In Saturday night's 4-3 loss at Houston, FC Dallas defender Drew Moor scored the first MLS goal of his career. It came in the 79th minute after teammate Ronnie O'Brien sent a free kick into the Dynamo penalty area, where Moor, a second-year defender who was taken sixth overall in the 2005 MLS SuperDraft, was waiting. He headed the ball past Houston goaltender Pat Onstad for his first goal in a Hoops uniform.
Moor was happy with his first tally, but not with the Hoops' first loss of 2006.
"It feels good to get my first MLS goal," he said. "But I wish it would've been in a winning effort or even to get a point out of it. I was a little disappointed by the way we defended. That's what I thought about more than the goal."
Besides Moor's first career MLS tally, teammates Ramon Nunez and Carlos Ruiz also found the net for the first time this year against Houston. This season, the Hoops have gotten goals from 10 different players in their first six games, epitomizing balanced scoring.
"We've got a lot of talent," FCD head coach Colin Clarke said. "We scored off a free kick against Houston with Drew (Moor). It was nice to get one of them. It was nice to get Ramon (Nunez) into the box on the end of something and Carlos (Ruiz)'s first goal of the year."
The game marked Moor's third consecutive start at one of the center back positions for FCD. He first entered the lineup several weeks ago against Kansas City and has remained. His comfort level in the back four is something that increases with each start.
"I still feel comfortable and I still feel confident," he said. "The more I'm in there, the better I feel. The more I get used to it (starting), the more I recognize and the quicker I recognize things.
"Saturday was a little disappointing for me personally and for the team. You need to look at what you did wrong and try and fix those things for the next game."
Further adding to his comfort level is the fact that Saturday marked the second consecutive game that Moor has started alongside Alex Yi, one of his closest friends on the team, in the center of FCD's defense.
"I think we've always felt comfortable playing back there together," he said. "We play there in practices a lot and in reserve games a lot last year and at the start of this year. Put the two of us together and we have a very high comfort level with each other.
"I would feel the same if I were to play with (Greg) Vanney, (Clarence) Goodson or anyone else they would stick in there. We're all always competing for spots and that gives us time to get used to each other and recognize things from each other."
As strong as his play has been so far for the Hoops this season, Moor still knows he has plenty to improve on.
"I still need to work on organizing things in front of me, on recognizing things before they happen or try to kill off the play early," he said. "Talking to the guys around me, getting them set up in the right positions is something I feel will come with time."
Moor will likely again be in the starting 11 when the Hoops welcome reigning MLS Cup champion Los Angeles to Pizza Hut Park on Wednesday. It will be the first meeting of the season between the two clubs and the Galaxy's first trip to Frisco since they won the league title there 1-0 against New England last fall.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
