What we learned in FC Dallas’ 3-2 loss to Colorado Rapids

Colorado continues to be a team that has FC Dallas’ number.

Photo via FC Dallas

In a weird way, Saturday’s 3-2 defeat by FC Dallas to the Colorado Rapids felt like a familiar tune that we’ve repeatedly seen in 2024. The team managed to secure the lead through some impressive goals and build up play, only to squander it swiftly due to a lackluster defensive performance.

When I asked interim manager Peter Luccin about the result after the game on Saturday, you could tell he wasn’t happy with any of the effort.

“We were winning the game twice, 1-0, 2-1. We were not able to maintain that result. The late goal that we conceded, it’s not good,” said Luccin after the match. “We had chances, a lot of chances but we didn’t get it done. Now we know what we have to do. We have to win in Vancouver and that’s it.”

We will dive into that Vancouver came later this week but let’s first discuss this loss against the Rapids. There was certainly some bad and ugly but a tiny bit of good in the silver lining department. Let’s go.

The defense has checked out

Maarten Paes took the blame for the poor result after the match on Saturday. But, honestly, his defense left him out to dry more times than I’d like to count. Colorado ended the game with 13 total shots with eight of those coming on target. In this league, it is tough to win games when you give up that many shots on target. Paes did what he could to save five of them but the Rapids scored a pair of garbage goals from Rafael Navarro.