FC Dallas didn’t have another seven-goal thriller on Saturday night. After three straight wins, the club had to settle for a scoreless draw against Austin FC, doing enough defensively to secure a point and clinch the Copa Tejas crown for the season.
While the defense stepped up and limited Austin on the night, the attack ran dry for the first time in a couple of months.
Let’s dive into the numbers from this one to see how Dallas pulled it off.
xG Battle/Attacking numbers
Ha. What attacking numbers?
There’s not getting around it: FC Dallas didn’t create much against Austin. On the flipside, Austin also didn’t create much against Dallas.
Dallas finished the game with eight shots on target with two big chances. The two sides split the possession on the night, but neither really managed to do anything dangerous with it outside of two moments where Brad Stuver had to come up big for Austin.
The Burn managed to get inside the penalty box plenty on the night, with 24 touches inside Austin’s box, but that only translated into a few chances. In other words, the Dallas attack wasn’t clinical on the night.
The biggest impact to the attack was how limited Petar Musa was on Saturday.
The club’s leading scorer finished the match with 31 touches, one shot and a really dismal (for him at least) 0.06 xG. His passing was very un-Musa like, as he went 13 of 21 with his passing and didn’t create a single chance all night.
It wasn’t that Austin limited Musa’s ability on the ball, it was the Croatian really struggled on the night. Maybe the moment got to him, or maybe he was already thinking about his upcoming international call up with Croatia.
Defensive recap
On the defensive end, we can highlight the shutout. Earning the first shutout since early August is something to get excited about, even if it meant the team didn’t earn the three points.
Part of that was having Osaze Urhoghide back in the starting lineup after he missed the previous game with a yellow card suspension. He finished the night with eight defensive contributions, including three tackles, three clearances, and two interceptions. More importantly was his work in the air, he won seven of eight aerial duels, which helped go along with his four ground duel wins.
Here are the final defensive numbers on the night (FCD on the left, POR on the right):
- Interceptions: 12 - 6
- Challenges: 2 - 3
- Clearances: 14 - 22
- Recoveries: 43 - 42
- Blocked Passes: 11 - 7
- Tackles: 8 - 128
Drew Epperley
Individual Stat Leaders
Here were some of the individual leaders on the night for FC Dallas:
Most shots on target - Kaick (2)
Most chances created - Moreno, Valiente (2)
Most touches inside the penalty area - Binyamin (6)
Most touches overall - Ramiro (69)
Most duels won - Urhoghide (11)
Highest xG - Kaick (0.74)
