Dallas, TX
FC Dallas knocked out of Leagues Cup by Juárez as season goes from bad to worse
FC Dallas will be on vacation for more than three weeks, which is bad news for a club that has had a turbulent season.
With Wednesday’s 2-0 loss at Toyota Stadium against FC Juárez, FCD was eliminated from the Leagues Cup, the midsummer tournament between MLS and Liga MX teams.
FC Dallas was forced to win its match against Juárez after losing its group opener 2-1 on Saturday at St. Louis.
The Leagues Cup includes 77 matches hosted at MLS stadiums throughout the U.S. and Canada.
All 29 MLS clubs and 18 Liga MX teams participate in a World Cup-style tournament. The competition has a Group Stage made up of two regions (East and West), followed by knockout rounds until one team is crowned champion.
Officially sanctioned by Concacaf, the top three teams will receive automatic bids into the Concacaf Champions Cup with a chance to represent the Confederation at the FIFA Club World Cup.
FC Dallas will not play again until August 24, when the MLS regular season resumes, on the road against D.C. United.
In the 23rd minute, Juárez scored the decisive goal with a header from the center of the box by Ángel Zaldívar, assisted by Ralph Orquin.
In front of 13,367 fans who faced a 90-degree temperature at the start of the game, FC Dallas tried to shake off the surprise of finding themselves down on the scoreboard but could not create any dangerous plays in front of the opponent’s goal.
In the 82nd minute, Juárez got a penalty kick in their favor, with Ecuadorian Avilés Hurtados giving the visitors a 2-0 lead.
The early elimination in the Leagues Cup against Juárez, one of the weakest teams in Liga MX, is a painful reminder of how things have gone for FCD this season.
Juarez’s win was only the second for a Mexican team in the Leagues Cup in 40 games.
So far in the Liga MX tournament, FC Juárez had lost three games and tied one.
FCD’s elimination from the Leagues Cup adds to the club’s nightmare of a season. With eight games left in the regular season, the Frisco squad is currently out of the MLS playoff picture.
FC Dallas interim coach Peter Luccin acknowledged that his team had a terrible game against Juárez.
“It’s been our worst game since I took over as head coach,” said Luccin, who on June 9 replaced Nico Estévez as FCD head coach.
“It’s a sad day for me. We’re very far from reaching the level we want. On offense, we didn’t create opportunities, and on defense, my players lost many personal duels. You can’t win games like that,” said Luccin.
The FCD coach said that the elimination from the League Cup hurts him a lot.
“We are squeezing a lot of players from the second team and the Academy, asking them to do too many things. Other players are too tired; they have no more juice right now. These are not excuses; we played very poorly today”, Luccin said.
“We must all reflect on what we’re not doing well; today’s defeat was like a punch in the face.”
Find more FC Dallas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Dallas, TX
FAA OKs drone flights without observers in Dallas area
The Federal Aviation Administration has officially authorized commercial drone flights without visual observers in the Dallas area, a first for U.S. aviation history.
Drones typically require a drone pilot to see the aircraft at all times. However, new advancements in technology have allowed for the changes to make these flights routine. Zipline International and Wing Aviation were authorized to deliver packages while utilizing Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management, a system for uncontrolled operations that is “separate from, but complementary to, the FAA’s air traffic management system.”
“This is the first time the FAA has recognized a third-party to safely manage drone-to-drone interactions,” said Praveen Raju, a program manager in the FAA’s NextGen office. “As always, safety comes first, and we required exhaustive research and testing before giving the green light.”
Wing and Zipline are partnered with Walmart to offer drone delivery to 75% of D-FW, or 1.8 million households, by the end of this year, Walmart said in January. Walmart has been delivering via drone in select Dallas area zip codes since December 2022 with DroneUp. Walmart added more cities last summer with Wing.
The FAA anticipates the initial flights to begin in August and more authorization will be issued in Dallas in the future.
Dallas, TX
Browns Week One Opponent Dallas Gets a Boost in Their Secondary
On Tuesday, Dallas Cowboys superstar defensive back Trevon Diggs was medically cleared to return from the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, crossing another huge milestone in his recovery from a torn ACL.
Diggs’ injury came last season in a September practice. He made a name for himself in 2021 when he registered 11 interceptions and really took the league by storm with his incredibly aggressive playstyle.
While Diggs has been removed from the PUP list, he is not quite all the way ready to begin football activities. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy noted on Tuesday that Diggs will remain in his rehab program but that he and the Cowboys are in “return to play mode.”
