By beating Real Salt Lake 2-1 on Sept. 23, FC Dallas became the third MLS team to clinch a playoff spot and also nailed down home-field advantage in the Western Conference Semifinal Series. The Hoops only need a win in one of their last two matches, both against the Los Angeles Galaxy, to clinch home field throughout the rest of the MLS Cup Playoffs.
But the Hoops aren't just looking to beat L.A. -- which they will face Saturday at Pizza Hut Park -- they also seek consistency. That is clearly something they lacked in September.
The month started off well with FCD finally beating Houston 1-0 on Sept. 2 in Frisco, as Dynamo defender Eddie Robinson was sent off early in the game. On Sept. 9, they traveled to L.A. to face Chivas USA and took a 1-0 lead in the 55th minute off a goal from Kenny Cooper, but gave up an 81st-minute tally to Chivas' Juan Pablo Garcia and left The Home Depot Center with a disappointing 1-1 tie.
Just four days later, the sides met in Frisco and once again, FCD had a man advantage after Jesus Morales was sent off, but the Hoops were unable to capitalize as Chivas USA left with a 1-0 victory. They then traveled to Real Salt Lake on Sept. 16 and fell 3-2 after surrendering a pair of leads and again failing to score after Salt Lake and former FCD midfielder Carey Talley was sent off. A week later, they beat RSL to clinch a playoff spot.
But then came FCD's 3-1 loss at Columbus on Saturday. The Hoops gave up an early, sloppy goal to Joseph Ngwenya, in which he hit a perfect volley into the FCD net after a ball was headed straight up in the air directly in front of the net. The Crew scored twice more before Carlos Ruiz added a late goal and FCD left Ohio with a disheartening loss.
So, the burning question is what has been missing for the Hoops? For midfielder Ronnie O'Brien, it all boils down to one thing.
"We need to be nasty," he said. "We need to be hard-working, nasty players. When you put yourself out there a little bit, chase and do the dirty work that is the difference between winning and losing games.
"When you have 11 players doing that, that's how you win games. But when you only have four or five doing that, you always come up short. We're a talented team but we've got to match the other teams' work rate before our talent will take over."
Fellow midfielder Ramon Nunez had a different slant.
"We just have to come together a little more," he said. "Our defense, forwards and midfielders all need to get together and do their work. I think we need to be more compact as a team and not let teams get through us so easily and be harder for teams play against."
FCD head coach Colin Clarke has seen this before, to some extent. A year ago, FCD was one of the best teams in the league over the first half of the season, but struggled heading into the playoffs. Despite having home-field in the conference semifinals, they still lost to the Colorado Rapids on penalty kicks.
"After the first goal on Saturday, we didn't do a good enough job of wanting to protect our goal and sticking our bodies and heads in there," Clarke said. "Coming down to these last few games of the season, we need to do those little things like guys throwing their bodies in there to block shots and doing whatever they can to not give up a goal. That's the mentality that we need to have."
Hoops forward Abe Thompson, who has been coming on in the last month playing alongside Ruiz, thinks his team has failed to make a statement against their opposition.
"I think we haven't done a good job in sending a message to teams that we're going to make it hard for them," Thompson said. "We let them play and gain confidence against us. As the game goes on, they get more confident against us and realize they can play against us. We're not doing ourselves any favors by doing that."
Thompson added that heading into the playoffs with a poor run of form is something that won't do FCD any good, home-field advantage or not.
"We don't want to limp into the playoffs," he said. "We want to be confident, playing well and in playoff form. We need to treat this series against L.A. like it's the first round of the playoffs. Because this is exactly what it's going to be like."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
