Dallas, Colorado hoping to climb in the West
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids enter their match at FC Dallas Stadium on Sunday in similar positions through the first two months of the season.
The two clubs, tied in the Western Conference on 12 points apiece, have played much better at home than on the road - FC Dallas has managed a 3-0-2 record at home but is winless on the road, while Colorado is 3-1-0 at home and 1-4-0 on the road.
Fortunately for Dallas, it will be hosting the Rapids Sunday night.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Schellas Hyndman's men are winless in their last three league games, taking just two points from that stretch with successive draws in their last two outing. The club looked destined to collect three points at The Home Depot Center against the Los Angeles Galaxy, but Pat Noonan struck for the home side to earn a share of the spoils.
"Your whole mentality is to get points," said Hyndman. "For us we were talking about, we have yet to win on the road and we have yet to get a point on the road. We were two minutes away from getting that first win, but I'm proud that we come away with not only a point but, I think, one of our better performances to date."
The clash against Colorado is a crucial one as it is the first of two consecutive home games before Dallas hits the road for four of its next five.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The health of the club's talisman, Brek Shea, will be something to monitor over the course of the next few games. Shea scored the club's lone goal against Los Angeles from the penalty spot, but appeared to do so with somewhat of a limp.
"I've been fighting turf toe since last Saturday," Shea said after the match. "I guess I'm running around kind of awkward so it's spreading throughout my whole foot. We've had the traveling and three games in a week so it finally caught up to me."
Colorado is slumping of late, losing four of its last five. The Rapids took a first-half lead against the New England Revolution on Wednesday but still managed to lose, adding more disappointment to that poor run.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Unfortunately, we failed again and had some mistakes, especially on set pieces," said Rapids head coach Oscar Pareja. "That is costing us a lot early in the season so far. That has been one of our big concerns and then [Wednesday] was no different.
"After that, we had the initiative and tried to tie the game, and I thought it was our players on the field who looked more for the game, but we couldn't get the equalizer and we get out of game that we should have gotten more out of."