While it wasn’t exactly mid-season form, FC Dallas were looking better on Sunday than during their season-opening win over Colorado, and were just 30 minutes from the first ever two-win start to the season under Schellas Hyndman.
Then the bottom fell out.
Defensive lapses allowed Chivas USA three goals in the last 25 minutes of the match to grab a first win under their new manager at FC Dallas’ expense.
“It’s early in the season,” Hyndman told reporters after the match. “I thought that we just got a little bit too wrapped up with the things going on, on the field. I think we were a little bit naive and we’ll get better with that. I thought we were too spread out and the game just got way too open when we had a 1-0 lead.”
READ: Chivas USA rally past FC Dallas with second-half surge
Last week, despite a less than stellar performance, Dallas’ strong defensive effort and airtight shape were able to carry the team to victory, but on this evening, the back line couldn’t reproduce a similar result. Center back Matt Hedges was badly turned by Juan Agudelo on the first goal while his partner George John struggled to corral a tricky back pass from Je-Vaughn Watson in what turned out to be friendly fire converted into the game-winning goal by Oswaldo Minda.
“We should’ve condensed the field and made things a little bit more difficult, instead we opened it up,” Hyndman said. “The first two goals were defensive errors which are going to happen, and then the third goal we obviously put everything forward and it didn’t really matter.”
While there were positives to take for FC Dallas from the match, including a far-improved percentage of possession and seven shots on goal that forced Chivas USA goalkeeper Dan Kennedy into some vintage saves, the defensive lapses will be what is remembered in this disappointing loss for FCD.
“I think we’re making progress, but today was obviously a step in the wrong direction,” said Hyndman. “We also did some things better than we did last week, so our goal is just to continue to get better and not have the game as wide open as it’s been.”
