After Salas played the first game of the 2009 season last weekend, a 3-1 loss to Chicago, FCD was informed its starting keeper requires surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and will be out of action from four to six weeks.
Coach Schellas Hyndman said Sala suffered a knee injury during preseason training in Florida "a couple of weeks ago,"and a subsequent MRI came back negative. After the team returned from its annual trip to Brazil, he complained of pain and after he sat out a couple of practice sessions a second MRI revealed the injury. He played with a knee brace against Chicago.
Sala underwent surgery Tuesday.
"We talked about him playing or not playing, but he really felt like it was important for him to play in the season opener," Hyndman said. "We didn't have [captain] Pablo Ricchetti and felt like we needed some leadership and experience, so we went with that decision. He didn't have a bad game. It's just that he didn't have the same explosiveness that he probably needed."
Burse, 24, has played eight games - all with Dallas -- in his MLS career, which began in 2007. That year, he played six games in all competitions and posted a 3-2-1 record with two shutouts and a goals-allowed average of 1.00. He played two league games last year and made 13 appearances on loan for USL-1 Portland, recording seven shutouts and compiling a 5-3-5 record and 0.69 goals-allowed average.
"I've matured a lot over the last three years, especially last year with going on loan to Portland," said Burse, who played his college soccer at Ohio State. "I think it was a terrific opportunity for me to get some games in. Being a goalkeeper is about getting your starts and experience on the field. That's something that I can use to catapult me forward going into this run of games."
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