Browns fans certainly know the balancing act that surrounds the return from an injury like this. This is not a situation where Diggs can just jump back onto the practice field and be good to go. It will take some time for him to get back into playing shape.
The Browns will host the Cowboys in Cleveland on Sept. 8. That is still a long way out, and there is ample time for Diggs to continue his recovery to be ready for the Browns’ passing attack. If the Browns come into that game with their receiving corps as good as advertised, the Cowboys will need a healthy Diggs to slow Cleveland down.
Without Diggs in the lineup, Dallas’ secondary features DaRon Bland and Nahshon Wright as the book ends with former Ohio State Buckeye Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson patrolling the middle of the field.
Bland’s historic 2023 will be hard to replicate, so it should be advantage Cleveland if Diggs is not back in the lineup come Week 1.
Dallas, TX
Closing community pools in Dallas will add to a long list of city’s neglect
Over the years, families in southern Dallas have consistently made sacrifices for the betterment of our city. Unfortunately, these sacrifices often arise not from choice, but from neglect. One prime example of this neglect is our community pools.
In early June, our West Oak Cliff neighbors received the disappointing news that the Martin Weiss pool would be closed this summer, a significant loss for the neighborhood. More than a mere amenity, for many of us, it served as a vital resource for underserved families.
Making matters worse, Dallas Park and Recreation staff just proposed permanently closing all nine community pools, the majority being below Interstate 30, citing “disrepair” and “lack of capital investment in decades.”
In response to the proposed closure of community pools in June, District 1 council member Chad West expressed his “disappointment” and the city offered “free swim sessions” for families in West Oak Cliff at the Kidd Springs aquatic center. While his gesture is appreciated, it underscores a disconnect with the needs of West’s working-class constituents, a recurring issue in city leadership.
As someone who frequently visited the community pool as a child, I understand the appeal of its proximity —it allowed us to walk there while our parents were at work. My cousins, sisters and I would bring a half-empty package of deli meat and a few slices of bread to make a “sandwich taco” for our time at the pool.
With little to do in the summer, a short walk to the pool was a welcome escape from the harsh realities of our circumstances. Ironically, West, a proponent of walkability, fails to recognize that reaching the Kidd Springs aquatic center from neighborhoods around Weiss Park would require a 90-minute walk, making it impractical for children, especially in the sweltering Texas heat.
The proposed closures of community pools and the “transportation strategy” to transport youth to the nearest aquatic center render the city’s equity efforts as empty words.
Instead of making meaningful investments in our communities, the city is repeating outdated, vaguely crafted and ultimately ineffective policies.
As an alternative, public/private partnerships sound enticing; however, I don’t think it’s a sustainable option, especially if the economy faces a downward turn.
If we continue to tell ourselves we are a world-class city, then we must provide basic services. The city just passed a bond for Park and Recreation totaling more than $345 million, and no one considered how the bond could address the majority of community pools? Not to mention the leftover funds from the 2017 bond. This city doesn’t have a money problem, it has a priority problem.
Places like Martin Weiss Park and other community pools have been neglected since my father’s childhood. This neglect is not coincidental. Public pools, once symbols of community investment and social cohesion, have faced budget cuts and closures after becoming integrated. Weiss pool, unchanged for over 70 years, exemplifies the unequal distribution of resources in our city.
Brown and Black families still face massive inequities as a result of years of community disinvestment, and the data supports this. For example, a 2017 study by the University of Memphis and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas revealed that 79% of children from households earning less than $50,000 annually have limited or no swimming skills.
But this goes beyond swimming lessons. Having a pool also shapes our community’s overall health. According to a National Institutes of Health study, residential location significantly influences health, opportunities and lifespan. Nearly 10 million children reside in neighborhoods with limited opportunities across 100 U.S. metropolitan areas.
A majority of African American (66%) and Hispanic (59%) children inhabit neighborhoods classified as very low or low opportunity, according to the same study. In contrast, most non-Hispanic white (66%) and Asian (62%) children reside in neighborhoods categorized as high or very high opportunity. In short, having resources increases society outcomes for our youth. These disparities underscore how racial and ethnic differences contribute to varying health outcomes and economic opportunities.
It’s clear that strong policy changes are desperately needed to address these disparities and ensure equal opportunities for everyone. I urge council member West, Park Board members and city staff to keep all of our community pools open and begin planning the construction of new pools in underserved communities.
Meaningful action is long overdue to address the generational neglect our community has faced. Afterall, the oppressive heat our youth endure shouldn’t be compounded by the incompetence of our city.
Giovanni Valderas is a West Oak Cliff resident and former candidate for the Dallas City Council.
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