By Will Martin
Back on March 23rd of 2013-a wet, windy, blustery night in North Texas-FC Dallas had a home game and fell short to by a 3-0 count to Real Salt Lake.
When the two teams played four months ago things were looking rosy in the world of Schellas Hyndman.
The following week may be one of the toughest for Coach Hyndman and the FCDallas team.
For the 7th week in a row at no time did FC Dallas get to enjoy the luxury of a lead for any amount of time in 90 minutes.
Manufacturing goals also has become a bit of an issue. Shut out 2-0 in Los Angeles last Sunday. Playing to a 0-0 draw on July 4th.
It figured that team FCD would come out locked and loaded to create some scoring chances.
Five minutes in two apparent goals that were sure to pass Josh Saunders would manage to deflect and bounce off of Kenny Cooper. It was one of those things that you don’t expect when Lady Luck is not being fair nor shining brightly.
Fabian Castillo in times past has had great success playing against and scoring on the team led by Jason Kreis. There were chances in the first half of a match where it seemed that FC Dallas was in the back yard of Real Salt Lake. They simply could not catch a break. Castillo perhaps the lone bright light of the game.
“I feel that when I saw the replay, I think the ball probably would have been in. I struck it very well but that’s the way it is in soccer,” Castillo said through a translator after the game. “Sometimes your teammates are able to move away and the ball can go through but this time Kenny was trying to pull people out of the way and it was just unlucky.”
As for those missed opportunities?
“I felt it was a very difficult game. At the end, we lost three points at home. We got scored on three times that we shouldn’t have been scored on any of those plays and at the end it doesn’t matter how hard you work and the performance that you have on the field if you don’t get the three points,” Castillo said.
“I think our two center midfielders, Jacobson and Michel, were winning a lot of balls in the midfield, they were very aggressive, and they were winning square balls, penetrating passes, and I think what it did for us was give us a break out where we were able to give the ball to Castillo and he could go on players 1-on-1,” Hyndman told reporters after the game. “He’s extremely quick with the ball and he’s lightning fast and I think it caused them a lot of problems because they really didn’t have anyone that could match up with him as far as pure speed.”
Schellas Hyndman was also quick to state the obvious.
“Castillo caused a lot of problems for [RSL],” said head coach Schellas Hyndman. “Fabian was very dangerous for us tonight at attack.”
“As far as the full game, this was probably his best game for the full 90 minutes,” Hyndman said.
In the 38th minute off of a free kick, a redirect for Real Salt Lake led to a 4-on-2 man advantage going the other way and Real Salt Lake took a lead they would not relinquish as Javier Morales would take a pass inside the left side of the box and kick a goal to the right side if the net past Raul Fernandez for a 1-0 lead.
The lead would increase to 2-0 when Ned Grabavoy would handle a Kenny Mansally pass from the center of the box and find net Margarita style. Top shelf on the right hand side in the 79th minute.
Olmes Garcia would complete the scoring in the 90th minute when Javier Morales assisted Olmes Garcia for the third and final goal of the match. A 3-0 victory for Real Salt Lake and a first ever win in Dallas for Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis.
Frustration began to build as the game got away for FC Dallas. Despite having outshot RSL 19-11, having won 57% of faceoffs 50 to 37, and a better percentage of passing accuracy 84% to 80% the numbers in the box score do not reflect the outcome on the scoreboard. FC Dallas falls to 8-5-7 with only a 1 goal advantage in scores made versus goals allowed (27-26). The loss also places them six points behind Real Salt Lake who are now 11-5-4. You must now look back to July 28th of 2012 for the last FC Dallas home loss.
Jason Kreis wore a look of relief after the game.
“It was an important result against a very good team in their stadium. Right now we’re in first place and they’re in second and that’s what’s important. It feels good. I don’t think I ever won a game here even when I was a player [for Real Salt Lake].”
Javier Morales equally effective with a goal and two assist performance.
“He was incredible again tonight. This is a player so many people had written off – including some people in our club actually – so for us to continue to believe in him and him to believe in himself… to make something happen this year, I just couldn’t be more pleased. He’s a terrific player but more than that he’s a terrific man and it just really warms my heart to see a guy like that do well.”
Jeff Attinella made a spot start in the 51st minute after Josh Saunders had to leave the game with a knee injury. No telling how long he might be out or if he will be back to start next week.
FC Dallas now gets to look forward to a road trip north of the border with the Montreal Impact next week on the 20th. The road doesn’t get any easier for FC Dallas from this point forward.
