FC Dallas ground crew turned this into a playable surface Thursday night. (Photo credit: Dylan Nadwodny)
This was the state of the field at Toyota Stadium in Frisco when this game kicked off last night at 8 p.m. CST (video shot by Jamie Engle):
Thankfully the game was delayed after only four minutes of this, and the FC Dallas staff worked the field for a solid hour and a half – during which literally every song containing the word “rain” was played over the PA system – to get it into a playable condition.
Now as a reminder, FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo play every season for the rights to a big old gun of a trophy, El Capitan. After suffering the 5-0 loss in Houston at the beginning of the season, FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo had a lot to play for tonight, and Dallas needed a big victory to have any chance of holing onto the cannon.
The game started slow after the restart, but things finally sprung to life in the 23rd minute with Ryan Hollingshead getting his second goal of the season for FC Dallas. It was started by good work from Fabian Castillo on the wing and his cross from near the end line found Hollingshead in the box to put it into the net. (Style points for Hollingshead as he did a nice front stroke swimming motion for his goal celebration.)
Fabian Castillo celebrates his assist on the opening goal. (Photo credit: Dylan Nadwodny)
Houston finally got their first look at goal in the 32nd minute but Ricardo Claks’s shot went straight to Chris Seitz.
Shortly into the second half, Ricardo Clark would find his way past Seitz in stunning fashion. Andrew Wenger played a pass in toward the top of the 18 yard box that was intercepted by Walker Zimmerman in the 50th minute. Zimmerman’s heavy touch put the ball directly into the path of an advancing Clark about 20 yards from goal. Clark put his foot through that ball as if it was a prone Carlos Ruiz and sent it rocketing into the upper 90 for the equalizer.
Houston Dynamo seemed to settle down and took control of the game after that strike. Raul Rodriguez had a great chance to get a second goal on a free kick in the 62nd minute, but put his header just on the opposite side of the post with Seitz well beaten.
The addition of Mauro Rosales in the 65th minute in place of Victor Ulloa seemed to spark an offensive resurgence and the Dynamo seemed content to sit back and absorb the pressure while looking to counter for the remainder of the game.
FC Dallas had a number of chances to win the game in last 20 minutes of the second half but could not find their way past the Dynamo defense or Tyler Deric.
A draw seemed a fair result, and the small group of traveling Houston fans celebrated in the corner of the stadium when the final whistle was blown. For all intents and purposes, El Capitan will be returning to Houston unless FC Dallas can outscore Houston by 6 goals when these team for the final time this season in Houston on August 27th.
