FC Dallas continues to make strides this season, winning games with regularity and winning games at home. The club has a 14 game unbeaten streak in Frisco going into Open Cup play and a July 4th matchup against first time visitors to Toyota Stadium, Orlando City SC.
FC Dallas defeated Real Salt Lake 2-0 in front of the home crowd on Saturday night. Real Salt Lake tried to shake things up and shuffled their entire lineup but it proved to be unsuccessful as Dallas turned in one of their best defensive efforts according to defender Walker Zimmerman. Kellyn Acosta was the beneficiary in the 18th minute of a free kick and quick restart by Mauro Diaz who found Michael Barrios who then found Acosta for the easy chip right in front for an early 1-0 lead. Diaz was again instrumental in the second half as FC Dallas controlled the tempo and Diaz once again assisted on a beautiful bicycle kick pass that found Fabian Castillo on the left wing who had a great first touch and dribbled down into the attacking zone and finished with his deadly right foot in the right corner of the RSL net for the 2-0 lead in the 58th minute. That proved to be enough offense for goaltender Chris Seitz who did enough for his 4th shutout of the season.
Oscar Pareja was very pleased with the team's performance, especially in the second half. "In the first half I found energy, I found the team wanted to manage the tempo of the game, but we didn't have the frequency that we wanted," said Pareja. "In the second half, the performance was more consistent in all the areas and we dominated." The dominant victory puts the club just one point out of first place in the MLS standings behind the team they'll host on June 29th, the Colorado Rapids in US Open cup play Round of 16. It should be a great matchup as Castillo, Barrios, Diaz and Seitz look to continue their winning ways at home.
