Saturday's loss by FC Dallas to San Diego FC was almost a new level of heartbreaking. My initial reaction to the match still stands, it is the glimmer of hope that makes it hurt the most in moments like this.
Losing 3-2 to the best team in the Western Conference isn't the worst outcome. In some ways, it was expected given the first meeting between these two teams was so one-sided in San Diego's favor.
As you'll see, this game was all about the margins. FC Dallas had some in key moments on Saturday and then lost them when it mattered most. The quality is there with this club but the final product still lacks. Instead of diving into a couple of bigger items like I normally do on these game breakdowns, I'm mostly going to focus on those margins and how the mood is with this club.
Those damn margins
Following the match, FC Dallas manager Eric Quill told me that this game was truly all about the margins. The team went down early, fought their way back into it, had some goals called off, got the lead, gave up the lead, nearly regained the lead before losing the match.
“The effort was there. It's not like I'm watching a team that's not giving effort, and we had chances. I would argue, when it's 2-2, we had two huge chances to go 3-2 up before they scored. That's the margins.” - Erin Quill
In some ways, the margins existed before this game even began. Both sides were dealing with a ton of missing players, San Diego to injuries and international duty and FC Dallas to injuries and suspension.
