It's starting to sound like a broken record: FC Dallas loses in the opening round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. For the third consecutive year, the Hoops bowed out in the first round of the postseason and failed to win their first playoff series since 1999.
But their latest premature exit didn't come at the hands of their playoff nemesis, Colorado. What made this year's first-round departure even harder to take was that it came at the hands of their in-state rivals, Houston Dynamo.
FCD headed to the Bayou City with a 1-0 lead on aggregate after getting the lone goal in the opening leg at Pizza Hut Park on October 27. The Hoops had also drawn first blood in the second leg at Robertson Stadium last Friday and looked poised to break through against the reigning MLS Cup champs when disaster struck.
For the second consecutive year, a red card to a key starter helped seal the Hoops' fate. A year ago, it was left back Chris Gbandi getting sent off early in the second leg against the Rapids. This year it was fellow Houston native Arturo Alvarez who was shown red in the 47th minute after a knee to the groin of Dynamo midfielder Brad Davis in the left corner of the field.
And as the saying goes, the rest was history. Houston scored twice in regulation to tie the score 2-2 on aggregate and added two more in overtime to advance and in the process prolong FCD's playoff misery.
A few days after his infraction, Alvarez wanted to clear the air.
"Overall it was a good year for us," he said. "We came together when we needed to, but in the playoffs, things didn't go our way and I can take blame for that. My red card was a stupid mistake for me. If that wouldn't have happened, things would have been different. I apologized to my team, coaches and the entire FC Dallas organization. It was my mistake and I take full responsibility for it.
"I also want to apologize to the fans, here in Dallas and those who traveled to Houston. I also want to apologize to my family and friends from Houston who were at the game. I'm going to have to live with this for the next couple months and will have to learn from it. This can never happen again. It does happen in soccer and you have to live with it. It was my fault and my stupidity."
While Alvarez was apologetic for his role in the Hoops' loss, the emotions of several of his teammates were more in the realm of disappointment than anything.
"I think we're a little disappointed because we definitely wanted to go past the first round of the playoffs," said goalkeeper Ray Burse. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way we wanted it to, but that's soccer. So, we just have to go on from there."
Unlike a year ago, FC Dallas didn't come into the postseason as the Western Conference regular season champion, and they wouldn't be hosting the MLS Cup Final on their home ground. However, they had reached the final of the U.S. Open Cup, losing to the New England Revolution, and still thought they could come home with a trophy for the year.
"We started out well in the first half [of the season] and then had what is sort of becoming an annual thing for us, a second-half slump," forward Abe Thompson said. "It was good to get to the [U.S. Open] Cup final and that was definitely a positive. We would have liked to have won that being in front of our home fans. But we didn't really finish the season strong and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, which is disappointing."
So, once again, the Hoops are left to ponder what could have been and wait for next year, a refrain that is becoming all too familiar 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.
