FRISCO, Texas — Just three days after his club opened preseason play with a disappointing 4-0 loss to Houston in Corpus Christi, FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman was expecting a better effort from his club in a Tuesday morning scrimmage with Houston Baptist.
He got his wishes as FCD prevailed 4-1 thanks in part to a pair of first-half tallies by Milton Rodriguez. Newcomer Ricardo Villar and Bruno Guarda also scored in the win.
“I thought we moved the ball well,” Hyndman said. “We’ve got two center backs in there that are trialists. We’ve got a defensive midfielder that is new and then we’ve got Ricardo Villar, who is also new. The goals we scored were nice goals, but we still feel like we’ve got a ways to go.”
The reigning MLS Western Conference champions hit the post on at least two occasions before Rodriguez’s first tally 23 minutes in gave FCD a 1-0 edge. The 34-year-old Colombian striker snapped a header into the right side of the net after a perfect delivery from reigning MLS MVP David Ferreira off a corner kick.
Rodriguez’s second tally came just five minutes later, when he headed another shot into almost the same exact spotl. The play started as Brek Shea dashed up the right flank, and as the HBU goalkeeper came out, the two collided.
The ball floated over to Rodriguez, who had enough presence of mind to head it toward goal.
“As a forward, that’s the most important thing, to score goals no matter what kind of game. If I score goals, I get more confidence,” Rodriguez said. “I’m still missing the timing of the game, but I’m getting there.”
[inline_node:328815]FCD added a third goal in the 29th minute when Villar scored his first goal for his new club off a blast from the right side after a feed from left back Jair Benitez.
Hyndman made wholesale changes to his lineup to start the second half, but the biggest alteration was switching from a 4-1-4-1 formation into a 4-4-2 that featured Ruben Luna and ex-Chivas USA scorer Maykel Galindo paired together up top.
“I wanted to give them all a chance to play," Hyndman said. "I thought it might be a help if they played a 4-4-2 in the attack, but just as important, I thought that Galindo would probably perform better with another striker because he’s not used to how we do things.”
FCD went ahead 4-0 in the 70th when Guarda scored from near the penalty spot, but saw their shutout broken one minute later when Houston Baptist put one past backup keeper Chris Seitz on the other end of the pitch.
With about 15 minutes left in the opening half, Shea and Marvin Chavez switched sides, something Dallas fans could see more of in 2011.
“The advantage that you do have when you switch players on sides is it’s a different competition. It’s a different person they’re running up against,” Hyndman said. “The other thing is you have the other person who is coming in with a stronger foot, so you hope that Chavez comes in and shoots with his right and that Brek comes in and shoots with his left. That’s something that we need to continue to work on.”
FCD return to the field on Friday night against SMU.
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