The home streak ended with FC Dallas still chasing a goal

Four consecutive home shutouts had given FC Dallas a habit worth keeping. Wednesday supplied the interruption. Columbus Crew won 2-0 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, ending a stretch of 168 days since Dallas’s previous home defeat.

The result was a useful reminder of how little protection a recent record offers once an opponent takes the lead: Dallas still had to produce the next goal, and never did.

The home run had substance. Dallas had not lost there since the May 13 meeting with Vancouver, and the four clean sheets matched a club mark reached twice in 2011. Nor was this a team short of scoring over the season; it had already established a club record with 58 goals.

Those achievements make a sudden crisis diagnosis excessive. They also make Wednesday’s failure to convert a fair subject for scrutiny rather than something to explain away with the previous results.

Dallas’s early chances came in several forms. Santiago Moreno headed Shaq Moore’s cross wide in the 23rd minute. Christian Cappis then supplied Moore for a shot from the right side of the penalty area, which Patrick Schulte saved.

Another Moore cross reached Petar Musa for a header in the 28th, and Schulte stopped that too. These were separate opportunities, with the goalkeeper handling the attempts that reached him and Dallas responsible for the one that missed.

Columbus had already demonstrated a more profitable way to complete a move. Schulte’s outlet reached Steven Moreira, the attack continued through Santiago Rodríguez near midfield, and Anass Zaroury advanced on the left before crossing for Gonzalo Tapia’s opening goal. That was the 18th-minute difference.

It does not identify one Dallas defender as the entire cause, but it does give the Crew credit for completing the passage from a goalkeeper’s release to a finish.

The distinction mattered because Dallas was chasing without being shut out of opportunities. Ran Binyamin also forced Schulte into a save during first-half added time. After the break, Nolan Norris headed wide and Bernard Kamungo had a header saved.

The attack could reach the point of asking a question. Schulte kept providing the answer, and the efforts that missed left Dallas with no answer of its own on the scoreboard.

Moore briefly seemed to have supplied one in the 60th minute. Video review ruled out his finish after Musa was found offside during the buildup, leaving the Crew ahead 1-0. The ruling was consequential.

It also did not erase the chances before it, or prevent Dallas from having more afterward. Treating the rejected goal as the whole explanation would overlook both the goalkeeper’s work and the finishing that had already fallen short.

Rodríguez added the second Columbus goal at 70 minutes. Dallas then needed a much larger recovery from an evening in which it had not scored once. Anderson Julio entered in the 76th minute and put a chance wide two minutes later.

Musa subsequently had a difficult-angle attempt saved after a pass from Daniel Job. The changes supplied another opportunity and another contributor, without changing the result of the attack’s work.

There is room to credit the opponent without making Dallas helpless. Columbus had won four straight and six of its last seven, a much better guide to Wednesday’s challenge than assuming Toyota Stadium’s recent results would repeat themselves. Dallas had already secured its MLS playoff place on October 14.

This loss did not revoke that place or cancel the goals accumulated beforehand. It did expose the cost of leaving a strong opponent in front while promising chances remained unfinished.

The next visit to the home record will show a loss after those four clean sheets. That is a correction to the recent picture, not a new definition of the entire season. The more immediate work is in the chances Dallas had while trailing by one: Moreno’s header, the saves on Moore and Musa, and Binyamin’s effort before halftime.

A better past could not finish any of them.

Sources

FC Dallas: official match report

Field Level Media: match reporting

ESPN: game record and event timing