FRISCO, Texas - It wasn’t pretty for FC Dallas in Saturday night's first match of the season, a 1-0 win over the Colorado Rapids. But they don’t award style points in soccer.
“We’ve had better training sessions than what we showed [tonight],” head coach Schellas Hyndman said after the game. “At the same time, they showed a lot of character, a lot of discipline and commitment to defend and to come away with the three points and three points that Colorado doesn’t have.”
Indeed, Hyndman has plenty to work on after Saturday’s game. FC Dallas conceded over 60 percent of possession to the Rapids and allowed their opponents to complete nearly twice as many passes, but the defense held strong for the shutout win.
“First game of the season, everyone comes out with a lot of nervous energy and a lot of guys flying around making tackles,” Zach Loyd told reporters. “Obviously everyone saw it was a sloppy game. Very, very sloppy tonight. But to come out and get a win to start the season is good for the team and good for the morale of the team.
“I think this week we’ll really look at film and fix some areas because overall the quality of play wasn’t something to our standard that we hold ourselves to.”
About the only positive for FC Dallas was the defense led by Loyd and Matt Hedges. After a shaky start to the game, FCD held the Rapids without a shot on goal in the second half despite havoc around the Dallas penalty area.
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“It wasn’t the prettiest game for us,” Hedges told MLSsoccer.com. “Defending-wise I’m happy for the shutout. After the first 15 minutes, we defended really well and took advantage of an opportunity that was given to us.”
Given the slow starts that have become typical of Schellas Hyndman-coached teams, it’s three points Dallas will take and move on to next Sunday's match vs. Chivas USA (5 p.m. ET, UniMas).
“They can have 95 percent possession,” Hyndman said. “If we win 1-0, we’ll take it.”
Daniel Robertson covers FC Dallas for MLSsoccer.com.
