It was a positive end to a difficult year as Petar Musa and old friend Owen Goal gave Peter Luccin’s side the win over old rivals Sporting Kansas City.
“I will say that I’m happy to at least win the game,” said Interim Head Coach Peter Luccin. “That’s fantastic because it was in front of our fans. They push us every time, and that connection they have with the players is fantastic. So I will say that unity is the only good thing that I saw is that connection between players and fans. It was unbelievable. It was fantastic.”
There was only one change from the draw in Portland. Jimmy Maurer kept the start in goal with Maarten Paes traveling somewhere in the region of 25,600 miles in the past two weeks.
Petar Musa was the only change in personnel with Logan Farrington dropped to the bench.
The Burn looked positive in the early stages with Alan Velasco and Bernie Kamungo working the ball into the wide spaces. The first shot on goal went to the Wiz as Jimmy Maurer held a header by Joaquin Fernandez.
Dallas took the lead almost immediately from that Sporting Kansas City chance in the 16th minute. An exchange between Alan Velasco and Show advanced the ball down the left. Velasco cut the ball back to Asier Illarramendi in the center, which the Basque midfielder punched through to Petar Musa in the SKC area. Receiving the ball with his back to goal, the Croatian turned Robert Voloder before ricocheting a shot off Fernandez to give Dallas the lead with his 16th goal of the season.
Dallas had two opportunities to double the lead in the next few minutes. Sebastian Lletget tucked the ball away from a tight angle only to see the flag raised for offside. Bernard Kamungo was then sent through one-on-one, but off balance from a challenge, Bernie ran the ball into goalkeeper John Pulskamp.
Sporting could have had an equalizer just after the half hour. Willy Agada headed a Memo Rodriguez free kick off the crossbar before Sam Junqua pinched the ball away from an attempted rebound effort by Fernandez.
Fernandez was busy in front of goal all half, but got on the score sheet in the wrong way with an own goal to put FC Dallas up by two in the 40th minute. Sebastian Lletget lofted in a cross that was headed awkwardly for the back post. Under pressure from Petar Musa, Fernandez tried to put the ball over the bar but could only head in from inches away.
“The ball dropped in a very uncomfortable position for the defender,” explained Sebastian Lletget. “I was looking for Petar. He’s a big body. He was up against the Sporting KC right back. I clipped the ball to the back post and thankfully it went in.”
There was nearly a second OG in stoppage time with SKC pushing for a goal. Some pinball soccer in the Dallas box ended with Daniel Salloi swinging a half volley that struck Marco Farfan before spinning up onto the crossbar and out for a corner.
Coach Luccin made a half-time swap with Ema Twumasi replacing Paul Arriola.
Alan Velasco joined Kamungo in the wasted one-on-ones category in the 51st minute. The Argentine capitalized on a poor touch in the SKC defense to run at Pulskamp’s goal, but his attempt to curl a low shot around the keeper drifted wide.
Sporting started to gain the upper hand after the Velasco miss, penning FC Dallas into the defensive third for long passages of play. Jimmy Maurer made a pair of nice stops on low efforts at either post.
The next change came in the 58th minute as Tsiki Ntsabeleng replaced Alan Velasco. The 71st minute then brought a double swap as Logan Farrington and Jesus Ferreira subbed in for Petar Musa and Bernie Kamungo. Farrington took the high 9 spot with Ferreira on the right, opposite Ntsabeleng.
The game lulled into what you’d expect from two teams with nothing to play for on Decision Day. Patrickson Delgado would be the final substitution of 2024, as he replaced Show in the 81st minute.
Agada got a late consolation in the 89th minute. Illarramendi played a poor pass back to Maurer that Agada pounced on. Maurer put in a challenge to stop the shot initially but the SKC forward recovered to put the ball in the empty net.
The pace of the game certainly picked up, with a couple of rash challenges for good measure, but Dallas rode out three minutes of stoppage time to round out 2024 with an 11th win to finish on 41 points.