DALLAS, Texas - In the purest mathematical sense, three points is worth just three points of course.
But it’s also true that additional value can sometimes be buried deep inside those three-point nights. Call them “soft points” – the kind that can show up later, quietly, through results gained in future matches.
Take FC Dallas’ 1-0 win Saturday over Inter Miami. Given the bigger picture context, there was an unquantifiable profit beyond the absolute math of three points earned in the standings, thanks to the way matters played out in South Florida.
FC Dallas was large and in charge early. Aligned tactically in a way Nico Estévez’s teams in Dallas rarely have, in a 4-4-2 set-up with two highly positioned strikers, the visitors created chance after chance in the first half against a seemingly flummoxed and unbalanced Miami side.
It was probably the best half of soccer FCD has played this year. The only possible complaint: Dallas really should have scored two or three before the break. Indeed, Jesus Jimenez, Jesus Ferreira, Paul Arriola and others combined to create six or, depending on how you count them, seven quality scoring chances by halftime. To get that many on the road over 90 minutes is fairly uncommon; to carve out that many high percentage chances in just 45 minutes is rarer still.
Would it have been nice to put Miami away early? To get two or three before intermission and then cruise into victory? Sure it would. Teams can certainly benefit from a feel-good night like that.
On another evening, with just a little more luck and a bit more precision finishing, FCD would have had an evening like that, the kind that can nourish confidence. Think about last year’s 3-0 win at Minnesota in early September. FCD went 3-1-1 over its next five matches, including a win over eventual MLS Cup winners LAFC a week after that romp in St. Paul.
On the other hand, there is definitely value in holding onto the slim 1-0 win the way Estévez’s team did over Miami. Especially when we consider a bit of recent history.
FCD teams at one point last year struggled to keep late leads. By the time Dallas let Austin score late to split the points on July 16 in Frisco, the team had dropped 15 points from winning positions – second most in MLS at the time.
The story does get better from there; Estévez’s team worked the problem, got it fixed, and finished strong down the stretch.
Back to this year. FC Dallas allowed Portland to equalize late two weeks ago, turning a potential three-point night against a conference rival into something more disappointing: a draw at home. To experience one night where last year’s issue recurred, as a singular event, doesn’t necessarily suggest a problem. Two, on the other hand, would start to look like a trend - and not a good one.
It could have begun sowing doubt in players’ minds. A lot of the process of retaining late leads is about will and spirit and dogged determination. Any amount of creeping doubt, even just a little bit of it, is the enemy.
So it might not have been the best look at the end Saturday in Miami, seeing FCD sit so deep in defense and eventually need a VAR decision to prevent a late, late penalty kick attempt. But in the end, FCD did hang on.
Having done so provides a big heaping helping of “belief.” Especially because it provided Dallas and goalkeeper Maarten Paes with their first clean sheet of the season.
So the next time Estevez’s men find themselves facing the same game state, digging deep to hold a late lead or perhaps endeavoring keeping a match level on the road, they’ll have that file tucked helpfully away in the mental hard drive. It certainly doesn’t guarantee they can accomplish the same thing again – but that knowledge that they have done it, on the road no less, can absolutely improve the team’s chances.
Thus, “soft points” earned.
