After a roller-coaster of emotions for both teams, FC Dallas finds a goal late to seal the 4-3 victory at Toyota Stadium against the Houston Dynamo. With tonight’s win, the Burn find themselves sitting at 2-2-1 on the season with 8 points.
Lineups and Tactics
For the first Texas Derby matchup of the season, the Burn held a 3-4-3 formation once again, for the second straight game. Interestingly enough, Logan Farrington started over Petar Musa up top as the team’s lone striker.
In goal, Michael Collodi got his 5th start of the season. On the backline, Head Coach Eric Quill decided to run with the pairing of Nolan Norris and Shaq Moore, with Osaze Urhoghide returning to the lineup at CB.
The 10-less formation included the same midfield shape again, with Kaick and Joaquin Valiente playing a more “forward” midfield role, with Christian Kappis and Ramiro once again sharing the duties of connecting play through them in the midfield.
The away side held a 4-3-3 formation, with Jonathan Bond getting his 4th start of the season. In the backline, Felipe Andrade earned his second start of the season at LB, with Antônio Carlos, Erik Sviatchenko, and Duane Holmes alongside him.
Surprisingly enough, Héctor Herrera got his first start of the season in the midfield, alongside a pairing of Lawrence Ennali and Jack McGlynn. Most notably absent from tonight’s starting XI was defender Lucas Halter, who had started all three games prior to tonight’s match.
The Game
In what would end up a very high-scoring game, Farrington got the ball rolling early for FC Dallas.
At the 6th minute mark, with quite possibly the best touch I’ve seen in person, Farrington was able to bring down a long ball from Moore, with his defender draped all over him. Farrington took a touch, made a dribble, added in a fake shot for good measure, and slotted it home for an early 1-0 lead.
“I saw Shaq, he locked eyes with me and played a great ball over the back shoulder of the defender,” Farrington said. “I knew if I could bring it down, I’d have a chance to get a shot off. I’m confident in my touch, but that one surprised me; it was even better than I planned.”
Minutes later, the Dawgs doubled their lead. In what was another great bit of build-up for the home team, Valiente played Herman Johansson through in the 14th minute. Who then crossed a ball into Farrington in the box, who volleyed it home for his second goal of the game and first brace of the season. 2-0, FC Dallas.
“We started the game well, played on the front foot and showed a lot of confidence,” Coach Quill said. “We scored two good goals, but when you go up 2-0 early, you can get careless, and we did. We got punished for it.”
Despite the hot start, a brutal stretch of play started up at the 29th minute. After Collodi tried to play a ball to Norris, Guilherme was able to intercept the pass and sneak it past Collodi to cut the lead to 2-1.
Less than two minutes later, in the 31st minute, things officially started to look worrisome. Off the corner, Guilherme was able to find a leaping Sviatchenko who had been left unmarked by FCD’s zonal system. The defender headed the ball into the net, and the game was tied, 2-2.
In the 33rd minute, Guilherme (he was everywhere) played a through ball to Ennali, who was able to get past both Johansson and Collodi with his pace. He tapped in an easy goal and gave the Dynamo their first lead of the game, 3-2.
Words cannot describe how deflated the stadium felt after that third goal. In a lot of ways, many fans likely felt exactly what the players were probably feeling: “What the heck is going on right now? How are we losing?”
Thankfully, things would course correct to start the second half, specifically in the 57th minute. After Johansson played Musa – who came on at halftime – through with a ball over the top, the Croatian forward made his run into the box and instinctively played a cross back towards Farrington.
However, before the ball could find Farrington, it deflected off Holmes and into the net for an own goal. There was a bit of controversy at the time as it was originally ruled offside, VAR would eventually rule it a goal, and tie the game at 3-3.
“At halftime, we knew it wasn’t good enough. The group responded, and we believed we could come back and win,” Coach Quill said. “Musa came in and made an impact, and the group behind him worked hard. Everyone contributed. That’s what I love about this team. They fight for each other, stay connected, and don’t give up. When you have that mentality, you can come back from anything.”
Once again, Dallas found a bit of luck in the second half. In the 68th minute, Sviatchenko accumulated his second yellow card of the night and forced the Dynamo to play the remainder of the game down to 10 men.
After almost 20 minutes of Dallas peppering shots on the Dynamo, the wall finally broke. Valiente played a ball into the box, while being pulled to the ground, Musa was able to find the ball and tap it home for the win.
Thanks to some late-game heroics from Musa, Dallas secured three points. However, tonight’s Man of the Match was the person who found the first two goals of the game to get his team in position to win it. Logan Farrington earned his brace and the honor of wearing the Big Hat tonight.
Up next, FC Dallas travels to Audi Field to take on DC United on Saturday, April 4th at 6:30 pm CT. DC United is currently 2-1-2 on the season.