Mosquera hat-trick guides Dallas past the Rapids

The Rapids came to town on Wednesday for the makeup game from the sports-wide protest against the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. For the first time since the restart, Luchi Gonzalez named the same team as Saturday’s 2-1 win over Houston.

Dallas came out slugging in the opening minutes as Michael Barrios put his final ball woes behind him to attempt a shot from distance, followed by Tanner Tessmann forcing a nervy save at the post on the resulting corner.

The visitors didn’t take long to grow into the game, asserting themselves in possession as Dallas became sloppy around the back. Jonathan Lewis almost benefited from such an instance 13 minutes in as a poor header in the box from Thiago Santos falls kindly. Lewis’ volley beats Kyle Zobeck but not the near post.

Luchi-ball was not the order of the day as Dallas dropped into a lower block looking for counter attacking opportunities, and it was one of those that gave Dallas the lead shortly before the break.

“I think we weathered, definitely, the first 20 minutes. They were creating overloads on the flank. We had to adjust our defensive shapes from from a high press, and then into a mid block. We did it mid-game, which took us a bit to get it to get it right.”

Luchi Gonzalez on the changes to the team’s shape in the first half

Matt Hedges threaded a pass down the right for Michael Barrios to run on to. The 29-year-old winger got to the end line and cut back looking for a team mate. Instead he found a void in the box, but Santiago Mosquera was able to deviate his run, turning back and curling low inside Clint Irwin’s far post.

The hosts went in to the break hot, and came out with that momentum. Just three minutes into the second period, Ryan Hollingshead forced a save off Irwin. The Rapids keeper could only parry the ball in front of Andres Ricaurte, but Auston Trusty was able to get a foot in and clear the ball behind.

From the resulting corner Dallas would double its lead with Franco Jara grabbing his third goal in four games. Reto Ziegler delivered a corner with Jara able to step back of Keegan Rosenberry and head the ball over Irwin.

Dallas went searching for a third before the hour-mark and Mosquera again increased the score line. Rosenberry was caught napping in possession as Mosquera closed him down to win the ball on the left side. With no challenge coming, Mosquera took the ball into the box and shot across Irwin.

Dallas seemed to switch off somewhere between an unforgiving schedule and three-goal lead, and the Rapids were only too happy to take advantage.

Colorado won the ball deep in Dallas’ third through a poor pass attempt by Hollingshead. Nicolas Mezquida squares the ball to Andre Shinyashiki outside the area, with no home defenders closing down the Brazilian shoots tight into the post past Zobeck.

“I’m not happy that we conceded and let them kind of back into the game for a bit. But it happens, it’s part of the game. So we’re going to continue to work on not conceding and not turning off mentally.”

Luchi Gonzalez

The wake-up call and some reinforcement from the bench brought FCD back to life, culminating in only the eighth hat-trick in the team’s 25-year history.

“I’m happy. This was a long time coming after struggling with injuries. Now that I’ve had this game, I can stop worrying and just focus on the next game.”

Santiago Mosquera speaking through a translator about scoring his first hat-trick for FC Dallas

Once again it was Mosquera simply first to react. A Ziegler corner fell loose in the box with the Colombian running onto the ball and smashing the ball low to give Dallas a 4-1 lead, and consecutive wins for the first time in 2020.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *