FC Dallas Limps Towards Playoffs with Toronto Draw

FC Dallas once again could not come up with a vital home win on Saturday night before a huge crowd in their final regular season home game of 2008.  In fact, it took a controversial call from the referee to give FC Dallas an injury time penalty kick to salvage the draw.

FC Dallas led 1-0 at halftime thanks to a Kenny Cooper goal off a long throwin from Adrian Serrioux. The ball deflected before falling to Cooper who hammered it through the legs of Toronto keeper Greg Sutton.  Toronto FC would tie the game on their own long throwin in the second half of play as Danny Dicio flicked a header back to Marco Velez who volleyed it home.

Toronto kept the pressure on and were rewarded as Chad Barrett hit a great through ball from right midfield and Wynne won a footrace with FC Dallas centerback Duilio Davino to reach the ball some 40 yards from goal. He launched a right-footed effort that beat Sala into the upper right corner and gave Toronto a 2-1 lead.

There were more fireworks to come though as just after the 90 minute mark, Dallas were taking a free kick when Julius James was whistled for pulling Serioux to the ground by the shirt. Serioux also got a hand on the ball, but the infraction occurred as he was being taken down, and referee Mark Geiger awarded a penalty kick for FC Dallas instead a free kick the other way.

Kenny Cooper stepped up to the spot, and after a couple of stutter steps, knocked the ball into the left side of the goal. However, his goal was waved off as one of his teammates entered the area too soon. So Cooper stepped up for another attempt and this time, although Sutton guessed correctly, put inside the right corner just under the goalkeeper's reach.

"I thought we did enough things to win the game," FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman said. "I thought Andre (Rocha) played very well, controlling the game and controlling the ball. It was very difficult for us to put the ball in the goal. We had some really good chances. Both teams were going at each other very hard."

Toronto FC coach John Carver was less enthusiastic "I'm disappointed because I think we've been robbed," TFC head coach John Carver said. "We deserved to be 2-1 up and late on the front foot. It's really disappointing. You go into the dying moments of the game and a decision is given against you. That's the story of our season. That's happened all season. You work hard from Monday to Friday. You step over the white line and it's in the hand of the gods. On this occasion, it's gone against us again."