All week, the theme for the FC Dallas players and coaches was that Saturday night's game between the Hoops and Kansas City Wizards was far from meaningless. The Wizards came to Pizza Hut Park needing a win to clinch a spot in the playoffs while FCD was locked in as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference and saw the game as a mere tuneup.
In the end, it was the Wizards who showed up in a 2-0 victory, thanks to a pair of goals from Scott Sealy. All night, K.C. was the better team as the Hoops failed to string any sort of possession together and were able only to muster a handful of serious scoring chances.
"It was a disappointing way to finish the season," said FCD head coach Steve Morrow. "I don't think that we played well tonight. I thought that too many guys had a bad game and we can't afford that."
Morrow added that the result illustrated a big difference between the Hoops and Wizards.
"The game meant something different to two teams tonight," he said. "It meant a lot to Kansas City and not so much to us. I think that showed in the two performances. We're going to remain very positive. We're going to have a good week of training and going to be ready come playoff time next week."
Defender Drew Moor was also less than pleased with the result.
"It's disappointing," he said. "Kansas City came out trapped in a corner and clawed their way out. Give them credit, they did well. That's the kind of opponent that we're going to face in the playoffs and we need to match that intensity. We didn't do that tonight. We didn't move the ball well or move off the ball well. We need to clean it up this week."
With the shutout, FCD has now failed to score in a club-record 11 games and in their last 10 regular-season matches, the Hoops were a paltry 2-6-2. But Morrow wasn't in the mood to discuss any regular-season trends.
"I don't want to look back or be negative in any way," Morrow said. "You can throw any stats you want at me but I don't care. We're not going to look back. We're going to look forward. We're going to be positive this week and be ready come playoff time."
Still, even after issuing that statement, the FCD boss saw plenty that his side needs to improve on before they start their first-round playoff series with Houston next week.
"I don't think we played through the middle of the field enough," Morrow said. "We didn't get into any sort of rhythm with our passing all night. When you don't keep the ball long enough, you're going to be under pressure because you keep giving the ball away."
Returning to the field against Kansas City were a pair of FCD starters who have missed games recently because of injury -- center back Clarence Goodson and Pablo Ricchetti.
"I thought [Ricchetti] did OK," he said. "Like everybody else, he gave the ball away a few times. For his first game in a few weeks, I thought he did OK."
Noticeably absent from the Hoops lineup was designated player Denilson, who had played in the last eight games. The World Cup-winning Brazilian midfielder has just one goal since joining the team in late August and has been a disappointment since his arrival.
"I went for four guys across the middle of the field who I thought would get the job done," Morrow said when asked about Denilson's absence. "It's as simple as that."
Also returning after serving a two-game suspension was captain Carlos Ruiz, who played the final 14 minutes of the match. The Guatemalan international knows that the result wasn't what FCD had hoped for but his side has time to right the ship.
"That's true [it was disappointing]," Ruiz said. "I think we have time to talk about it, the true importance of the playoffs. I believe in my team and my teammates. Everybody is the same in the playoffs. If you play well in two games, you go to the next round. We have to understand that and play better."
One other change that Morrow made to the lineup was giving Michael Dello-Russo his MLS debut at right back.
"I thought he did some things well and some things, not so well," Morrow said about Dello-Russo's performance. "I wanted to give him his opportunity. We had Bobby Rhine suspended and I wanted to keep Drew [Moor] in the middle with Clarence [Goodson] and let those two play together. I thought for his first start, he did well."
Morrow knows that before FCD starts the playoffs, they need to get their heads right.
"We just need to make sure our mentality is right going into next week," Morrow said. "We will certainly get that right. When it comes playoff time, you have to have the right mentality because it's all about how much you want to win. I'm going to make sure we get that into this team this week."
But for the Hoops to be successful in this year's playoffs, Moor knows that his team needs to be ready for another match like the one with the Wizards.
"It's funny because the last two years in the playoffs, the games have been very similar," Moor said. "They have been boring with not a lot of excitement where teams are keeping it tight because you don't want a lot of goals and you don't want to go behind early. But that's how games are going to be played.
"We did a little better last week against Chivas but this is a team that's going to come at us like any team in the playoffs is going to come at us. We need to keep the ball better, particularly at home, because that's where we hope to do some damage."
Should Chicago beat the LA Galaxy on Sunday, then the Hoops will open the playoffs next Saturday against Houston Dynamo at Pizza Hut Park. If the Galaxy win, then FCD will face Dynamo on Thursday in Frisco.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
