{"id":4433,"date":"2017-03-01T23:29:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T04:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=4433"},"modified":"2017-03-01T23:29:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T04:29:25","slug":"fc-dallas-set-semifinal-clash-pachuca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/03\/01\/fc-dallas-set-semifinal-clash-pachuca\/","title":{"rendered":"FC Dallas Set for CCL Semifinal Clash with Pachuca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FC Dallas took care of business in the CONCACAF Champions League on Wednesday. Though they fell to \u00c1rabe Unido 2-1 in Panama, they won the series 5-2 on aggregate. They now advance to the semifinals of the tournament where they will\u00a0face Liga MX side Pachuca.<\/p>\n<p>FC Dallas came into the match\u00a0with a 4-0 advantage after a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/2017\/02\/24\/kellyn-acosta-double-shreds-arabe-unido\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">devastating performance against \u00c1rabe Unido last Thursday<\/a>. <strong>Kellyn Acosta<\/strong> starred that night, netting two goals in a comprehensive victory. <strong>\u00d3scar Pareja<\/strong> featured a strong but changed lineup for the second leg. <strong>Javier Morales<\/strong>, <strong>Tesho Akindele<\/strong>, and <strong>Aaron Guillen<\/strong> all featured in the starting XI.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>FC Dallas Set for CCL Semifinal Clash with Pachuca<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>First Half<\/h3>\n<p>\u00c1rabe Unido showed some fight in the first twenty minutes. Two long range efforts by <strong>Ren\u00e1n Addles<\/strong> would have given the <em>Blue Express<\/em>\u00a0the lead if it were not for FC Dallas goalkeeper <strong>Chris Seitz<\/strong>. Any chances of \u00c1rabe getting back into the tie were eclipsed in the 23rd minute. A lively <strong>Michael Barrios<\/strong>\u00a0broke down the right and launched a dangerous cross into the box. <strong>Maxi Urruti<\/strong> couldn&#8217;t connect, but \u00c1rabe defender <strong>Leslie Heraldez<\/strong> did. He clattered into the ball and sent it bouncing into his own net. FC Dallas went\u00a0ahead 1-0, with a five goal lead on aggregate plus\u00a0an away goal.<\/p>\n<h3>Second Half<\/h3>\n<p>The majority of the second half was scoreless and uneventful. Until the 90th minute, the half\u00a0was highlighted by a first FC Dallas first-team appearance for 17-year-old homegrown <strong>Paxton Pomykal<\/strong>. As the full time whistle approached, \u00c1rabe earned\u00a0a consolation goal. <strong>Roberto Chen<\/strong> directed a fine header into goal from a free kick delivered from the right side. The late fireworks continued when the Panamanian side netted a second goal in injury time. This time it was Heraldez who found the back of the net\u00a0with a glancing header from a corner kick. It was too little, too late for \u00c1rabe though. They won 2-1 on the night, but FC Dallas prevailed on aggregate.<\/p>\n<h3>Pachuca Awaits<\/h3>\n<p>FC Dallas will meet Pachuca of Liga MX in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals. Pachuca advanced after routing\u00a0Costa Rican side Deportivo Saprissa 4-0 in Mexico\u00a0on Tuesday. The semifinal will feature a trip\u00a0home for Pachuca defender and US international <strong>Omar Gonzalez<\/strong>, a Dallas native. This matchup will also be one of two Liga MX \/ MLS semifinals in the Champions League.\u00a0FC Dallas featured a strong lineup in this contest in order to secure qualification. They will likely see some travel weary legs on Saturday for\u00a0their MLS opener, an away match against\u00a0the LA Galaxy. FC Dallas will be back on the international stage soon to host Pachuca. The CONCACAF Champions League semifinals begin on March 14th.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/644950898\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/644950898?et=suOLk3j6TRpynimqisOVUA&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=DiGPfhLqvTsiHt-W4PBEHfsCtPhSBiBD2d39rviL-sM=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FC Dallas advanced in the CONCACAF Champions League by beating \u00c1rabe Unido of Panama 5-2 on aggregate. They will meet Pachuca of Liga MX in the semifinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1653,"featured_media":4453,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2],"tags":[937,96,977,418,931,976,979,978],"class_list":["post-4433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fcd","category-featured","tag-arabe-unido","tag-fc-dallas","tag-leslie-heraldez","tag-liga-mx","tag-omar-gonzalez","tag-pachuca","tag-paxton-pomykal","tag-roberto-chen"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433","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\/1653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}