting to find its rhythm.
FCD was able to put pressure on the Nashville defense, attempting 15 shots, five of which were on goal. FCD retained possession for 64.1% of the match.
“Obviously disappointing. This is not how we wanted to open our season at home again,” Gonzalez said. “This is very disappointing. We’ve got to look at the positives. We controlled for the most part.”
It was one of Nashville’s four shots on goal that proved costly for FCD. In the 86th minute, David Accam was able to score after splitting defenders Bressan and Matt Hedges.
There were several firsts for both teams. Nashville won its first regular season game.
FCD’s Franco Jara earned the start for his MLS debut, playing 59 minutes and had 2 shots on goal. Jara said while it wasn’t an ideal start for his MLS career, he was happy it happened.
“Nobody wants to start – after so much time not playing – with a loss,” Jara said. “We need to be self-critical and learn so that we can be the best possible [team] for Sunday.”
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