He grew up a diehard Dallas Burn and FC Dallas fan. He has a stack of Jason Kreisā Dallas Burn trading cards, which he collected as a kid. He was even at the first-ever Dallas Burn match in 1996 against San Jose and has made it to at least six games a year ever since.
Heāll also be at MLS Cup in Toronto as FC Dallas play their first MLS championship final after 15 long years on Sunday (8:30 pm ET, ESPN).
But Drew Moor wonāt be at BMO Field as a fan. Instead, his mission will be to help the Colorado Rapids shatter those title dreams for the city he grew up in and the club he once captained.
āSince Iāve come to Colorado, we have played Dallas three times in regular season games and those are some of the hardest games Iāve ever prepared for in my life,ā Moor told MLSsoccer.com. āFor the simple reason that I was there for five years and felt like a big part of the club and supported them before that.ā
FC Dallas selected Moor with the sixth overall pick in the 2005 SuperDraft, and he went on to play 123 regular season matches for his hometown club.
[inline_node:323527]Moor even played for one year under current FCD manager Schellas Hyndman before he was shipped to Colorado along with cash and a draft pick in an August 2009 trade which allowed Ugo Ihemelu to rejoin Hyndman, his former SMU head coach.
āIt was a very, very difficult moment,ā FC Dallas assistant coach John Ellinger said. āHe was a great locker room guy, one of our leaders in the locker room and on the field and somebody who always gives you 100-plus percent.
āBut if there was a way to improve our speed in the back,ā Ellinger added, āwe had to take the opportunity to try and do that.ā
Ihemelu was taken one pick ahead of Moor in the same 2005 draft and, like Moor, could also play at center back or fullback. But Ihemeluās speed and his history with Hyndman gave him the edge.
Although Moor grew up five minutes from the SMU campus and even attended Mustangs matches, he was not heavily recruited by Hyndmanās program. Instead he went to Furman and then Indiana, where he won NCAA titles in 2003 and 2004.
The move to Colorado in 2009 caught Moor by surprise, and his parents took it the hardest. The trade had already gone down when the defender was called into Hyndmanās office.
āIt was tough to sit and listen to it,ā Moor said. āBut I have to feel that Schellas had a ton of respect for me. ā¦ But itās soccer, itās the sports industry. Itās the business.ā
Moor confessed that in each of the matches heās played against FC Dallas since then, he has always vowed to refrain from celebrating a goal. He says that Sunday will not be any different should he find the back of the net.
But although Moor will show respect to a club that he says remains close to his heart, it will not take away from his desire to win his first MLS Cup title and show FC Dallas that last yearās trade was a mistake.
āThis is an MLS Cup championship and Iām going to be very selfish and Iām going to want that trophy myself,ā Moor said. āNo matter how it came about, they [FC Dallas] kind of showed me the door on my way out. ā¦ It will be extra special and I definitely want to get them.ā
Think you know the game? Test your powers of prediction with MLSsoccer.com's new fantasy game,Pro Soccer Picks. Play NOW!