FC Dallas saw their league unbeaten streak ended at six games and dropped into second place in the Western Conference with a 1-0 loss to Houston Dynamo on Sunday night at Robertson Stadium.
The loss marks the fifth consecutive time that FC Dallas has lost to Dynamo in Houston, leaving the Hoops winless in the Bayou City since Dynamo relocated there from San Jose.
The team was frustrated by the loss, and thought that they didn't play as well as they could have against the defending MLS Cup champions.
"We couldn't get our rhythm going tonight," FC Dallas midfielder Arturo Alvarez said. "We're a team that I don't think showed our character tonight. We're always good at coming back from deficits and today I don't think we gave it all, including myself."
FC Dallas went down at the end of the first half, on a 42nd-minute header by Dynamo forward Brian Ching. Playing without leading scorer Juan Toja, who suffered a high ankle sprain August 7 in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal against the Charleston Battery, the Hoops were unable to even the score, despite recording an equal number of shots on goal as Houston (five each).
"I'm disappointed to lose one-nil a couple minutes before halftime," FC Dallas coach Steve Morrow said. "Apart from a lot of long balls and set plays they threw at us in the first half, we coped with it pretty well and weren't in too much trouble with anything else. At least we tried to play some soccer, get the ball down and knock it around."
Both goalkeepers were tested during the match. FC Dallas 'keeper Ray Burse handled the pressure well in his third game filling in for injured Shaka Hislop and Dario Sala, tallying four saves and preventing a number of other Dynamo opportunities from ever developing into a shot.
"They were pushing pretty hard at us from, I think, the 63rd minute until maybe the 71st," Burse said. "I just had to come up big for my team, keep us in the game, keep us at one-nil and give us a chance to get the equalizer and hopefully the win. Unfortunately it didn't happen tonight."
Houston fired four shots between the 63rd and 72nd minute, including two on goal. In all, FC Dallas was outshot 6-3 in the second half, and notched only one shot on goal to Houston's three.
"In the second half, the quality just wasn't there," Morrow said. "We've come with a very depleted team today, a lot of bodies missing as well. So I think the boys did gave their best effort but the quality just wasn't there today."
In addition to Toja, Hislop and Sala, the Hoops were without forwards Roberto Mina and Kenny Cooper, midfielder Marcelo Saragosa and defenders Adrian Serioux and Alex Yi.
Though upset with the loss, Alvarez said the team plans to focus on their next match, at home against D.C. United on September 1, and try to reclaim the top spot in the Western Conference.
"This was a very important game for us," Alvarez said, "and unfortunately we didn't get the result we wanted. There's still a lot of games and we're going to continue going forward."
Lucas Ogden-David is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
