Fourteen games into the season and Supporters' Shield frontrunners FC Dallas finally have their first individual multi-goal scorer in a match.
FC Dallas drew 2-2 with the Colorado Rapids Saturday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, with forward Blas Perez scoring two goals, each immediately following goals by Atiba Harris for Colorado, to give the visitors a point on the road. The result keeps Dallas in pole position in the Western Conference.
“The first goal was just a rebound that was there for me and I hit a good shot to the side of the net,” Perez said through a translator of his brace. “The second goal was a great pass by Jackson, he saw there was a defender going for the ball and he just went over him. I chested it down and had the patience to score from there.”
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FC Dallas has scored 23 goals on the season, tied with New York Red Bulls for most in the league. But before tonight, FCD had depended on team distribution for putting the ball into their opponents’ net with ten different goal scorers (tied with LA, Montreal and Chivas for the league lead). It was also only the third time in fourteen games Colorado’s usually stingy defense (third fewest goals allowed in MLS coming into tonight) had allowed two goals in a match.
“I think Blas didn’t get a lot of chances, but he was pretty damn good in his finishing, wasn’t he?” gushed FC Dallas Coach Schellas Hyndman to reporters after the match. “The thing that I could say for my team was they showed a lot of character. When you are on the road, at altitude, have difficult times, we’ve got a player gone with the national team [Je-Vaughn Watson to Jamaica], we left two starters at home...we had a lot of reasons to fold.”
OPTA Chalkboard: FCD play the ball inside out all game long
Hyndman went on to compliment his team by saying, “I think it showed a lot of character on our part to go a goal down and come back, go down again, and come back. I just congratulated the boys on what great character they have and for us, we got another point."
The coach also used a colorful metaphor to describe the efforts of the Rapids to get a late winner.
"The last maybe ten minutes, was desperation by Colorado, just throwing everything at us including a couple of sinks. I almost said toilets, but [I meant] sinks.”
