Oscar Pareja and the rest of the team look to improve away from home. Photo Credit: Ziro Castellanos
The previous three away games for FC Dallas were bad, with zero goals scored and eight goals allowed. FC Dallas fans were certainly happy to see dominant home form continue against Portland and Seattle in a four day time period this last week, but can the team finally translate that home form into positive results on the road tonight against New England?
Part of the defensive woes away from home can probably be attributed to the continued absence of Matt Hedges. FC Dallas signed defender Agustin Jara this week, pending approval of his P-1 visa, to help provide some defensive cover in case anyone else goes down with a knock.
A lot of the defensive work seems to be falling on the shoulders of Zach Loyd in recent games, mostly because opposing teams seem to be focusing on the height mismatch, Loyd is only 5’9″, when sending the ball up field. Loyd had some of his best performances this season in the last two homes games and will definitely have his hands full defending New England’s recent blockbuster signing, Kei Kamara.
In the midfield, look for Carlos Gruezo to be marking Lee Nguyen to try and slow down the New England attack. Nguyen had a goal and an assist last week against Chicago and has been one of the more consistent attacking threats for the Revolution.
Speaking of attacking threats, the offense for FC Dallas has been stuttering both home and away. Maximiliano Urruti has not scored in almost two months, and Tesho Akindele has not scored in a month.
Mauro Diaz returning to the pitch after injury has certainly helped the offense settle some in the last two games at home and Michael Barrios has continued to contribute in the goals column, but the team definitely needs contributions from the strikers up top. Even Fabian Castillo has been in a dry spell recently, not scoring or assisting on any goals in the last month.
Even with all the offensive woes, FC Dallas still sit in second place in the Western Conference coming into this match. This should put some amount of fear into the rest of the league. If FC Dallas can still be in such a good position while struggling this much offensively, what kind of performances will we see when FC Dallas starts firing on more cylinders?
FC Dallas fans will be hoping to see a few more of those cylinders tonight against New England Revolution starting at 7:30 pm EST.
