FRISCO - FC Dallas knew the task that was in front of them after Kellyn Acosta was shown a red card in the 18th minute leaving Oscar Pareja's side down to ten men for the majority of Saturday's game at Toyota Stadium against Seattle Sounders FC.
"At that point I knew I was running for the next 80 minutes whether I was touching the ball or not," said Ryan Hollingshead after the match.
MATCH RECAP - FC DALLAS 0, SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC 0
Indeed it was a tough task, but Hollingshead and FCD were up to it against last season's Supporter's Shield winners earning a point that keeps their undefeated streak to open 2015 alive. When Acosta, in for his first start of 2015 at left back, was given his marching orders by referee Kevin Stott, Hollingshead was asked to move to left back from his left midfield position and was more than serviceable over his 86 minutes on the field.
"I played probably half-a-season or a quarter of a season at outside back [in college]," said Hollingshead. "But it's enough of what you’re doing as an outside midfielder anyways kind of how to cover how to read the space."
The second-year player's game was a microcosm of the effort put forth by Pareja's entire squad. FCD certainly could have won the match with a couple different bounces and the crowd of over 18,000 gave loud ovations both to Hollingshead when he was substituted off and to FC Dallas for the work put in at the final whistle.
TICKETS - FC DALLAS VS COLORADO RAPIDS - FRIDAY, APRIL 10
"One thing that I recognized 16 years ago when I came to this country was that Americans come and work and the honesty and integrity to work hard for the team is a must-have," said head coach Oscar Pareja after the match. "The recognition of that is high from the fans and my players know it. Plus I know they saw a team that was organized and tried to win the game not sitting back but trying to win the game and that recognition was for his hard work."
