Saturday night’s 3-3 draw with San Diego FC had just about everything: two early penalties, multiple disallowed goals, and a stoppage-time equalizer that sent Toyota Stadium into a frenzy. Petar Musa’s hat trick rescued a point for FC Dallas, but the wild result highlighted several things the team will need to clean up moving forward.
Let’s dive into some key points we learned from this result.
Fighting spirit
I don’t know how many times over the years, where I’ve sat in the press box at Toyota Stadium and saw FC Dallas give up cheap goals early in a match. From there the club basically quits on the game before halftime.
Saturday against San Diego felt like that could have easily been one of those games. Two goals down around the half hour mark, both from penalty kicks no less. Most teams do give up and say “well, this isn’t our night” and move on from the game as quickly as possible.
But this group is showing us that they aren’t that team.
“I think it says everything about the type of team we are. I was proud of the group last weekend even though we didn’t get the result. I liked our front-footed approach and our ambition. Tonight we went down 2-0 and had a choice to make. The first goal was unlucky, and it would have been easy to say it wasn’t our night. But the guys didn’t do that. They were warriors. They believed, stayed connected and kept fighting. If you want to be a champion, you need that mentality. We went down 2-0, then 3-1, and came back both times. We even had a chance to steal it at the end. I’m proud of this group and proud to be their coach. The numbers show we created chances, especially with our pressure in the first half. We just weren’t clinical enough in some moments. But the mentality to come back twice says a lot about this team and the direction we’re heading.” - Quill on the team’s mentality
I know that is a lot of coaching speak there from FC Dallas manager Eric Quill, but he’s totally right. The mentality that this group is showing says a lot about this team.