Admittedly, Saturday night's match against the Columbus Crew didn't start off well for FC Dallas. But twice the Hoops came back from one goal down, then overcame another disadvantage, this one from a red card, before coming away with a 3-2 win.
"I thought it was a great game of soccer, very entertaining," said FCD head coach Steve Morrow. "Credit to my boys, they never know when they're done or beaten. They keep playing right until the end and did that again tonight, even with 10 men. It was a great effort tonight."
Houston's loss in Colorado assured the Hoops of holding first place in the Western Conference for the time being.
Almost from the opening whistle, the visitors set up camp in the FCD end, winning corner kick after corner kick, and scored on one in the sixth minute when Marcos Gonzalez headed home.
Morrow admitted his side's effort wasn't exactly there in the first half, but the Crew's first goal gave them a much-needed jolt.
"We were a little tired in the first half and came out sleeping a little bit," he said. "I thought we deserved to be a goal down and that woke us up a little bit. It was a great comeback. To come back from 3-2 down to 10 men is just a fantastic effort."
The comeback started in the 60th minute when Arturo Alvarez scored. FCD then surrendered the lead in the 74th when the Crew's Andy Herron converted a penalty kick but Carlos Ruiz again pulled his team level with a goal in the 80th minute.
Immediately afterward, Marcelo Saragosa was shown a red card. But despite playing the final nine minutes plus stoppage time with 10 men, Clarence Goodson headed home a corner kick for the victory.
"It started off a bit slow," Goodson said. "It took us 30 minutes to even get going. We're very frustrated with that. We gave the ball away too easily. By about 30 minutes in, we started turning it up a bit and in the second half, we were all over them. We had a bunch of chances and I think that we really deserved the win."
The Hoops entered the match without All-Star midfielder Juan Toja, who suffered a high ankle sprain in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal against Charleston on Tuesday. He is expected to miss 2-4 weeks. Morrow said he and his side didn't think much about Toja's absence.
"We didn't notice or talk about it too much before the game," Morrow said. "The guys who stepped in and played did a good job. It wasn't on our mind at all that we would miss him or that it would affect us too much. We got on with it and scored three goals without him, so we didn't miss him too much."
For Dax McCarty, whose corner Goodson rose up unmarked to head home, the win summed up the year for the Hoops, who now lead the MLS Western Conference standings by two points ahead of Houston Dynamo.
"Hasn't it been a rollercoaster for us this year?" McCarty asked. "You come into a game like that where we're kind of on a roll and coming off a tough stretch where we have some injuries and heavy legs. But this team has so much depth that you know whenever you step on the field, you know that you have a team that can win."
Saturday's win was reminiscent of the 3-3 tie that FCD had with D.C. United on July 14, a game in which they trailed 3-0 early in the second half and stormed back to claim a point in the nation's capital.
"I think we've had quite a few of those this season," Morrow said. "We've come back before and fought hard to get good results. I thought it was an important game for us tonight. We're two-thirds of the way done with the season and have just 10 games left.
"We wanted to get a good win at home tonight and knew we had a chance to go on top of the league as well," Morrow continued. "That was very much on our minds heading into tonight's game. We're on a good run in the league now. I think it's now six games that we're unbeaten in and we want to continue that."
"Tonight was no different," McCarty said. "We go down twice but the fight and character of this team is the strongest of any that I have ever been part of. It's great to be able to play with a team like this because you know that once you go down a goal, you're not out of it. I'm just glad we won."
Still, there were some down notes on the evening for the Hoops. Center back Adrian Serioux left the game in the 20th with a left hamstring strain, while midfielder Pablo Ricchetti left the match in the 77th with a left Achilles injury.
Both will likely miss next Sunday's match at Houston, along with Saragosa, who will serve a suspension for his red card and could face additional disciplinary sanctions later this week.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
