It was a sea of red on Sunday at Avaya Stadium, and that’s not even counting the uniforms that FC Dallas were sporting.
FCD and the San Jose Earthquakes combined for three red cards, with Dallas twice going up a man in the second half of Sunday’s contest. But, despite enjoying nearly 30 minutes with a numerical advantage, FCD couldn’t find a goal, only generating two shots on target in a dissatisfying scoreless draw that extended the team’s winless streak to four games.
“Today, we needed two [more] points. This is what this team needed today after the last two games,” head coach Oscar Pareja said after the match, referencing the club’s two straight losses entering Sunday’s contest. “We needed to bounce back and add some points in our standings and feel like we can get results away.”
After a scoreless first half in which both teams had a handful of opportunities, it looked as if Dallas would be able to rebound after a couple of disappointing weeks.
San Jose forward Mark Sherrod was issued a controversial red card in the 53rd minute for making contact with grounded goalkeeper Dan Kennedy’s head, giving Dallas their first advantage of the contest. Pareja responded by inserting midfielder Fabian Castillo, who began the match from the bench after nursing a hamstring injury for the last two weeks.
But even with a front line of Castillo, Mauro Diaz, Tesho Akindele and Michael Barrios, Dallas could not capitalize after Sherrod’s ejection.
“They have an organized backline. But we should have done better having the man advantage, and we didn’t take advantage of that,” Akindele said. “There’s no excuse for the fact that we didn’t have more chances.”
The visitors squandered that advantage in the 75thminute, when defender Je-Vaughn Watson was shown a red card by referee Baldomero Toledo after a sliding tackle on Cordell Cato.
“There’s lots of things we would like to review," Pareja said after originally shying away from comment on some of the controversial calls – Watson’s being arguably the most controversial of the bunch. “We’re not happy or content in the way that the cards came.”
After 12 minutes of 10-v-10 action following Watson’s ejection, Dallas was awarded yet another advantage when San Jose’s JJ Koval was issued the third red card of the match for a studs up challenge on Ryan Hollingshead.
But even with four minutes of stoppage time added, the Hoops could not capitalize on the 10-v-9 opportunity.
Dallas did manage to rectify some of the defensive woes that plagued them in last week’s 4-0 loss to Kansas City – even before San Jose found themselves down a man. The clean sheet was the club’s fifth of the season and the second since Kennedy took the starting job from Chris Seitz.
But the story continues to be the offensive draught, which has produced only one goal over the club’s last four games, a Matt Hedges tally after the team was already trailing 2-0 in their loss to Montreal.
“It could be three [points],” Pareja said ofSunday’sdraw. “But we have to be humble and think about the next one.”
