The Colorado Rapids came away from Pizza Hut Park still with a chance to improve their playoff positioning, despite settling for a scoreless draw with FC Dallas on Saturday night.
The home team had more of the territorial advantage, but the goal attempts were even 12-12 (though Dallas had three more on target).
"We played against one of the best teams in the league on the road, we created a lot of chances and we had a lot of opportunities to finish them. I would have liked to have finished them with the opportunities that we had today, but we were not able to," said Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo. "But the team did well, very well."
The Hoops came into the match with a 4-5-1 formation and packed the play in the middle, leaving limited room on the flanks for Colorado.
"They played with one forward. We tried to open it up in the second half and we did in the second part of the game. We had a couple of good chances, a couple of great saves by the goalkeeper, but fine tuning is what we need to do for the next couple of games," said Clavijo.
Dario Sala was called upon to make two saves for FC Dallas, while Byron Foss, starting a fifth match in place of Joe Cannon, made five on the night.
"It was a good performance by the team as a whole defensively," said Foss. "We kept it tight and it looked like FC Dallas was playing for a point by keeping one player up top. We dealt with it well."
The Rapids did an excellent job of keeping Ramon Nunez to limited touches with the ball as he only had two shots on goal in the second half, which were easily handled by Foss.
"FC Dallas has a lot of quality players so you can't really pinpoint one guy and obviously Ramon's been doing well as of late - he has scored some big goals for them," added the 'keeper.
If the seeding stays as it currently is Colorado will match up against the hottest team in the MLS and Western Conference, the San Jose Earthquakes.
"We fear no one, we respect them like we respect Dallas and L.A.," said Clavijo. "But, we fear nobody and they are going to be able to see what Colorado is going to show on the field. We are ready to play anybody who we have to play in the playoffs." "
Colorado still has a chance of finishing third - which would mean a return engagement with FC Dallas. A victory at midweek against Real Salt Lake, and a loss by the Galaxy to San Jose in next Saturday's season finale, mean the teams will finish tied. The season series was tied between the teams, meaning it will come down to season goal difference, and the Rapids currently hold a one-goal margin.
Ron Goode is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
