A 10-man FC Dallas hung on for their first clean sheet in six games, playing one of the hottest teams in MLS in Chivas to a scoreless draw on Thursday night at Pizza Hut Park.
FCD outshot the Red-and-White by an 11-9 margin but in shots on goal, the Hoops had a 5-1 edge. FCD played the nine minutes a man down after right back Bobby Rhine was sent off following a verbal altercation with referee Brian Hall, but the Hoops were able to hold onto the clean sheet and salvage a point. It was their first shutout since Sept. 8, when they beat Toronto FC, 2-0, in Frisco.
"I thought it was a good, competitive game," FCD head coach Steve Morrow said. "Both teams matched up well against each other. I thought we dominated for the most part and had some decent chances. Getting the red card with Bobby disrupted our play a little bit too.
"From there, it was just try to hang on a little bit and get some shape to our team," he said. "But I think there are a lot of positives to come from the game as well. I thought we started off a little bit slow but dominated the game and probably deserved three points."
Morrow admitted that he was still a bit perplexed about Rhine's ejection.
"Bobby said something to the referee and the referee took offense to it," he said. "Bobby just said something to him that he shouldn't have said and he took offense to it. For me, those things happen every single game and players will sometimes get a yellow card and move on, but Brian (Hall) decided it was a red."
With starting defensive midfielder Pablo Ricchetti out with a groin injury, Morrow put Adrian Serioux in his spot for the second consecutive match and has liked how the Canadian international has responded in the midfield.
"I think he's looked good in there, I really do," Morrow said. "We've tried to tighten things up in the middle of the field straight across the middle. I think he brings qualities to the middle of the field and has done well in there."
Serioux agreed that his comfort level in the holding role continues to grow with each start.
"I feel pretty good," he said. "A lot of people don't know that I played that position in England and the majority of my career up to date. I'm comfortable."
Second-year FCD goalkeeper Ray Burse had to make just one save all night and with the shutout, his goals-against-average dropped to just 0.80 goals per game.
"It's a clean sheet, so I'm happy defensively," Burse said. "We had some opportunities. (Brad) Guzan played a great game and made some great saves for them. We executed our plan and it just feels good."
The match had the feel of two teams who had already clinched a playoff spot and looked just to be playing out the string. As a result, little or no flow developed throughout the evening for either team.
"Yes, it was kind of hard to get into the flow," Serioux said. "At times, we looked good and played our game by moving the ball quickly. But it just comes down to the last third and we're having a tough time scoring right now or at least creating opportunities."
Serioux did see one major positive from the draw. "The upside to it is that we prevented them from scoring a goal," he said. "We haven't done that in a while, shutting out a team. Hopefully we can keep progressing in the next few games heading into the playoffs."
But once again, FCD was inconsistent with the ball.
"We had our moments (in possession)," Serioux said. "There were times when we kept the ball well. That's our strong point and other times, we were chasing. If we can limit those opportunities where we're just chasing the other team, we will be all right. But, we'll turn things around."
FCD forward Abe Thompson, for one, was disappointed that his side was unable to keep any hope alive of finishing second in the Western Conference. With the draw, the Hoops will finish in third in the West and that means that FCD will host the opening leg of the Western Conference Semifinal Series against either Chivas USA or Houston.
"It was important for us. I thought we played hard and even after the red card, we still attacked and pressed for the goal," Thompson said. "We wanted to win this game because second place is still up for grabs for us and we want to keep pushing the two teams ahead of us. We played hard and it was definitely important for us but we just couldn't finish."
The Hoops will have a nine-day break before returning to the field for their regular season finale next Saturday against Kansas City.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
