FRISCO, Texas – Aided by a first-half red card for Adam Moffat, the San Jose Earthquakes earned their first road win of the 2014 season on Saturday night as a Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi thunderbolt secured a 2-1 victory over FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium.
San Jose carved out the game's first real chance in the 10th minute, forcing Dallas defender Matt Hedges to make a goalline save.
FC Dallas opened the scoring in the 16th minute, with Fabian Castillo feeding Panamanian international Blas Perez for a strong finish. After the goal, Dallas looked the stronger side for a period of time, but in the 25th minute, Adam Moffat received a yellow card for persistent infringement, starting a cascade of problems for the home team.
In the 27th minute, the Earthquakes evened the game at a goal apiece, with former Dallas player Atiba Harris finishing a set of passes from Shea Salinas and Steven Lenhart.
Eight minutes later, Moffat received his second yellow card, this time for a tactical foul of Yannick Djalo as he was making a dangerous run through to the Dallas penalty area. That resulted in the North Texans’ sixth red card of the season, one shy of their all-time record of seven set in 2008.
The game-winner came in the 45th minute when San Jose midfielder Pierazzi took advantage of the space left by Moffat’s absence to hit a wonder-strike from 35 yards out, a powerful shot from distance that easily beat Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz.
But Dallas had a great chance to level in first-half stoppage time when Jordan Stewart was called for a foul in the area, leading to a penalty kick for Castillo. Veteran goalkeeper Jon Busch read the attempt, however, and made the save to preserve the lead going into halftime.
FCD made a number of changes to start the second half and played with conviction and purpose, earning a number of chances, but were not able to find the tying goal.
