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Unpleasant return: FC Dallas downs Pareja, Rapids
BY Chris O’Dell, codell@starlocalnews.com
FRISCO – After spending 13 seasons in Dallas as a midfielder and eventual assistant, Colorado head coach Oscar Pareja didn’t have the welcome return he hoped for Saturday night at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco.
Pareja’s Rapids couldn’t maintain an early one-goal lead and squandered multiple scoring opportunities throughout the match to hand Dallas (6-11-8) a 3-2 victory.
“You’ve got to put the ball in the back of the net,” Pareja said. “If you don’t do it, then you pay for it. That is exactly what happened.”
“At the end of the day, it was a good series win for us,” said Schellas Hyndman, FC Dallas head coach. “It was a good three points for FC Dallas.”
Colorado got on the scoreboard first with a goal from midfielder Jaime Castrillon in the 12th minute. The score was Castrillon’s team-leading sixth goal of the season and allowed the Rapids to nearly take a two-goal lead during the 33rd minute.
However, Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman pushed aside consecutive Colorado shots to preserve the one-goal deficit for his team.
“We started well and created the chances to be up at the half by two or three,” Pareja said. “Hartman kept [Dallas] in the game.”
Hartman’s teammates backed their keeper up with an onslaught of goals at the end of the first half and beginning of the second.
Castillo began the scoring in the 41st minute with his third goal of the season when the forward took a pass from Julian de Guzman before blasting a line drive from 22 yards out that landed just inside the left post.
Benitez kept the offense going just three minutes later by scoring his first MLS goal in 92 career matches. The score came after a foul from Colorado’s Drew Moor that set up a Dallas free kick from 28 yards out. Benitez then hammered a ball that sailed over the crowd of defenders and past a diving Matt Pickens for a 2-1 Dallas lead.
“What a great free kick by [Benitez],” Hyndman said. “It was one that [David] Beckham would be proud of.”
With a 2-1 halftime lead, FC Dallas made it three goals in an eight-minute span during the 49th minute when Ferreira netted his first goal of the season. The 2010 MLS MVP scored after receiving a centering feed from Castillo to beat Pickens from just 10 yards out.
“It was great to see [Ferreira] get a goal because he works awfully hard out there for us,” Hyndman said.
Colorado (8-15-1) got back into the game six minutes later on midfielder Jeff Larentowicz’s third goal of the year.
Things were made more difficult for the Rapids though when Castrillon was ejected from the match with a red card in the 71st minute following a physical exchange with Dallas defender George John.
“There’s a lot involved here,” Hyndman said. “It’s two teams that have been disappointed with their expectations this year.”
The red card given to Castrillon forced Colorado to finish the match with 10 men but didn’t seem to kill the team’s scoring chances.
Larentowicz had an opportunity to knot the game at three goals apiece in stoppage time before Hartman knocked aside a shot from 25 yards out to ultimately end any chance of a Colorado comeback.
“Most keepers get beat on those opportunities,” Hyndman said.
The Rapids fell to 1-7-0 in their last eight outings and 2-10-0 on the road this season with the 3-2 loss.
Meanwhile, Dallas improved to 3-2-1 in its last six matches, including a pair of victories over Colorado, after failing to record a victory in a franchise-record 13 consecutive games.
The win also put Dallas ahead of the Rapids and into a tie with Chivas USA for sixth place in the Western Conference standings and seven points behind Los Angeles for the final playoff spot.
FC Dallas is now slated for a three-game road trip beginning with a 9 p.m. match at Vancouver Wednesday.
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