Next Day: Zero Point Weekend for FC Dallas and North Texas SC

FC Dallas lost in the Big Apple. North Texas SC lost at home. The boys from Frisco had a tough weekend. How did you fare?

Being a soccer fan is not always about joy.

If our teams won all the time, we’d likely wander off and lose interest. Our fandom is more defined by how we handle the highs and lows, finding positives, recognizing the cruelty and luck mixed into the sport we love, and commiserating.

FC Dallas and North Texas experienced disappointment this weekend, coming out with zero points to show for themselves despite performances that, while disappointing, were not exactly disastrous.

Let’s start with the Friday night match, as North Texas SC welcomed Real Monarchs to town. Cano and Company were excited to be back home and get a win streak going, but it takes two to tango. Over the course of 90 minutes, the youngsters were definitely the better team, but a late free kick spoiled any hope of points.

After the game, Cano admitted his disappointment.

“I can’t be happy with that result,” Cano said. “We had the majority of the ball, made a lot of passes, and were in the final third a lot, but we didn’t finish our chances. When you get into the box and aren’t doing anything to score, sometimes it’s hard to win. We aren’t finishing our goal scoring opportunities in order to win games, so we need to improve on that.”

North Texas will play at Colorado, so the team is going to have to show some growth to get back on the upward swing after a tough one at home.

For Head Coach Nico Estévez and FC Dallas, the first 45 minutes felt strong for the side playing in New York, but then things fell apart. NYCFC is one of those weird venues, a small field which you don’t see often in this sport. The home team took advantage, scoring three goals that disappointed GK Maarten Paes and squad.

“I think we had a pretty good first half,” Estevez said. “It’s really difficult to play in this stadium. It’s a small field, relatively smaller than the soccer fields that we usually play. I think that we were really good. We just had a mistake and we had chances to score even more than them and we went to halftime down 1-0. I think we were worse at the beginning of the second half. I think we lost possession there and it’s why they punished us with transitions. After that, I think we had the right mentality to get back into the game. We scored a goal and before we scored a goal, we created a couple chances that were dangerous, but the game was already very difficult for us. But I think I’m really happy on the first half, playing away against a team that usually wants to dominate the opponent.”

It hurt not to have Jesus Ferreira starting and to miss Alan Velasco in this one.

Still, it’s a game against a solid Eastern Conference opponent that may not matter a lot in playoff seeding. FC Dallas can take some lessons from this one.

By the way, Matt Doyle hints that FC Dallas may be making a move before the Monday transfer window closes. What position needs to be shored up? Could the team be looking to move on from Jader Obrian?

What do you think?