FRISCO, Texas—That was just what FC Dallas needed to erase the bad taste of yet another blowout defeat on the road.
Just three nights after a 5-0 away loss to Seattle, Dallas cruised to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at Toyota Stadium, wrapping a stretch of three matches in eight days and securing their first Brimstone Cup since 2012.
Coach Oscar Pareja liked the way his club responded to the midweek defeat, even as he acknowledged that his club needs to "be more mature to avoid all the collapses."
“I’m going to be honest – it has already happened three times, and if I count the one against Vancouver (a 3-0 road loss on April 23), it’s four,” Pareja said. “But I do not have any doubt about the spirit of this team.”
Each time Pareja's side have been routed on the road, they have won their first match back at Toyota Stadium – where they have now gone a franchise-record 16 straight without a loss.
“It hasn’t really been hard for us," said forward Tesho Akindele. “We’ve had a couple bad losses, which honestly you can’t really have, but it’s happened, and every time we’ve bounced back. I think part of that is after a bad loss, Oscar comes in and says ‘You guys played bad.’
"He doesn’t start screaming. He just says ‘You know you played bad, do better next time.’ I think that helps, because if he came in and just ripped us up, it would lower our confidence a little bit.”
FC Dallas' latest bounceback came on the strength of highlight-reel performances from their trio of stars: Fabian Castillo, Maximiliano Urruti and Mauro Diaz.
Castillo had two assists, on Urruti's header in the 23rd minute and on Mauro Rosales' insurance goal in the second minute of stoppage time, just after Arturo Alvarez pulled one back late for the visitors. In between, Diaz scored on a blast in the 41st minute to give Dallas a 2-0 halftime lead.
Pareja is starting to get accustomed to that sort of performance from his stars.
“You always expect them to do something like that, especially with the talent those guys have,” he said. “But I’m pleased for the collective effort. We know individually they are great soccer players and we are blessed to have them here in Dallas, but I’m always [impressed] more by what they did as a team. That’s what’ll take us where we want.”
The itinerary doesn’t lighten up for FC Dallas this week, with a U.S. Open Cup derby match Wednesday against interstate rival Houston, followed by a quick turnaround four days later against the Colorado Rapids, who are just three points back in both the Supporters Shield and Western Conference races.
“The guys are focused. We didn’t even get a proper training in yesterday,” defender Atiba Harris said. “It was more of just a recovery. Credit to the guys for remaining focused and putting out a gutsy performance tonight.”
