Every trip FC Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty makes to The Home Depot Center is like going home again.
On July 1, 2006, when he came on as a second-half substitute against Chivas USA, McCarty made his league debut. Then on Sunday night, he scored his first professional goal when he tucked in a Chris Gbandi cross in the 11th minute.
"It was kind of ironic," McCarty said. "That's where I made my professional debut, and for my first goal to come there as well makes it a little bit of a special place for me. It was a better outing than I've been having and I was very pleased with that."
McCarty's goal was the first scored by FCD in the opening 15 minutes of the game this season, but came in a losing effort, as the 10-man Hoops conceded the equalizer on Landon Donovan's penalty kick after Gbandi was sent off with a second yellow card on the same play, then allowed the game-winner on Chris Klein's wicked long-range strike.
"It's always great to get the first goal to get that monkey off your back," McCarty said. "I'm happy that it came, but we have to focus on Houston. We need to win our next few games and secure a playoff spot. That's the most important thing right now."
The ex-University of North Carolina standout was quick to credit Carlos Ruiz's dummy run that helped set up his goal. As Gbandi's cross came in from the left flank, Ruiz allowed it to slip through his legs before it rolled to McCarty, who knocked it home first-time.
"I think Carlos has really been important for us this year," McCarty said. "People are going to talk about him not scoring as many goals as he usually does. But he is doing all those things that you don't see in the stats and giving us all those little plays that he gives you.
"He heard me calling for it. I was running behind him and he was marked," McCarty continued. "He let it go and I was lucky enough to finish it off. That just shows the kind of player that Carlos is and has been for us this year. Besides scoring goals, he will make plays like that and they have been very important for us this year."
The 20-year-old midfielder has now played in 21 matches this year, 17 of those starts and currently leads the Hoops with seven assists. He also has one assist for FCD in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and another in SuperLiga. A number of those have come off free kicks or corner kicks, something McCarty takes great pride in.
"That's something I have always felt that I excel at," he said. "I work on them after practice two or three times a week. They've been kind of successful for us this year and I really take pride in that. If we're dangerous on those, then we can be even more dangerous in the normal run of play.
"I feel that being good on set pieces is a really important ingredient to being able to win a championship," he said. "I try to help the team out as much as possible in that regard. We have so many guys who can get on the end of things in the box that service always has to be good."
Like a number of his teammates, McCarty admits that he never dreamed that he would be teammates with World Cup-winning midfielder Denilson.
"No, not in a million years did I think that," he said. "It just proves how far this league has come since it started and that guys like him are going to start funneling into the league because they see it's a place where they can collect a paycheck, get better and help teams win," he said. "Being able to play alongside a player like that is an absolute pleasure."
He and his teammates are still getting adjusted to playing alongside the talented Brazilian.
"I think that it's fairly obvious in the first few games that everything hasn't been perfect but that's to be expected," McCarty said. "He's a new player and everyone needs time to get adjusted to playing with him. With every game, you can see that it's getting better and better. Hopefully by the time we get into the playoffs, we will be clicking."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
