Late Heroics Secure Victory for FC Dallas
By Matt Barbour
Frisco – Better late than never. FC Dallas was on the verge of a scoreless draw with New England Revolution when captain Ugo Ihemelu took matters onto his own head and powered home Zach Lloyd’s long free kick. Seconds later, the final whistle blew and the Toros had earned all three points and taken a first step to forgetting about the dismantling in DC.
The home side treated their late-arriving crowd to an exciting attacking display in the first half as they dominated possession and stringed together some very impressive passes. Fabian Castillo had his best match since being signed by the club last season as he picked up on the promise he showed in the opener against Red Bull New York. His speed was clearly giving the New England back line fits, although at times, he tried to be a bit too clever in 1-on-1 situations. On numerous possessions deep in Revolution territory, he gave up the ball trying to beat a defender when a cross into the box or pass to an open teammate would have been much more dangerous.
Questionable ball control aside, Castillo did consistently make penetrating runs up the left side of the field early in the first half. He also connected with Brek Shea several times on give-and-go passes, and his through-balls to the Revolution’s end-line were creating a lot of confusion for the road team. The combination almost paid off twice on consecutive possessions around the 20 minute mark as Castillo fed Blas Pèrez and then Ricardo Villar excellent balls in the penalty area, only to have both boot their shots well over Revolution keeper Matt Reis’ goal. Fabian also hit an excellent right-to-left side of the box shot at the half-hour mark that was inches away from finding the corner of the net, but went just wide. The first half closed with Kevin Hartman finally getting his first work of the evening on a weak shot from New England midfielder Kelyn Rowe.
Both teams started the second half looking sloppy: neither squad could maintain possession or mount a threatening attack. The option of making tactical substitutions was suddenly taken away from FC Dallas Coach Schellas Hyndman just after the hour. First, in the 64th minute Revolution captain Shalrie Joseph committed a hard foul on FCD’s attacking midfielder, Ricardo Villar. Joseph was shown yellow for the challenge, but Villar was taken to the sidelines on a stretcher (he later had to be helped to the Dallas locker room) and he never returned to the match. Subsequently, Hyndman had to put defensive midfielder Bobby Warshaw into Villar’s attacking role. Certainly not the move he wanted to make in what was at the time a scoreless match.
Next, defender George John took a particularly well-struck ball to the face and had to be helped from the pitch, too. John was unable to continue and Hyndman again had no option but to go to his bench and this time he turned to FC Dallas’ 2012 MLS Superdraft first round pick, center-back Matt Hedges. The young rookie made his Major League Soccer debut and partnered well with veteran Uhemelu as New England hardly threatened after Hedges came on.
Although the changes may not have been the ones Schellas Hyndman would have made, they worked as the team again found their attacking rhythm. They put together multiple dangerous attacks in the last 10 minutes, with Brek Shea in particular sending in numerous dangerous crosses and shots. However, Matt Reis was up to the task and and made the kind of saves that have earned him a reputation as one of Major League’s Soccer’s best goalkeepers; it seemed that the Revs were on their way to securing a valuable road point.
But the home side was not to be denied. Late in stoppage time, Blas Pèrez was fouled about 30 yards from the New England goal. Wingback Zach Lloyd lined up the slightly right-of-center free kick and sent in a high, right-to-left curling ball that Matt Reis could not get to before it met Ugo Ihemelu’s onrushing head. The captain hammered it back across the goal mouth into the back-right corner of the net and gave FC Dallas a deserved 1-0 victory.
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