FC Dallas Makes Big-D Look Good
By Curry Goff
Any time you win a match 4-1, you have to feel good. On the road, a three goal win is a fantastic result any day in my mind. And when you consider the way that the team rallied together for the result on Friday night, you can’t help but tip your caps to what was a truly great performance.
Oh, did I forget to mention that the team we beat by three goals, on the road, in a hostile environment, in embarrassing fashion, was none other than our in-state “rivals”, the Houston Dynamo?
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That’s the same score line, last I checked, that we beat Houston by last season in the second best city in Texas (arguably 3rd, maybe 4th). The year before that, we beat them 3-2 in Dallas.
Ironically, it’s also the same score line by which the Rockets just beat the Mavs in the first round of the Western Conference NBA Playoffs, but we won’t talk about that too much. I’m still recovering.
But tracking back to FCD, it doesn’t really matter where the game is played; FC Dallas is a bully to the Houston Dynamo, and it’s a beautiful thing.
Coming into the game, I saw several “experts” say the game was too close to call, a 50-50 match. How glorious it was to see them all have to put their foot in their mouth and heap praises onto FCD once the final whistle blew.
Oscar Pareja and company, right on cue, put together their best performance of the season Friday night. In many ways, the individual performances were perfectly timed to boost the morale of the squad.
They needed Ryan Hollingshead to go out and give a relentless performance to inspire the players around him. His early strike within the first ten minutes of the game certainly set the tone for his incredible evening.
David Texeira needed a goal! His movement on and off the ball this season has been the epitome of frustrating, and I initially rued Pareja’s decision to put him in. The movement leading up to the goal and the sublime touch to finish it certainly helped young Tex to gain some confidence and silence the haters, at least for this week.
May 1, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; FC Dallas forward Fabian Castillo (11) celebrates with defender Moises Hernandez (3) after scoring a goal during the second half against the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium. FC Dallas won 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Last, and certainly not least, Mauro Diaz needed to do something! Anything! Just seeing him healthy and on the pitch was a start. But to see the performance that he put in Friday night put my mind in a much better place when it comes to trusting in and leaning on the Argentinian.
If Texeira had been frustrating through the first half of the season, Diaz had been an embarrassment. His stats were non-existent, as was his influence on the game. After Friday night’s game, he literally has a thousand times more goals and assists than he had coming into the game for the season. I guess when you start with zero in both columns, the only way to go is up.
And we haven’t even talked about Castillo. Oh boy. Let’s not focus on his incredible impact on the game and his two assists; let’s talk about THAT goal. Just when you think he’s going to cut it back inside or take it to the end line, he toe pokes it to the far post to seal the win.
Like I said, any 4-1 win is a good win. But in the grand scheme of the Dallas vs. Houston rivalry, what with the Rockets and Astros doing better than the Mavs and Rangers, respectively, it was good to clinch a win and shift the balance of power more towards Dallas.