FC Dallas Finally Win On The Road
By Curry Goff
After losing three in a row on the road, FC Dallas managed to scrape together a 4-2 victory over the New England Revolution on Saturday night.
Two goals from Tesho and two assists from Kellyn Acosta helped FC Dallas break their three game road losing snide and escape New England with a much needed road victory.
There was much more to take away from this game than there has been from most of the other road games this year. Thankfully, three points is something to take away, but the play on the field was much more indicative of what we’re used to seeing from FCD.
Role players stepping up
With 50% of the preferred attacking lineup out of this game – Urruti and Diaz from the start and Barrios went off injured early – other players had to step up and fill their attacking shoes.
Ryan Hollingshead and Kellyn Acosta both stepped up in big ways on Saturday. Does anyone even remember what Hollingshead’s natural position is? The dude has played right back, left back, goalkeeper, left midfield, right midfield…the list goes on. He slotted into right midfield on Saturday and put in another solid display.
Acosta had a particularly fine performance, capping off an assist in the first half with a brilliant flick into the path of Tesho in the second half to help seal the victory in the dying minutes. You can tell that the US international has something to play for with the Copa coming up in June. The guy looked like he was on a mission when he came on for Barrios.
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Making Do With What They Have
When the lineup came out for this game, there wasn’t anything that led me to believe this would be a particularly pleasant evening for FC Dallas. No Hedges. No Diaz. No Urruti. No Jesse Gonzalez. And when Barrios went down in the first half, it seemed to be another frustrating addition to the injury list.
It took players like Tesho and Acosta to step up to right the ship and turn what looked to be a major disadvantage into an incredible road win against an Eastern Conference contender.
FCD Found Their Finishing Touch
In the three game road losing streak endured by FCD over the past few weeks, they’ve been creating plenty of chances. To be fair, that’s never been a flaw for this team. They’ve always been able to create opportunities to score.
The criticism of late, and more frequently when FC Dallas has gone through a rough patch in the past, has been their inability to put the ball in the back of the net when those chances have been created.
Tesho has admittedly never been on my list of “poor FCD finishers”. Normally, Tesho is on my “disappears into the game” list when I’m criticizing him. Thankfully, that was not the case on Saturday night. The Canadian seemed to find himself in the right places at the right times and made no mistake when stepping over the ball to score the opening goal at the penalty spot.
Set Pieces Still A Concern
Despite the victory, FCD still conceded two goals. The first was disheartening, as the Revs scored off of a corner. If you could criticize FCD’s defense this season, it would be their inability to defend set pieces. Pareja, to his credit, is a master tinkerman; this is one area, however, that still needs a bit of adjustment.
Three wins in a row seemed to have stopped the bleeding from three losses in a row. For now, FC Dallas remain second in the West and will look to extend their streak in San Jose on Saturday.