Coming off last Sunday's win against Colorado, FC Dallas were feeling pretty good about their chances against the New York Red Bulls at Pizza Hut Park. That optimism quickly dimmed a bit as FCD were faced with a harsh reality -- competing against a team that was well-organized and impossible to break down, and the end result was a 1-0 loss Thursday evening.
"I'm disappointed with the performance tonight," said FCD head coach Steve Morrow. "After the good performance on Sunday, I feel like we let ourselves down a bit tonight. I think we got what we deserved - nothing from the game. The performance wasn't good enough and we didn't deserve to get any points from the game. New York played better and they won the game deserved."
For much of the evening, the visitors controlled the run of play and they outshot the Hoops by a 13-9 margin. The lone goal of the night came in the 79th minute when Dave van den Bergh found north Texas native Hunter Freeman unmarked at the far post with a perfect cross. The Red Bulls defender then punched it into the far side of the net for his first career MLS tally.
The loss definitely left a bitter taste in the mouths of the FCD players.
"I think we gave one away," said Hoops right back Drew Moor. "After a game like that, you would almost be satisfied with one goal because we didn't play very well. But to give up a goal late like that, I don't want to say it's what we deserved, but we didn't come to play tonight."
For Morrow, it all boiled down to one thing - a lack of possession.
"Our passing was just so off tonight that we were never able to get into any kind of rhythm," he said. "We didn't possess the ball well enough, which is very disappointing."
In Sunday's win, FCD midfielder Ramon Nunez was a force, scoring two goals and wreaking havoc on opposing defenders. That was not the case Thursday as Nunez had two shots but was bottled up by a stifling New York defense that has not allowed a goal in 360 minutes, an MLS-record shutout streak to open a season.
"They came with a game plan," Morrow said. "(Seth) Stammler marked Ramon very tightly. They must have watched our game on Sunday closely and thought that we moved the ball well in the middle of the field through Ramon. The middle area of the field was very congested and it was tough for us to move the ball through there."
Second-year FCD midfielder Dax McCarty agreed with Morrow's assessment.
"One thing we talked about is that they're pretty organized. They have a bunch of hard-working guys in the middle of the field and ultimately, they were able to stifle our creativity tonight," he said. "To be honest, we never really found our rhythm. Our midfield wasn't really clicking like we usually do. That will come with more games and more time. They had our number tonight and it was tough to break them down."
Morrow brought Arturo Alvarez on for McCarty in the 68th minute in a move designed to bring FCD back to life.
"I was looking for a spark, something to get us going," Morrow said. "We were looking for that the whole game. It helped us a little bit. We started passing the ball better and moving the ball a little better until we gave up a very bad goal at a very bad time."
Even though he was only on the field for the final 22 minutes, Alvarez noticed one thing right away about the still-undefeated Red Bulls.
"They have a pretty solid defense," he said. "Coming in the last 20 minutes or so, it was tough coming at them because they were well-organized. But it shouldn't be something that we can't handle. We have to forget this game and learn from it."
But the FCD midfielder knows that the issues that surfaced on Thursday can be solved by getting back to basics.
"We need to not rush things," Alvarez said. "We need to possess the ball and not try to go for the difficult ball all the time. We have the players who can do that but sometimes you have to be a little more patient."
One thing is for sure. After the 3-0 loss to New York on April 15 at Giants Stadium and Thursday's setback, the Red Bulls swept the season series with FCD for the first time since 2001, and in the process made a few believers inside the Hoops locker room.
"I think it's safe to say that they're a much better team than they were in the last few years," McCarty said. "We had their number last year and they returned the favor this year. Ultimately, we need to find a way to be more consistent.
"I think that's going to be a big word for us this year, if we're going to be able to find our consistency or not. We played well against Colorado and have to find a way to carry that forward into games with a short turnaround."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
