MLS Playoffs: F.C. Dallas beat Real Salt Lake 2-1
FC Dallas drew first blood in the 2 legged MLS playoffs as they outplayed defending champions, Real Salt Lake with a 2-1 win at home. Dallas will now travel to Utah with a one goal advantage in the 2nd leg.
F.C. Dallas suffered a setback earlier on as Fabian Espindola scored for the visitors but Jeff Cunningham levelled things up before Eric Avila scored the winner late in the second half.
There was much talk from the Salt Lake management about playing a defensive game but that didn’t show on the pitch as the Utah side went for all out attack and took an early lead in the 5th minute. The diminutive Argentinean received a looped
ball from Andy Williams and held-off Ugo Ihemelu before cutting back and found space before curling a hard shot in the net to put his team in front.
RSL almost increased their lead in the 20th minute when Kyle Beckerman found Ned Grabavoy but Hoops' goalie Kevin Hartman, who just came back after a knee injury, came off the line to snatch the ball before Grabavoy could tap it in. Minutes later,
Dallas got a chance of their own as Milton Rodriguez chased out a ball that was destined to go out of play and poked it back to McCarty whose bullet shot was brilliantly saved by Nick Rimando to preserve his team's lead.
Dallas started to dominate the show from then on after getting over the earlier setback but it were Real Salt Lake who got a good scoring chance as Javier Morales found Espindola and after holding off a defender passed the ball to Alvaro Saborio, however
Saborio’s volley was saved by Hartman.
Just a minute before half time, Dallas equalized as Cunningham received a deflected pass from Jair Benitez and another fortunate deflection made the fall right back in Cunningham’s path as he drilled a low shot past Rimando to bring his side level.
Both teams started the second period 1-1 but once again, visitors got the first chance as Espindola got an opportunity that was almost the carbon copy of his earlier goal but this time, the Argentinean's shot missed the far post.
Dallas got the next chance when Ferreira found the ball in the 25 yard area and tried his luck but his shot bounced past Rimando and hit the post before going out for a goal kick. Dallas nearly got the lead in the 67th minute as Marvin Chavez
took a shot towards the goal that brought Rimando in action and the in-form stopper saved with one out stretched hand.
The momentum now shifted towards Dallas as Javier Morales got his second yellow card of the match and thus received his marching orders. With this, Real Salt Lake were reduced to 10 man. But, the Hoops didn’t let them lay back and kept pressing the Real
defence to the limits. Hoops' midfield dominated in every part of the midfield in search for the all-important winner. In the 75th minute, more drama happened as Dallas' defender, Atiba Harris elbowed Will Johnson that gave referee Kevin Scott no
choice but to send off Harris as both teams levelled on numbers.
The red card had no effect on Hoops’ game plan as they kept the pressure and eventually turned it into a winning goal in the 88th minute. Avila received a ball from midfield and hit a perfect shot that went in towards the far post to give Dallas
2-1 lead. With not much time left, Real Salt Lake pushed on and on to once again level things up and had some sizeable chances but it wasn’t to be as the final whistle was blown.
F.C. Dallas now travel to Utah next Saturday in a bid to qualify for the Western Conference finals while Real Salt Lake will be hoping for a turnaround in front of the home fans.
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