After what felt like ages, FC Dallas finally returned home on Saturday night and decided a routine win simply wouldn’t do.
Saturday’s return to Toyota Stadium had a bit of everything. Dallas spotted Sporting Kansas City two early goals before fighting its way back with two quick goals around the half-hour mark and then taking the lead before halftime. They then gave up the lead midway through the second half before rescuing the game with a stoppage-time penalty kick.
It wasn’t pretty at all. The defending left plenty to pick apart. But there was plenty to like about the response and continued resiliency from this club as they picked up its first win at home since early May.
Let’s dive in.
It’s good to be home
I could talk a lot about this result, and I will…but man did it feel good to have a game day in Frisco again.
Everything from the new murals, the massive club in the East Stand and everything in between, the updated portion of the stadium feels really nice. Almost like a proper stadium in some sort.
There is something about the energy of a home crowd that does lift you up and get you going, even when a game isn’t quite going the way it should at times.
And boy did Dallas make this one interesting for everyone involved.
Thankfully, Dallas has guys like Petar Musa. Logan Farrington. Kaick. Osaze Urhoghide. Shaq Moore. Hell, even toss in a Bernard Kamungo, Sam Sarver or Nolan Norris.
Even with the game looked a tad lost, the right guys stepped up and made sure this wasn’t going to be a truly disappointing night altogether.
No one was perfect on the night, either. Musa had his moments where he could have put the game away before the late penalty kick. Farrington had some shots that didn’t go his way. Joaquin Valiente had a good one late in the match that barely missed wide. And the defense…which we’ll get into in a bit, was under a ton of pressure on the night.
Either way you spin it, it was good to be home on Saturday.
The defense is…yeah, it is what it is
I asked Eric Quill after the game if he felt there was something the he needed to do to turn the ship, so to speak, with the defense. After all, in the last four matches, the group had given up 14 goals. Yeah, if you want to spin it to five games, they have given up 15 goals.
That’s three goals per game, folks. Three.
Quill had a pretty heavy sigh to the question. He knew it was coming.
My recording of the quote didn’t save unfortunately, so I don’t have the full pull quote to share here. Basically, Quill mostly blamed the travel, the heavy schedule load and rotation of players as part of the issue. He knows the goals given up lately is an issue. He said he knows the guys in the locker room are humbled by it.
But at some point, the defense has to lock it up and get some better performances here. Take the second goal from SKC as a good example. Ramiro had options when he was at the top of his penalty area to play to safety but SKC’s Stephen Afrifa was there to block the pass. Unfortunately for us, it went into the back of the net.
The gaps between the lines defensively were a problem in this one, and have been a problem for a few weeks now. The protection from the midfield wasn’t there again on Saturday. SKC had the possession (which we knew would happen) and the slew of shots. They had a ton from distance, which is fine, but it was clear that they wanted to test Jonathan Sirois.
I do think once we get into the one-game-a-week schedule that is coming up this month at home, things will settle down. A lighter load on the schedule will help out. I mean, it has to.
Quick Hits
- Best moment - Kaick’s goal. Let’s not undersell how good that strike was from him.
- Most underrated player (not mentioned above) - Sam Sarver’s energy off the bench. We nearly got Sarver time with a late, late insurance goal too when he helped set up Santiago Mosquera in the 11th minute of stoppage time. But that one got called off, unfortunately.
- Player I may be most concerned about after his game - Johansson has been just a weird player for me this season. There were moments in this one where he just seems ‘off’ from the rest of the group.
Final thoughts
Look, this one is going to read weird on paper. A 4-3 win over the worst team in MLS, at home. Yeah, it will always read weird. But, if we’re honest…this SKC squad isn’t that bad. They are going to be a headache to teams for the rest of the year as Raphael Wicky figures things out.
The home slate is going to help sort a lot of things out for this club, I just feel it. At the end of the day, it is three points. You take it, and try not to dwell too much on every little thing since the schedule is still tight with more games coming up.
