Doomed in Dallas
- Updated: July 4, 2015
The New England Revolution’s summer struggles continued on Saturday, as the team fell 3-0 to FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. With an Independence Day fireworks display set for after the match, 19,140 in attendance got to witness some fireworks on the field from the home side as Mauro Diaz opened the scoring in the first half and Fabian Castillo and Michael Barrios put the game out of reach with second half strikes as Dallas cruised to victory.
The loss left the Revolution (6-8-6, 24 points) with just one win since May 2, a stretch of 12 games through all competitions. The team also extended its season high losing streak to four games; five if including the U.S. Open Cup loss to third division Charlotte Independence. The loss was also the largest for the team since a season opening 3-0 loss at the Seattle Sounders on March 8.
Head coach Jay Heaps made just one change from the line-up that fell 2-1 to the Vancouver Whitecaps in Foxborough last weekend. Kevin Alston replaced the suspended Andrew Farrell in the line-up and played right back with London Wooderry moving into central defense.
FC Dallas started on the front foot and took the lead in just the ninth minute off a free kick earned when Woodberry weakly hit a headed clearance right to Dallas forward David Texeira, who he then fouled just outside the box. Mauro Diaz took the set piece, hitting it low under a jumping wall and past a diving Bobby Shuttleworth.
Dallas continued to control the play the rest of the half, though they were unable to test Shuttleworth again. The two teams managed just a combined five shots in the first half with Dallas outshooting the Revolution three to two and maintaining 60.3% of the possession.
The Revolution came out of the break with a bit more attacking prowess and threatened Dan Kennedy’s net in the 47th minute. Some nice combination work on the right flank ended with Alston sending a cross in to Charlie Davies at the near post. Davies got the ball close to goal, but Kennedy was quick on his line to cut the angle and block Davies’ attempted redirection on frame.
But after a strong start from New England in the half, Dallas would double their lead in the 64th minute. An awful turnover from Jose Goncalves gave the ball to Diaz on the right flank. Diaz played to ball in to Fabian Castillo who hit a low shot on frame from close range that Shuttleworth impressively saved. The rebound fell to Scott Caldwell who attempted a clearance, but hit the ball of substitute Revolution defender Jeremy Hall, deflecting the ball right back to Castillo for an easy finish to give Dallas a 2-0 lead.
Nine minutes later, Dallas would clinch the win when Diaz sliced through the Revolution defense and played a through ball to Michael Barrios who got behind the defense and slotted a shot past Shuttleworth to make it 3-0.
The Revolution return to action with a trip to face the New York Red Bulls on July 11.
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