FC Dallas: First Place Not Far Away

Last Friday’s loss to Sporting Kansas City served as yet another chapter in what has been a crazy season for FC Dallas.

It’s been ups and downs, highs and lows, winning streaks and losing streaks; and it’s been entertaining every step of the way.

With only four points separating the top five places in the Western Conference, the next few games will be very telling. Even with a loss to SKC, FC Dallas sit in second place in the West with a game in hand over the Vancouver Whitecaps in first.

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With only six regular season games left, here at Sport DFW, we’re ready to make a bold prediction; FC Dallas will finish the regular season in first place in the Western Conference and will ride a huge wave of momentum into the first round of the playoffs.

Here’s why:

Obviously, the first step to predicting how the rest of the season will play out is to look at how the opponents stack up.

On Sunday, FC Dallas will travel to LA to take on the Galaxy in what will be, in my estimation, the most important of the last six games.

The Galaxy, after starting the second half of the season incredibly well, have found themselves in a bit of a lull over the past few weeks. Winless in their last three, LA sit even with FCD on points, but with two fewer games to play.

FCD will be well rested, having played last Friday night in Kansas City. Couple that with an LA team that is short on confidence, you find yourself with an ideal matchup. If ever there is a good time to play LA, this Sunday will be the day.

After that, we get Houston at home. And let’s be honest, we have dominated our in-state rivals, winning the last six meetings in a row, a few of which were in embarrassing/dominating fashion. That could be a good warmup for what will be a big test the following two weeks.

After Houston, we play Vancouver two weeks in a row (one home and one away) in what is shaping up to be a mouth-watering pair of fixtures. More than likely, it will be 1^st place in the West versus 2^nd place in the West. It doesn’t get much better than that at the end of the season.

If we can manage to come out either ahead or even in points over those two games, FC Dallas will be in the driver’s seat, with their final two games coming against teams they should beat – RSL and San Jose.

In my estimation, that is a minimum of 3 wins (Houston, RSL, and San Jose). Just for comparison’s sake, say that against LA and Vancouver, we average a point a game. That would put us on 59 points, which would be a tough tally to match for the rest of the West, especially considering FCD has played the fewest number of games (28) than any one else in the West.

Not to mention, when you have a guy like Oscar Pareja on the bench, anything is possible. The Colombian genius has proven his ability to pull together this team to achieve whatever result is needed. If I were a betting man, I would find it difficult to gamble against this team, especially with the explosion of talent that is capable of being unleashed each and every night.

Buckle up, folks. It’s going to be a wild ride to the finish, but there’s a good chance FC Dallas will be pulling back into the station with a first place seed at the end of it all.

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