On Thursday night, FC Dallas exorcised one demon by beating the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 for their first-ever win against that club at The Home Depot Center in 10 tries. After a 5 1/2-hour plane ride to the Big Apple Friday, they look to finish a season opening three-game road trip with another victory against the New York Red Bulls on Sunday afternoon at Giants Stadium.
FCD head coach Steve Morrow acknowledges that playing two games on opposite sides of the country within just a few days time is tough, but his players are taking it like true professionals.
"It's tough for us, but the players are not complaining," he said after Thursday's win. "We're ready for the challenge again and knew from the beginning that we would have these three games on the road. We're undefeated in two games and want to continue that in New York."
On Thursday, FCD got on the board in the 35th minute when Carlos Ruiz converted his side's first penalty kick since Sept. 24, 2005 in a 1-1 tie at San Jose. Then, just eight minutes later, Kenny Cooper drove home a perfectly-placed Ramon Nunez free kick to make it 2-0. The Galaxy got a late goal from rookie Robbie Findley, but FCD held on for a 2-1 victory.
Nunez and his mates were clearly pleased with the end result and a much better showing than they had in a 2-2 draw at Real Salt Lake the previous weekend to open the regular season.
"It was a great win," he said. "In the first half, we got the two goals and were able to maintain it. We were able to keep the lead until halftime and that gave us momentum going into the second half."
Morrow made a couple of changes to his starting 11 on Thursday. Alex Yi replaced Bobby Rhine in the back four while Chris Gbandi returned on the left after missing the opener due to suspension.
Dax McCarty got his first career MLS start in the midfield and performed well. FCD did get some disconcerting injury news when defensive midfielder Marcelo Saragosa went down in the 29th minute, left the field and was replaced by Aaron Pitchkolan. Just after halftime, it was learned that Saragosa had suffered an MCL injury to his right knee. He has returned to Dallas and will be unavailable for Sunday's match.
For the second time in a week, the Hoops will be playing on artificial turf after playing RSL to a draw 2-2 last Saturday. All-time they are 8-6-1 against the Red Bulls on their home field. Their last loss at Giants Stadium came on July 27, 2005 when the then-Metrostars sent them away with a 3-2 defeat.
Last year, FCD won both matches against New York. On May 24, they won 2-1 at the Meadowlands, getting goals from Cooper and Ruiz. And in the return match on July 8, they won by the same score, getting goals from Dominic Oduro and David Wagenfuhr, who both netted their first MLS tallies in the victory.
Despite their recent success against the Red Bulls, the FCD players will be ready for Sunday's affair.
"We have to prepare ourselves mentally and physically," said Nunez. "We have to take care of our bodies. The next game is important and I feel that if we can get past that one, we have a couple of home games ahead of us and that's important to us."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
