{"id":10337,"date":"2017-10-08T20:33:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T00:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonsoccer.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=10337"},"modified":"2017-10-08T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T01:08:16","slug":"fc-dallas-draw-colorado-rapids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/10\/08\/fc-dallas-draw-colorado-rapids\/","title":{"rendered":"Playoff Picture Fading; FC Dallas Draw Colorado Rapids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night was another chance for FC Dallas to prove themselves as a playoff contender.\u00a0 Instead, FC Dallas<\/a> drew Colorado Rapids<\/a> and will head back to Dallas with a single point.\u00a0 This was seen as a crucial three-point match for Dallas, but Colorado played well at home to share the points.<\/p>\n

Points Lost for FC Dallas; Draw with Colorado Rapids<\/h1>\n

It didn’t take long to see how this match was going to be played out.\u00a0 Waves of attacking force on both ends saw tons of goal opportunity.\u00a0 Both sides were strong attacking down their respective right flanks.\u00a0 Both goalkeepers were up to the task, facing a combined 11 shots on goal.<\/p>\n

Colorado were quick to take their chances, nearly capitalizing inside the first quarter hour.\u00a0 A well-driven in corner found the towering Axel Sjoberg, whose header found the post instead of the net.\u00a0 It wasn’t long after that the Rapids did find their goal.\u00a0 Attacking down the right side (as both teams did all night), Stefan Aigner started the move from midfield.\u00a0 He played a beautiful delayed one-two with Joshua Gatt, who found Aigner back inside the box and finished past Jesse Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Heroics and Unproductive Possession<\/h2>\n

Despite going down early, Dallas would dominate the game in possession and total shots.\u00a0 Michael Barrios looked fresh and dangerous down the right side every time he got the ball.\u00a0 Colorado did well to absorb pressure, and Dallas failed to capitalize on controlling the match.<\/p>\n

Just five minutes into the second half, Colorado should have had their second goal.\u00a0 Stefan Aigner lofted a back post cross just over Matt Hegdes to a streaking Alan Gordon.\u00a0 Gordon lined up a beautiful header going back across goal, but somehow Jesse Gonzalez<\/a> fully stretched out and made a fantastic fingertip save.<\/p>\n

Just three minutes later, Dallas would bring one back.\u00a0 Javier Morales whipped in a corner to the top of the six, and found the head of Atiba Harris.\u00a0 Rapids’ keeper Zac MacMath was stuck to his line and could only watch it fly past him.<\/p>\n

Colorado would look to break several times in the second half, but Dallas were all over the Rapids.\u00a0 Having over 65% possession in the match, Dallas moved the ball well around the field but to no avail.\u00a0 Colorado sat back defensively, daring the Dallas midfield to find a way through them.\u00a0 And they more unsuccessful than not.\u00a0 There were a few glimmers of hope for Dallas but either a well-timed tackle or a good save from MacMath shut it down.<\/p>\n

Outlook and Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n

Dallas head back to Frisco, TX with more questions than answers.\u00a0 They will train during the week before heading to the great Northwest, with a daunting match up against the Seattle Sounders<\/a>.\u00a0 As if it couldn’t get any harder, Dallas must find a way to get 3 points against a strong Sounders side.<\/p>\n

Dallas will be keeping an eye on the midweek match, where Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City will go head-to-head.\u00a0 Those two sides will also meet on the weekend, and both matches will be watched heavily by the likes of San Jose and Real Salt Lake as well.\u00a0 Dallas with Seattle away and then the season finale at home against LA Galaxy, their playoff hopes are in their hands.\u00a0 Win out and hope for the best, and they might find a way to sneak into the 2017 MLS Playoffs<\/a>.\u00a0 Otherwise it could be a long and uncomfortable off-season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday night was another chance for FC Dallas to prove themselves as a playoff contender.\u00a0 Instead, FC Dallas drew Colorado Rapids and will head back to Dallas with a single point.\u00a0 This was seen as a crucial three-point match for Dallas, but Colorado played well at home to share the points. Points Lost for FC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2140,"featured_media":10340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15,119,3],"tags":[1231,35,96,1182],"class_list":["post-10337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rapids","category-fcd","category-mls","category-news","tag-2017-mls-season","tag-colorado-rapids","tag-fc-dallas","tag-jesse-gonzalez"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}