June brings news challenges for FC Dallas
Published 6/2/2011 2:57:06 PM by dallas from mlssoccer.com
Even after a stellar month that saw FC Dallas extend their unbeaten streak to eight games and suddenly rise to the second-best record in the league, Kevin Hartman wants more.
“We’ve been difficult to beat, but I don’t think we played the soccer that we are capable of,” the veteran goalkeeper said on Wednesday. “I think that now it becomes making ourselves better and better so as the season moves on, we are going to be able to be consistent and really be able to make a move.”
FC Dallas posted four wins and three draws during a crowded May schedule, earning a total of 15 points in the standings and allowing just three goals in 630 combined minutes of play. The June schedule is far more forgiving, with just four MLS games on the docket (three of which are at home) and a welcome opportunity to fine-tune what’s gone so well so far this season.
“I think the month of June is really a good month for us when you look at the schedule,” head coach Schellas Hyndman added. “We want to use this month as more of a training month because we don’t have to travel as much.”
Dallas’s June opponents, meanwhile, aren’t exactly the stiff competition they faced in May, when five of the seven teams had .500 or better records. The New England Revolution, Sporting Kansas City and Chivas USA have a combined seven wins this season heading into the weekend. FC Dallas will also play host to the Portland Timbers, who are winless in five games away from home this year.
At nearly the same point in 2010 — a 1-1 draw in Chicago last May 27 — FCD were just beginning their league-record 19-game unbeaten streak. The team is currently riding an eight-game unbeaten streak heading into their matchup against the New England Revolution on Saturday.
“We need to continue to push ourselves,” Hartman said. “I think that we had some great results in May and now we can just challenge ourselves to just play better and better soccer.”
Label: FC Dallas news, Schellas Hyndman, David Ferreira, Brek Shea
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