Brek Shea and Omar Salgado. Photo by Vancouver Southsiders
As the MLS regular season comes to a conclusion, the playoff battles heat up. When close games can end a playoff pursuit, you really feel for the teams that tried so hard but that fail to make the cut. Not every team can make the playoffs.
FC Dallas was not one of these teams to check out of the MLS playoff race just yet.
This past weekend, FC Dallas played at home in Frisco, Texas against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Dallas needed this win to stay in the race for the last playoff spot currently held by this past Saturday night’s adversaries.
It was quite an entertaining match where both teams had their best players on the pitch to start the game. FC Dallas’ playoff hopes were on the brink of sliding away, when with 30 seconds left in stoppage time Julian De Guzman showed why he was signed as a DP.
The Canadian international controlled the ball with his chest off a cleared header and finished the sequence with an exquisite left-footed volley in the top of the net for a 1-0 score. This just shows that you always need someone to pick up the trash off corner kicks.
This goal not only meant a lot to the team, but it was De Guzman’s first goal in the FC Dallas uniform. He left Toronto FC earlier this summer on a bitter note. Paul Mariner, Toronto FC’s coach, wished he could send him to one of the worst teams in the league so he could miss the playoffs. It turns out that Toronto FC is still in the bottom of the table and FC Dallas is still in playoff contention.
It is also interesting to note that the last time FC Dallas played Vancouver at BC Place on August 15th they were 11 points apart and playoff soccer wasn’t in their reach. FC Dallas only won three games since then but they now find themselves in an interesting position.
This is what makes the MLS so exciting. The parity in the league allows the opportunity for teams to make a turnaround and start winning. A team that seems down and out can bounce back and try to make a final run, but there is also a risk that a very good team can go on a loosing slump. There is not that much difference in calibre between the various teams in the league, unlike in Europe, where you’ll have teams like Manchester United take advantage of newly promoted teams. In the MLS any team can beat any other team.
A team like Toronto FC, who is currently last in the league, does not get dominated by every team in the MLS. They often have many scoring chances but fail to capitalize.
This parity partly created by the salary cap also makes for entertaining matches for the fans, where we see many chances on both sides of the pitch and where either team can win it.
