Petar Musa and Chris Cappis had first-half goals as FC Dallas defeated the Colorado Rapids 3-1 on Saturday evening in a key Western Conference match in Frisco, Texas.
Dallas (9-11-10, 37 points) moved from 11th to ninth place in the West and within a win over the Rapids (11-14-6, 39 points) with the Toros having four matches left to play in the regular season and Colorado with three. Dallas and Colorado would meet in the West wild-card game if the season finishes as it currently stands.
Dallas won its second straight and moved its unbeaten streak to six games while Colorado has dropped three of its past four matches,
The Toros pushed for a goal in the early going and nearly got it, with Cappis clanging a shot off the left post in the eighth minute.
Dallas finally found the net just six minutes later when Musa was in the perfect spot in front of the net for a crossing pass from outside the left of the box by Logan Farrington.
Musa outjumped a Colorado defender to head the ball past goalkeeper Zach Steffen and into the lower left corner. Shaq Moore also got an assist for the pass that began the scoring play.
The Rapids responded in the 21st minute when Calvin Harris took a rebound and faked a shot before sliding the ball past Dallas keeper Jacob Jackson to tie the match.
Cappis made the most of his second chance for a goal, resting on the doorstep in the 36th minute for a deep entry pass by Patrickson Delgado and directing the ball off Steffen and into the net to allow Dallas to reclaim the lead.
Sebastien Ibeagha’s pass to Delgado garnered him an assist on the goal.
Steffen was forced to make a save on Bernard Kamungo’s low-percentage shot in the 59th minute. Jackson was then called to duty to stop a chance by Paxten Aaronson two minutes later to keep Dallas in the lead.
The Toros received a gift that made a huge difference when Andreas Maxso directed a header from Dallas’s Pedro Martins into his own goal in the 80th minute, expanding the margin to 3-1 and creating a huge hill to climb for the visitors.
–Field Level Media
