So I was really looking forward to sitting down and taking in this match tonight. I'm really curious to see if any MLS clubs can travel the road Real Salt Lake traveled in the CONCACAF Champions League last year. The team I'm probably pulling for the most is FC Dallas.
The Hoops had a tough task ahead of them tonight against Alianza FC in San Salvador. Alianza is the champion of the last clausura in El Salvador, and like Dallas, is in the CCL for the first time. Could Dallas overcome the travel, the wet conditions, and the hostile crowd to get a result?
Yes.
The first ten minutes of the match were all Alianza though. They had a ton of possession and really forced Kevin Hartman into some big saves. At that point, I tweeted that the match looked a little bigger than FC Dallas, but I hoped they'd settle in, which they did.
They absorbed all the punches from Alianza, and had an answer for everything that came their way. Great job really. More often than not, the answer was Kevin Hartman. However he almost gave it away in the 36th minute when Rivas intercepted a poor clearance from goal and lofted in a shot from 40 yards as Hartman stood off his line. Luckily for the Hoops, it bounced wide and we went to the half at 0-0.
Dallas was clearly the better team in the second half, largely thanks to their fitness level. They engineered several nice attacks, but none paid off until the 70th minute when Jackson slotted home past the keeper to give Dallas the 0-1 advantage. Alianza threw a flurry of attacks up in the last 10-15 minutes, but couldn't muster more than a long range effort, and Dallas took the 0-1 win, and an all important away goal home to Pizza Hut Park.
Nice job to the Hoops.
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