August 16, 2012
VICTORY WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL
FCD player excitement building

by Phil Stephens, Dallas Soccer News Editor

Hernan Pertuz stole a ball in the back third from Vancouver to start an end-to-end progression that ended with a first-MLS goal by Jonathon Top to finish the scoring at 2-0 in favor of FC Dallas. Photo by Michael Stephens

With a little luck, a lot of pluck and courage and a heaping dose of David Ferreria, FC Dallas had the right prescription for a road win in Vancouver. Dallas had the look of a team with a higher purpose. FCD players knows what they must do to have a chance to reach the playoffs and the players are clearly building confidence with every success.


From the outset, it was clear that Dallas was going to work hardest in denying the Whitecaps scoring opportunities. Midfielder Andrew Jacobson said that Dallas' game plan coming into BC Place was, “Keeping good shape defensively. We know that they have a lot of good movement as a team.”


He implied that Dallas had to be opportunistic, saying their role wasn't to follow the Whitecaps' players around, but to, “punish them for mistakes and I thought we did a good job of that.”


Jacobson said getting the first road win of the season was, “Very important. I think we're getting a little bit of our swag back that we thought we had going into the season. I thought everyone stepped up. Everyone played well with confidence. That's two wins in a row for us and everyone feels really good going forward.”


Jonathon Top, who scored his first MLS goal, was ready to thank everyone, but paid homage to David Ferreira first.


“It feels very good,” Top started off. “First of all, I want to thank David for giving me that assist right there. Any other player I think would've taken that chance and shot it, but he gave me that opportunity to score and it just felt great today to get that goal right there to make sure that we won the game.”


Ferreira had the assist on both goals.


Top said his team never gives up, further saying, “We work really hard and it shows tonight that we never gave up and were always there.”


The 19-year-old Homegrown Player personified what players must do when given the opportunity.


“We were missing three important players,” he said. “Brek with the national team in Mexico and de Guzman with Canada, and Rodriguez with Panama. I think us younger guys were given the opportunity to step up and we did well with our opportunities. I think [us younger guys] just have to keep working hard and pushing for more minutes.”







Dallas Head Coach Schellas Hyndman was not overly emotional along the sideline, even when his teams scored two goals in the second half. He was constantly focused because he knows Dallas still has a long road ahead to reach its goal of the playoffs. Schellas had warned his players before the game that it was going to be a very physical game, but he was a little shocked at just how physical the game was.


Hyndman opened his comments by saying, “It was a physical game.” Then Hyndman felt he had to compliment the Vancouver fans, “Anytime you come here, there is a fantastic crowd---they do it right here.”


Hyndman really cut to heart of his team's mind set when he said, “We played a bit desperate trying to get points. Both of us (Vancouver) were missing players, but I thought our guys came out and performed.”


Dallas nearly always utilizes a possession-style game and Wednesday night was no exception. He thought it played a role in turning back the Whitecaps.


“I was surprised how well we were able to keep the ball in the first half,” Hyndman said. “We kept the ball moving, but the Whitecaps almost got the goal off the post. In the second half we had a couple of breakouts and I think we frustrated Vancouver.”


Hyndman showed he definitely didn't want to dwell on this victory, but just take the good and get on to the next task, when he said, “We’re anxious to go to Salt Lake with three points.”


The FCD coach couldn't resist making another comment about the physicality of the game. The constant start and stop from fouls and yellow cards made the game a little ugly, instead of the constantly flowing game that soccer is designed to be.


“There were too many cards and way too many fouls,” Hyndman said. “I coached college soccer for 32 years; anything over 20 fouls is ridiculous. Today we had 17 while Vancouver had 24 and probably a lot of fouls that were not called. It turned out to be a more physical game than it should've been.”

Even Vancouver Head Coach Martin Rennie admitted there were an inordinate amount of fouls, saying, “We don't generally have too many fouls in the game and today was stop and start for both teams. The referee chose to call more than others do and fair enough, but it meant the game didn't get enough energy flow and resulted in a pretty poor game to watch.”


Rennie was clear he was ready to forget the evening and he wanted his team to do the same thing, saying, “It was a disappointing night --- a frustrating game for us. Thankfully, we haven't had many of these games here at BC Place. It's not something we're going to dwell on. . . .It was just one of those games that never really got going. It was stop-start all the time and there was never really much rhythm to it. We weren't able to get the ball moving like we would've liked.”


So Rennie called it. It was an ugly game, but ugly for Vancouver fans. Don't expect Dallas supporters to tweet about how ugly the game was.