Stuck in the middle of an eight-game winless streak, FC Dallas found themselves struggling to hold leads and score goals. At one point during the streak, FCD went 231 minutes without finding net.
Against Real Salt Lake on Saturday night, the offense finally started firing on all cylinders. They poured it on during the last 25 minutes, tallying twice, putting the home side on the back foot often and generally looking like a revitalized team.
OPTA Chalkboard: FCD get it going down the stretch, but it's not enough
And it wasn’t enough. Despite all their efforts, the winless streak hit nine as FCD crumbled in stoppage time, conceding a Nat Borchers goal in the 93rd minute to fall 3-2.
Nonetheless, head coach Schellas Hyndman is choosing to look on the bright side.
“We got realistically two guys running at you," he told MLSsoccer.com of his short-handed side. "We have Blas Pérez and Jackson. Everyone else is just filling holes right now. It’s encouraging to score two goals.”
And it was encouraging to see his side fight almost to the last against the table-topping Claret-and-Cobalt.
“I think it’s more encouraging to come back twice and not give up with the adversity that was out there,” Hyndman said.
Pérez, who leads the team with five goals this season, spent most of the time complaining to referees about a lack of calls, but came through in the clutch and tied the game 2-2 deep in the second half.
The veteran striker claims that his score was somewhat of a silver lining, but with nearly a month-long break coming up, FCD need to do more than score a couple of goals.
“We need to take this loss and understand that we need to better ourselves a lot,” Pérez said. “It’s not worth anything if we go out and score and fight until the end if they score a goal to win it at the end. The work is just thrown to the floor.”
FCD need to earn points or this season could very well be over by the end of summer. However, Pérez believes the break will benefit the team by allowing key players to recover from injuries and to regain a focus that will allow them to make a run and finally break the winless habits.
“There are still a lot of games left. We have a lot of time to get healthy,” he said. “We’re going to try to do the right things so we can come back and get points.”
HIGHLIGHTS: RSL vs DAL
