FRISCO - Nothing makes Ryan Hollingshead more excited than the month of October - not just because the leaves are changing, but because the well-awaited playoffs are finally upon us.
“October is one of my favorite months. It finally starts getting colder in Dallas after five months of scorching heat,” Hollingshead wrote in a first-person piece for 'The Increase' last week. “It’s the end of the MLS regular season, which means the beginning of playoff soccer is on the horizon.”
During the regular season, the players train and work hard to make it to this point of the season, to qualify for the playoffs and make a push for the MLS Cup. Coming up on the last two games of the regular season, the team's mentality changes and the hunger for success intensifies.
“Gearing up for playoff soccer is the best, there is nothing like it,” Hollingshead said. “The drama, the excitement, the passion — not that the regular season doesn’t also contain a similar passion, but playoffs are on a different level.”
Hollingshead started to feel nostalgic while writing about the playoffs as recalled the 2015 Western Conference Semifinals against Seattle Sounders FC. After losing to the Sounders, 2-1, in the first leg, FC Dallas’ needed to win on aggregate. Dallas came up with the win in the second leg, 2-1, forcing the game to go into extra time. The team would win 4-2 on penalty kicks to advance to the Western Conference Final in what is still largely regarded as one of the biggest moments in Toyota Stadium his.
“We pushed everything we had forward for the last three minutes of the game, needing to score to force overtime,” Hollingshead said. “The passion, emotion and atmosphere of those last 10 minutes were some of the best I have ever been a part of.”
Hollingshead expressed his excitement of being apart of this years playoffs and how the time of year reminds him of his faith in a series called “The Increase". Read the full article here.
