FRISCO, TEXAS — FC Dallas got their second win of the season against Sporting Kansas City, this Saturday at Toyota Stadium. Los toros were looking their return to the winning path after a draw against the Whitecaps last weekend, but the Kansas City team would fight for the victory from beginning to the end, knowing that they haven’t got a win after almost a month of competition.
The first half was very physical, intense high pressures and rebounds that ended at long shots. Through the beautiful game’s history, the long shots have been game openers, and this match’s scoreboard honored this unwritten rule. After a couple of long ball attempts by Sporting Kansas City, Salloi would shot from outside of the box, the ball got deflected and found its way to the net at the 11th minute. The first 15 were for Kansas and Salloi was the most persistent player of the game at the moment, shooting again after a rebound on a corner that went above the goal.
The first half of Kansas left good sensations for Sporting they had the better chances to score. Besides a couple of runs by Arriola on the right wing looking for partners crossing the ball, but unable to find them, FC Dallas couldn’t create opportunities in front of goal, and that was not promising for Nico Estevez’s squad. The halftime break gave FC Dallas to restart their approach to the game, and it would give them results a few minutes after the second half began.
At the 55th minute, FC Dallas created from the back one of the most beautiful build up goals so far this season. An offensive play that started at the defense but was rapidly transitioned to the midfield, Ferreira received from Lletget cross it to Velasco, the Argentinian gave it back to Lletget and the midfielder left it beautifully to the best player of the tournament for Dallas so far who shot from the left side and scored to tie the game at Frisco.
The goal for Dallas seemed to give momentum to Los Toros, but their inspiration was going to be found five minutes later. A penalty was given to Sporting Kansas City after a foul by Paes to Agada inside of the box at the 60th minute of the game. Here Maarten would start his way from villain to hero for Dallas. Agada would take the penalty but Paes would save the first attempt diving to his left side. After the save, VAR would give Sporting a second chance to take the penalty but this time they would change the kicker. The captain, Erik Thommy would take the second opportunity given for defensive encroachment on the first attempt. Paes would save the second chance with an outstanding save to his right side, mentally winning the battle against the taker and becoming the hero for FC Dallas in just 5 minutes.
The Dallas team would get the inspiration from their goalkeeper and went to look for the comeback for the rest of the game, and the effort gave its results. Estevez and his staff would make the substitutions at the right time to gave the team what they needed to get their second goal. At the 82th minute, Geovane de Jesus Rocha got inside the pitch, and just 2 minutes after, on a high press would recover the ball and give it to Jesus Ferreira, who got his third goal of the season and the advantage for FC Dallas, but the drama was not over yet.
After a cross rebound inside the box at the 87th minute, Paes seemed to take down Felipe Hernandez and a penalty kick was given, the goalkeeper would get a red card after the previous yellow and the game looked like a tie. Once again, VAR was going to intervene and after a couple of minutes of reviewing the play, both the penalty and the red were turned over and FC Dallas would hold their advantage to secure their three points.
Sporting Kansas City will continue looking for their first win of the season against Seattle Sounders. The Dallas team will face LAFC on the road the following weekend looking for the consistency they have been missing.
