On Wednesday night at Pizza Hut Park, FC Dallas will play host to Mexican Primera Division side Tigres UANL in the return match of the battle for the Rio Grande Plate (7:30 p.m. CT). Just four days ago the teams squared off in Monterrey, Mexico, with Tigres getting a pair of goals late in the second half to capture the first leg 2-0.
FCD fielded a starting 11 consisting mostly of reserves with a third-round Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match against Atlanta looming on Monday. But included in that group of starters were three players making their team debut -- defender Adrian Serioux, midfielder Chase Wileman and striker Ricardinho.
Serioux saw his first action since last fall, when he was a member of Houston's 2006 MLS Cup championship team. He had knee surgery during the preseason and has been recuperating in the meantime, and the Canadian international was clearly glad to get back on the field.
"It was obviously good," he said. "It's been a long time since my surgery now. The first 10-15 minutes were a struggle, which would be normal for anybody. But after time, I got into the swing, felt comfortable and at home out there. Hopefully, I can keep on progressing from there."
Saturday's start was a great chance for FCD head coach Steve Morrow and his staff to see where Serioux's match fitness was.
"They told me that this game was for my fitness and trust me, I got it," Serioux said. "It was a tough team to play against, but I prefer a game like that because it motivates you more to do what you have to do."
Wileman, a former goalkeeper at SMU, was a fourth-round pick in the 2007 MLS supplemental draft, has been working out with the team for several months and is currently trying to work his way onto the roster.
Ricardinho, a 19-year-old striker from FCD's Brazilian partner Clube Atletico Paranaense, will be added to the roster once his work visa is approved by the league office. He will replace Roberto Mina, who will not return this season because of knee surgery. That could happen later this week or early next week.
FCD assistant coach Marco Ferruzzi said that he and his fellow coaches were impressed with Ricardinho's performance in his 31 minutes of play on Saturday.
"He had some real good moments and needs to build on those," Ferruzzi said. "We see a lot of good qualities there for sure. As he gets more involved with the team and the team gets more used to him, he will get better."
The Hoops coaches were also, for the most part, pleased with their side's performance in Monterrey.
"We had a good game against them. It was competitive and we didn't give them a lot of chances. To be perfectly honest, we could have created more. It wasn't really a two-goal game. We felt that the game was much closer than it was," Ferruzzi said. "They got their goals off set pieces. A lot of that was because of fatigue late in the game and maybe a couple of poor choices. Overall, the boys competed well against them. I think it's a good match either way."
The FCD assistant feels that those players who performed well on Saturday should do the same in the return match on Wednesday.
"We feel very confident that our guys will do a good job," Ferruzzi said. "Our young guys performed well on Saturday and were really up to the challenge. It was a good test for them with that environment, the fans and those conditions."
Should the Hoops capture the Rio Grande Plate for the second consecutive year, they will have to score more than two goals while keeping a clean sheet against Tigres. That is something that FCD striker Dominic Oduro is more than aware of.
"They have a good team and we expect a great game (Wednesday)," Oduro said. "Since they are ahead 2-0, they will want to come in and get an away goal here. We just want to get on them early, score some goals and play like we always do."
Morrow played his starters in Monday's penalty-kick shootout Open Cup win against Atlanta and with a Saturday trip to D.C. United looming, it's highly unlikely that any of them will see action against Tigres.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
