FC Dallas Dominate St Louis City at Home, 3-0
The home win ends FC Dallas' skid and gives the team, and head coach Eric Quill, a new lease on this season.
On another warm July evening in Frisco, FC Dallas built off of their away draw earlier in the week and found three goals, two from Petar Musa, and shut out visiting St Louis City to claim their first home win in months.
“Really proud. Proud for the fans. We hadn’t done them right. We knew that about ourselves. We didn’t like that about ourselves. Something triggered in San Jose. I really started seeing a team - a team that is honest, a team that is fighting for each other, communicating to each other, picking each other up off the ground,” Quill told media after the match.
Petar Musa earned yet another brace, and Kaick opened up his account for FC Dallas with newfound confidence. What had been a run of losses has shifted for the moment with a 4 point week in the bank. Can this become a bigger trend as the team is finding ways to get results once again?
Statistically, this wasn’t possession football, as maybe Dallas had wanted to do in the past. The home team was happy to give up 60% possession to St Louis and take their chances in key moments and in the counterattack. But maybe without a creative playmaker, you are fine using this young team’s athleticism to win balls, get up the field quickly, and create chaos.
St Louis had opportunities themselves, but FCD’s defense was organized enough to thwart the most dangerous of them.
To sweeten everything else, the home side debuted their throwback kits, beautiful dark Burn jerseys along with several former players in the stadiums to celebrate the team’s legacy.
Kaick’s opening goal set the tone for the performance, all about taking advantage of little moments and spaces. Of course, it was a damn fine goal too, an unsaveable long-range blast as the young Brazilian continues to grow.
Petar Musa is scoring again - and he is scoring in bunches. That’s an encouraging sign. It means he is getting service, and his teammates around him are also finding ways to get him the ball or create opportunities.
Sam Sarver, fresh off scoring 4 goals for North Texas last night in a dominating performance (more on that tomorrow), subbed on for more minutes and earned the penalty kick that set up Musa’s second. His emotion and excitement, pleading with the fans (and Andre Zanotta), indicate one thing - he is landing a senior team deal sooner rather than later.
Josh Torquato with another start offered confidence even at 17 years of age, something Quill noted.
Getting a clean sheet also has to be a welcome relief for Maarten Paes and a back line that just hasn’t been able to get it done.
We’ve lamented on whether or not this team is out of the playoff mix, but at least with these results, they’ve kept the door cracked open a bit longer. The road ahead is going to be tough, but they can make up some ground and put themselves into the thick of things with 11 matches to go, a majority of which are at home.
What a night. What a relief. FC Dallas look like a different team - and that is welcome.