Thought i’d share something different to the usual blurry bird photos and write a post about FC Dallas’s first game of the MLS season against Toronto FC. This weekend was the opening weekend of the 27th MLS season, Dallas have undergone plenty of offseason surgery after a disappointing campaign saw them finish 3rd bottom last time out in the Western Conference Standings.
Off the many ins and outs, most notably homegrown talent Ricardo Pepi left the team for FC Augsburg in Germany. His departure generated an MLS record fee for an American signing of $20M. Whilst it was disappointing to see him leave the team, it will be fun to see how he competes against a higher level of competition in the Bundesliga. Interestingly as i wrote this today he was in the starting 11 as they faced Borussia Dortmund. Over the off season the club has reinvested the money generated on multiple new signings and a new coach. They hired a new manager Nico Estevez. He was previously the assistant coach of the USA National Team. Prior to that he also was the interim coach of Valencia in Spain. On the field, Dallas spent a club record $7M on Argentinian attacker Alan Velasco from Independiente. I can’t say i’ve seen much of him play, but Independiente has a proven record in developing players through their youth academy such as Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Milito & Diego Forlan. So i’m excited to see what he will bring to Texas. Dallas also invested heavily in the acquisition of Paul Arriola from DC United. Another forward player he has shown to be highly capable over the last few years not only in the MLS but also playing for the USA National Team. In the end Dallas earned a hard fought 1-1 draw. Of the game overall i thought there was a lot to be positive about. In the first half Dallas created a lot of chances, but at times were quite wasteful in front of goal. The goal itself was a nice bit of passing in the midfield before Arriola crossed it in for Obrian to finish. Toronto then went on to equalise just before half time. In the second half i felt Toronto dominated the game and were quite unfortunate not to win but overall it was quite an even contest. Also on a sidenote, the Captain of Toronto FC is Michael Bradley, the last time i saw him play 90 minutes he played for the USA against England in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (a game most English people would want to forget).
Howdy, my name’s Matt. I'm originally from England but now live here in the Great State of Texas. Since moving here I thought it would be fun to try something new and enter the world of photo blogging.
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4 thoughts on “FC Dallas v Toronto FC”
Better buy seasons tickets they might rebuild and be pretty good
Lone Star Law 
Better buy seasons tickets they might rebuild and be pretty good
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Yeah that would be great, hopefully they will get to the playoffs this season!
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Looking forward to seeing them for real…
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Yeah, should be a great game hopefully!
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