Better Late Than Never: FC Dallas Grabs Late Draw at New England

Paul Arriola converted a penalty kick to grab a rare point on the road for FC Dallas, but the match won't satisfy fans of "the beautiful game".

For a follower of any soccer team, most fans can probably categorize games in a few tiers.

There are those games that appease the neutrals, where lots of goals, incredible heroics, and tense emotions rule the day. Almost anyone can enjoy the 90+ minutes.

Then there are those matches and performances that capture the distilled essence of what makes soccer (err… football) captivating, when tactics and skill align for a complete performance by your beloved squad. Think passing sequences and goals out of build-ups that take your breath away.

Finally, there are those pragmatic performances, when neither squad looks to be clicking, fouls and turnovers are more plentiful than poured beers, and both teams just want to get out unscathed.

On Saturday evening, way up in the northeast, FC Dallas had that last sort of game. This is not a match you would recommend to a friend getting into soccer for the first time. It was ugly. Both teams managed only a little over 1 expected goal for the match. Midfield turnovers consistently hampered play. Fouls and miss hits summoned groans from fans near and far.

But FC Dallas found a point, a rare away point in a season where the team has absolutely struggled on the road.

The interim FC Dallas head coach agreed with how much of a struggle the match was.

“It was not a good performance to be honest,” Peter Luccin said to media after the game. “The quality of the game was very poor. In the end, we need to think that this team never gave up. We’ve seen more quality in prior matches, but with everything happening I don’t want to try and give excuses. We had (Sebastian) Lletget with a concussion, Carl (Sainté) with a knee injury in the game. That’s unbelievable, but even though we faced all this adversity, we kept pushing for more. In the end, the positive is that with all the circumstances we got a point.”

That’s the key for fans to take away from this match. New England has been a bad team this year, and so while you might have hoped Dallas could roll into town and find three points, missing Petar Musa and enduring a whole host of injuries could easily have swung the situation into a different direction. Avoiding a loss by grinding out a tough result is a marker of some improvement.

After losing two straight matches to Sporting Kansas City, including getting bounced from the Open Cup, FC Dallas carved out 7 points in a busy week with limited bodies. That’s something.

You can also celebrate another young player in Anthony Ramirez making a debut after showcasing his skills with North Texas.

All in all, the silver lining for the squad is getting more minutes to young players. Every minute guys like Carl Sainte, Bernard Kamungo, Tsiki Ntsabaleng, Logan Farrington, Tarik Scott, and Dante Sealy give time for these guys to get seasoning, experience, and maybe grow in a bit of condience. Kudos especially to Scott and Ramirez for coming in and, in their own ways, making a difference.

That’s more than enough from young players.

Now the team can enjoy a week with a bit longer break, hopefully getting some guys healthy in the process. Every day now draws closer to Alan Velasco potentially rejoining practice. Jesus Ferreira and Patrickson Delgado are due to get healthy soon.

And FC Dallas announced a huge depth boost by acquiring midfielder Manuel ‘Show’ Cafumana on loan Maccabi Haifi in Israel today. He may be ready to make an appearance as soon as this weekend if everything works out, and the deal is definitely a low risk/high reward that in the past we might have called a “Clavijo Special” (for beloved former GM Fernando Clavijo). The midfielder will provide cover in a midfield absolutely decimated by injuries, and if he plays above expectations, the team can purchase him outright.

We’ll have to wait and see how he translates his game to FC Dallas and integrates with the squad. Interestingly, he was a teammate of Reggie Cannon at Boavista a few years back.

All in all, you can celebrate an away draw as a fan, even if it wasn’t pretty, and hope that the squad can keep building for a playoff spot.