FRISCO, Texas – A 5-1 win in the Texas Derby last Sunday night restored FC Dallas to a Western Conference playoff place, jumping over the Portland Timbers just above the line.
Now, the club's aim is to make their final six games count in order to reach the Audi 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs. With three games to be played at Toyota Stadium, and three games remaining against Western Conference opposition, a recent away match is providing the inspiration.
With little over half an hour left in Montreal the weekend prior, the Impact cruised to a 3-0 lead before FC Dallas leveled and clawed a point back at Stade Saputo. Zdenek Ondrasek scored his first MLS goal, while Reto Ziegler and Ryan Hollingshead struck to give the visitors an unlikely draw.
"The second half in Montreal showed us what we're able to do and we always have that in our heads," FC Dallas forward Jesus Ferreira said. "If we go out there in the first half and show any team that we can do that – that we can push and score and defend – we should be good, especially at home."
Paxton Pomykal said Dallas would only accept 12 points from their final four home games, with the Houston Dynamo rivalry part of that cycle. While the first step in that plan is accomplished, Dallas' fate doesn't entirely rest in the players' hands.
Head coach Luchi Gonzalez watched El Trafico after his media obligations were completed, as his side gained two points on the LA Galaxy by the end of the night. Only six points separate second and eighth place in the West, so the room for error is slim.
One player who won't be paying much attention to happenings around the league is "The Cobra."
"I don't want to talk about playoffs," said Ondrasek. "Everyone wants to talk about playoffs. For us, it's the next game against Cincinnati. We don't look at the other teams. We know where we are and we know what we have to do."
To Ondrasek's point, Dallas can only control their own results. But Gonzalez sees value in the Montreal match and how it can spur on Dallas to control their playoff destiny.
"In this season, we are going to talk about the Montreal second half," said Gonzalez. "We are going to remind ourselves to visualize what it took to get back into the game — the energy, the pressure. We needed to press, we needed to be together, we needed to commit numbers forward, we needed to have urgency. So it’s a good reference and we can use it as a catalyst in this push at the end of the season."
