For Dallas, the streak continues—and for head coach Schellas Hyndman, a scoreless tie is just fine.
By virtue of their 0-0 draw with Columbus on Saturday afternoon, FC Dallas now hold the all-time league record with 10 straight unbeaten away games. Hyndman’s team also increased their overall unbeaten streak to 12 matches as they head into next weekend’s match with Toronto FC at Pizza Hut Park.
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FCD and the Black-and-Gold played a physical match that had its share of close calls as far as scoring opportunities.
“I think this was a game that both teams could have, and probably should have, won," Hyndman said.
"Not too many teams come in here and get a point against Columbus. To get a point here, to withstand the pressure of their set pieces, it continues to show our determination and our character. Hopefully we’ll continue to develop confidence with this type of game.”
The Crew dulled FCD's attacking potency by limiting central attacking midfielder David Ferreira's touches. For most of the 90 minutes, the Colombian playmaker had little—if any—role in energizing his side’s attack.
Hyndman attributed Ferreira’s lack of involvement to a solid game plan by the Columbus coaching staff.
“They’ve got two big center backs and their outside fullbacks never went up, so they always left four people in the back," Hyndman said. "They tried to pressure balls when they went to the outside fullbacks. That made it more and more difficult for David to get forward because when he did, there were four defenders waiting for him."
In the second half, FCD could have produced several more quality chances, but there were several occasions where crosses found no players making runs to either post.
Hyndman explained the reasons for those empty serves.
“Our wing midfielders were so concerned about not getting beat that they didn’t make the effort to get forward," Hyndman said.
"This was one of those games that when the pressure came as hard as it did in the second half, it was hard for us to get numbers into the attack.”
Besides leaving the Ohio state capital with a point, another big positive for the visitors was the fact that they did an excellent job of keeping the Crew from converting a set piece into a goal.
“Very pleased because we worked on that all week [in practice],” Hyndman said. “We didn’t want them to be first to the ball. There was a lot of bumping and banging in the box.
"The FC Dallas fan has to recognize and appreciate how courageous our guys are and how they battled," Hyndman said.
