FRISCO - Saturday’s match against the New York Red Bulls is a proving ground for FC Dallas.
Not only is the team looking to showcase their current six-game winless streak is a mere downtick in the season and not a free fall from dominance, but also for some of the lesser-seen players who will be called into action with five starters from last week’s match gone on international duty.
“It’s a huge opportunity for them to capitalize,” said Victor Ulloa, who took advantage of his proving opportunity against the same Red Bulls team in May 2014 and started all but one game the rest of the season. “They need to take advantage of that opportunity to get their names in the mind of the coach and take advantage of that starting role.”
With Kellyn Acosta, Tesho Akindele, Maynor Figueroa, Carlos Gruezo and Matt Hedges all away from Frisco, Saturday is a chance to leave their name in the mind of Oscar Pareja going into the rest of the season. Given the team’s current form, the added spark brought on by the eager youngsters couldn’t come at a better time.
“I think you can see excitement in the guys who are filling those spots,” defender Walker Zimmerman said, who himself is looking to put his name back into a consistent starting role. “It’s a long year and for the guys that might not have been getting the run of games they want, it’s their chance to prove something so they’re excited and the energy is up. We’re upbeat and I think they’ll be ready to go.”
It’s a situation defender Aaron Guillen has been in before, using a strong showing in March against Kansas City as the proving ground for a run of three starts in late May and early June while international absences took hold. For him though, it’s just another week of giving it all he’s got on the practice field.
“We know that we’re missing some key pieces in our lineup, but we’re all here to try and help out the team,” he said. “We know there’s an opportunity, but we give 100 percent every training session because we all want to play. We all want to be out there trying to fight for the win and the result.”
Guillen, Ulloa and Zimmerman will all try to turnaround a defensive face for Dallas - where four of the five holes are - that is left looking for answers after allowing 14 goals over the last six games. Before the current stretch, the team had allowed just 19 goals in 19 games.
“We need to keep the clean sheet to give the opportunity to our forwards and to the team to get the result that we want and I think that’s going to be important,” Ulloa said. “It’s going to be huge if we can get a win and it’s going to be a huge opportunity for a lot of us.”
