About eight minutes into their Brimstone Cup match with Chicago on Saturday night, FC Dallas were feeling pretty good.
The host side had a 1-0 lead thanks to an early goal from Kenny Cooper and had a big crowd on its side at Pizza Hut Park. However, things quickly unraveled from there as the Fire scored three unanswered goals to leave town with a 3-1 win to open the 2009 MLS season.
"I think the obvious comment would be disappointing," FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman said. "We're looking to get a win at home to start the season off and had a good turnout with the fans. We've had a productive preseason and today was just a lot of anxiety, a lot of nerves and a lot of mistakes. It's a game of inches. We had some great opportunities to put the ball in the goal and we didn't. So all in all, it's just disappointing."
Cooper's goal is already an early candidate for postseason consideration. The FCD striker's ball traveled nearly 60 yards before landing in the far side of the net to give his team an early 1-0 edge.
"That was fantastic," Hyndman said of Cooper's blast. "What a pleasant goal for one of the best players in the league. I've got to believe that the first shot he's taken for FC Dallas this year and he scores a spectacular goal that probably will be up for Goal of the Year."
Chicago tied the game in the 38th with a goal from Justin Mapp. The match remained deadlocked at the break before the Men in Red went ahead 2-1 in the 51st after Brian McBride converted a penalty kick. A free kick goal by Cuauhtemoc Blanco just before the final whistle ended the night's scoring.
"It's a tough one to take -- the first one of the year at home and in front of a great crowd," FCD midfielder Dax McCarty said. "It's very unfortunate for us. I thought we started the game a bit timid. Kenny scored a fantastic goal and that kind of settled us down a little bit. Chicago got the equalizer. That brought them back into the game and raised their confidence.
"There were numerous opportunities for us to equalize and take the lead. We hit a couple of posts and a crossbar. Unfortunately, it didn't fall for us tonight."
For much of the night, Chicago's attack seemed to go through the right side and Mapp, who was being marked by Drew Moor, who was playing out of position at right back. Normally a center back, Moor shifted to the right when Marcelo Saragosa, who had won the starting job there in preseason, had to have knee surgery on March 5.
Not only did Mapp score the first goal but he was also Moor's responsibility when the FCD defender was whistled for a handball inside the box that set up McBride's penalty kick.
"I think they did go a lot to that side," Hyndman said. "They stretched us but more importantly, they put a lot of pressure on our defense early. Our defenders slipped a little bit but at the same time, gave a lot of balls away. I don't think we connected too many balls in the first half that were dangerous. I don't know if it was by design that the balls were going to Mapp but a lot of things were happening on that side."
McCarty offered a simple explanation for the anxiety and nerves that FCD displayed in the first half.
"I think it's ultimately because we have a fairly young team," McCarty said. "We have a lot of new guys on our team and I don't think the comfort level is 100 percent there yet with the entire team but I think that comes with time and games. I don't know why we came out a little timid. It's just one of those things that is hard to explain. It's just a tough loss to take."
Moor said the jitters are the kinds of things that come with season openers.
"You don't want to have that (nervousness) because we've been going at it for two months now," he said. "We've played in some very good preseason games, but obviously the MLS season is different. There are some new faces and we had some faces missing as well. As an entire 24 guys, there is no reason for nerves or tentativeness. We know how good we are. We realize that we are a good team and we've got to get after teams like that, especially on our home field."
Tonight's loss snapped an FCD unbeaten streak against the Fire that had reached six matches. The Fire's first win in the series since 2005 also snapped a 14-match unbeaten streak by FCD in Dallas.
Despite the disappointing result, Hyndman is far from ready to yank the emergency brake.
"I think it was an off game for us," he said. "We're a better team than what we showed today. What we need to do is understand that this is a long season and we've got a lot of games ahead of us. This is not the way we want to start the year but we've also got to look at this as an opportunity to maybe not sit back and think that we're there. We have some work to do."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
