Ryan Hollingshead
Photo: MLSSoccer.com
The match between Philadelphia Union and FC Dallas will not go ahead tonight. Inclement weather conditions forced the home club to reschedule for tomorrow.
None of that will deter the enthusiasm of the men in red who are seeking to be the only club to have three wins from their opening three games.
FC Dallas were few people’s tip to top the Western Conference before the season begun. Since then they have won two MLS games, the only side to do so. Still they are few people’s favourite.
Yet their performance in seeing off 2013 MLS Cup winners Sporting Kansas City was as impressive as the 3-1 scoreline suggests. Blas Perez took the plaudits as the goalscorers often do. But behind his goals was a less well known name who came off the bench and stood out.
For most outside Dallas (and Sacramento), little will be known about Ryan Hollingshead. He only entered the game in the 69th minute when he replaced Mauro Diaz. With only four starts last season, he made little impact on the league or the media bubble outside Dallas last year either.
In 2013, you’ll have heard even less about him unless you lived in the Granite Bay neighborhood of Sacramento.
Dallas selected Hollingshead with the 20th (2nd round) overall pick in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft but he turned his back on soccer to fulfill an ambition elsewhere. He’d made a promise and keeping it was all important to him. Ryan helped his brother Scott to build a church in Granite Bay called Harvest Bible Chapel instead of joining MLS.
In 2014 he was a semi-permanent fixture in the first 18 but never played the full 90, with 69 minutes against San Jose being his longest outing. His team won 5-0.
Fast forward to 2015, and there he was back on the bench for the seemingly tricky home tie with SKC.
He made a solid contribution in his 21 minutes and delivered a pass so accurate that one wished for the revival of the old commentators’ traditional ‘knife through butter’ cliche.
And what a contribution it was.
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The four most recent graduates from the Dallas Academy; Gonzalez, Garcia, Craft and Zendejas
Why do experts not rate Dallas?
There may be two main reasons why neutral observers so rarely mention Dallas as potential cup winners.
Firstly, the Western Conference is very tough. Observers immediately select LA Galaxy and Seattle as being shoo-ins for the playoffs. Sporting Kansas City have dominated the East and if any pundit is nominating a ‘surprise’ team, it’s fashionable to select Portland – or at a pinch Vancouver. To select Dallas is hardly a surprise and does not make the pundit look terribly brave
Secondly, their success at rearing their own players has the downside that few of us have heard much about them by the time they reach first team contention.
Of their current roster and possible starters, Victor Ulloa, Richard Sánchez, Moises Hernandez, Jonathan Top, Kellyn Acosta, Danny Garcia, London Woodberry and Bryan Leyva came from their academy.
Thereafter they have also signed Jesse Gonzalez the 10th Homegrown player, Danny Garcia 11th as the 11th, Coy Craft as the 12th and Alex Zendejas as its 13th Homegrown player who arrived on Oct. 1, 2014.
This is admirable and must make scouting for them much more of a dawdle because so many gaps are being filled from home. What they lack are men who made their name and garnered their experience elsewhere in the league.
In fact, there are only four with significant MLS experience elsewhere behind them and two Dan Kennedy and Chris Seitz are goalkeepers. The others are defender Stephen Keel much traveled winger Atiba Harris. In all honesty, neither made enough impact at their many previous clubs to have opposing fans cower in fear if they are on the team sheet.
Lastly, there is still a lingering tendency to judge a club’s worth by its attendance, especially in the Northwest where high attendances have taken on an added value in the absence of any MLS Cups.
Saturday’s game at Philadelphia will tell us a lot about the side with two home wins so far. Were they just home points against a rebuilding side and a good side stymied by a poor offside goal?
Or are the homegrown reds about to reduce the number of playoff places for the fancied sides by one come October?
