FRISCO, Texas — FC Dallas, the Seattle Sounders, and the playoffs.
It’s almost a tradition at this point.
From 2014 through 2016, FC Dallas and Seattle played each year in the playoffs, with Seattle taking two of those series (2014, 2016). In 2015, after falling in the first leg in Seattle 2-1, Dallas pulled a miraculous win, with an aggregate tying goal in stoppage time from Walker Zimmerman, who then scored the game-winning penalty on a chilly night in Frisco.
It may be different this time around as FC Dallas travels to CenturyLink Field (3:30 p.m. EST, FS1) as the seventh and final seed in the Western Conference. Instead of two legs, Dallas will have one shot to beat Seattle in an environment where the team has struggled. A long flight, usually on a cramped commercial airline, paired with turf and a raucous fanbase are factors that have plagued Dallas, who have only won one game in Seattle, a 1-0 win on May 25, 2011.
The Dallas players are tired of hearing about the struggles. While the team acknowledges its poor record, it doesn’t affect them.
“It’s weird because there’s not many teams that have had success at other people’s away stadiums,” defender Matt Hedges told Pro Soccer USA. “I don’t know why it keeps getting brought up. It’s not like teams are saying, ‘We haven’t had success in Dallas’ or win that much. Who cares? It’s tough to win road games. It’s probably one of the hardest leagues in the world to win road games because there’s lots of factors. All it takes is one. All those regular-season games, honestly whatever. If we win the playoff game then no one remembers that.”
The team is boosted by a scoreless draw in Seattle on Sept. 18. In that match, Dallas seemed content for a draw but stuck to its principles, weathering the storm from the Sounders and seeing out the result. While it’s important to take note of that crucial point, head coach Luchi Gonzalez does not want to take too much stock into it, as the post-season is a different animal.
“It’s positive but it’s in the past,” Gonzalez said. “That game is a reference but it’s not going to help us get any closer to winning Saturday. We have to earn this on Saturday. It’s not going to be easy but it’s this group of guys; because it’s our boys. Why not?”
Unlike previous postseasons, teams were afforded a break before the playoffs, having a week off due to the FIFA International Window. Dallas used that time to get players healthy and work on certain elements in training but the team is ready to go, regardless of the date of the match.
“It’s a nice little break,” Hedges said. “We got extra training in but we were ready this weekend to play. We will be ready to play this going weekend. At this point of the season, one extra week break doesn’t make a difference. You have to be ready no matter what.”
Dallas has struggled on the road this season, only boasting 12 points out of a potential 51. Two of those losses came in recent weeks, as Dallas lost to Chicago and Colorado 4-0 and 3-0, respectively. As with the previous Seattle match, Dallas is not too worried about those results, instead treating them as learning moments for Saturday’s match.
“I keep saying the games in Chicago and Colorado gave us a purpose in our last game at home to grab something that we weren’t able to grab earlier,” Gonzalez said. “Those were hard lessons and they helped us find a better balance in our personnel and our idea to go away from home and still press, still have the ball and build but do it with the right balance and do it in the best way possible to play our strengths. Those are good lessons. Those games helped us win against Kansas City, and those games will help us be prepared to do even better had we not learned those lessons and now do better because we learned those lessons against Seattle Saturday.”
While many pundits have called Dallas-Seattle one of the more lopsided matches in the playoffs, Dallas isn’t looking at it in that way. The team has belief, as stated by Gonzalez numerous times. Why not them? The youngest team with a first-year head coach doesn’t see a win over Seattle as an upset. Instead, it’s seen a chance to continue towards its quest of getting to MLS Cup.
“Why?” Hedges asked. “Why would that be an upset? We played them to a 0-0 draw there. We beat them when they came here. I don’t understand why— how many points were they ahead of us? The playoffs in MLS… I don’t see a huge upset. Anybody can beat anybody on a given day in this league.
“Why not us this week?”