FC Dallas visit DC for Open Cup play-in
Wednesday match part of long week for Dallas
However, the road doesn't end there for FCD. Thursday means another flight, a cross-country jaunt to Los Angeles in advance of a Saturday night match with current West leader Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center.
FCD will train at the HDC on Thursday evening and again on Friday to get ready for their final regular season matchup with the Red-and-White, who handed them a 2-0 defeat at Pizza Hut Park on March 29.
The man in charge, FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman, admits this week's schedule is far from advantageous, but he and his players plan to make the best of the hand that has been dealt them.
"This wasn't a date we wanted to play, Wednesday against D.C. at their place," Hyndman said on Sunday. "When you look at their situation, they played Friday, so now they already have two more days of rest than us while we still have to travel. Tuesday, they'll do their normal pre-game training, so it's not very hard. Then we travel Tuesday, play Wednesday night. On Thursday, we fly directly to LA, so we'll get training in on Thursday in LA and on Friday. Then we play on Saturday and come back on Sunday, so you can see it's a busy week for us."
Hyndman holds the Open Cup in the highest of regard because of his longtime respect for what tournament namesake Lamar Hunt did for soccer, but that doesn't mean he is going to play his first XI on Wednesday night against the Black-and-Red.
"What we're doing is we're taking 20 players to D.C. because I really think as important as the Lamar Hunt Open Cup is because of the name on the trophy, this might be an opportunity to rest some of our players and give some of our other players a chance," he said. "Sometimes when you don't have a lot of time to think about something, it goes smoothly. That's what I'm hoping for."
Among the players that the FCD coach specifically mentioned as likely candidates to receive major playing time are rookie forward Peri Marosevic, recently signed midfielder Alvaro Sanchez and midfielder Brek Shea, who like Marosevic, is a regular on the US under-20 national team.
The FCD players agree that the week will be a busy one with all the travel and two games within four days, but they embrace the challenge.
"It's a busy week with a lot of traveling, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it," forward Kenny Cooper, who leads the team with four goals, said. "D.C. is a great place to play. They have great fans and get great support. I think we all love playing in that atmosphere. It's an important competition for us. We'll look to keep plugging away like we have been and hopefully, we can go on a run."
Rookie defender George John, who has started the last three games at center back, agrees. "We have practice Tuesday morning and leave for D.C.," he said. "I guess that's life in the pros. I'm a rookie, so I'm getting used to it by now. Hopefully we can get a few wins out of it."
If there is a silver lining in this, it's that history is on FCD's side. The club has an 11-2-0 record in opening matches of the Open Cup and hasn't dropped their event opener since a 4-1 loss to the Wilmington Hammerheads in August 2003. However, this will be their first time to open the tournament against an MLS foe in D.C. United, against whom FCD holds a 2-1-0 record against in the tournament.
There is also cause for optimism about their trip to The Home Depot Center, where FCD won 2-0 against the Red-and-White almost one year ago. That victory snapped a three-match FCD winless streak in Carson.
"We've done pretty well on the road so far this year and I think once we come back home, we head out the next two weekends too," Drew Moor said. "This (Sunday's win) is a good start, but we'll look to do the same in Open Cup. That's a competition we want to do well in and then we have Chivas in LA next Saturday. It's a tough trip but we've done well on the road and we're going to look to continue that run of form."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
