FRISCO - All streaks come to an end at some point, and on Saturday night FC Dallas joined the rest of the league in the loss column with their first of the year. Here are a few takeaways from the 1-0 loss to San Jose.
Defense Didn’t Quake
San Jose set an MLS single-game mark for 2017 with 34 interceptions in the match, and added 30 clearances, five blocks and a 75 percent tackle success rate in the win. Oscar Pareja and the players said after the match, Dallas just couldn’t get anything clicking in the final third and those numbers show why: the Quakes executed their defense-first game plan perfectly.
Take a look at this from Opta with all of FCD’s successful passes in the match. Notice the sheer amount of green space around the San Jose goal.
Morales Returns in Form
After almost a month without action, Javier Morales put in 60 minutes of work on Saturday night as Dallas tried to take a more methodical build up against SJ. The veteran led all of FCD’s attacking players with 40 completed passes and three chances created, but again the home team just couldn’t connect in front of goal. Dallas had their highest possession match of the year and Morales’ first 60 minutes went a long way to that. You can see below, Javi was everywhere on the field.
Hyka the Hero, Again
Jahmir Hyka love playing FC Dallas. The first-year MLSer has just three goals in 13 games this season and two of them have come against Dallas in heroic fashion. He scored the last-second equalizer to steal a point in April and on Saturday night worked a fantastic piece of skill to put home the game-winner. The Albanian put it simply after the match: "I hope to play more against Dallas.”
