FRISCO - FC Dallas continues a stretch of three-straight weekends at home on Saturday night against a San Jose Earthquakes team playing their first game outside the state of California. Let's take a look at the two sides heading into their first meeting of the season.
The Quakes are currently unbeaten at home, but suffered a 3-1 loss against the LA Galaxy in their only road game thus far in 2016., and have lost three-straight road matches dating back to 2015. FC Dallas, on the other hand, is not only undefeated at home in 2016, but currently on a 10-game unbeaten streak in Frisco.
San Jose has been comfortable playing without the ball in this start of the season. Counter-attacking has been their trademark, with displays pace on the wings and the deadly combination of Quincy Amarikwa and Chris Wondolowski up-front being their main assets. With Dallas being a fast-paced team that lovers the counter too, this weekend’s match-up promises to keep fans on the edge of their seats with two fast-breaking teams that like to attack through their wings, with quick transitions from attack to defense, and vice-versa.
Offensively, the teams' shooting tendencies have different approaches, but similar results. Oscar Pareja’s side currently leads MLS with 15 shots per game, and are second in the league with 6.2 shots per game on-target. San Jose, on the other hand, favors taking the right shots at the right time. The club is dead last in shots per game (9) this year, but have been successful largely thanks to Wondolowski’s goal scoring ability. The USMNT star has goals already in 2016 off of just 5 shots on target (11 total) - a scoring rate of 60 percent. To put that into perspective, Maxi Urruti has also scored 3 times, but on 8 shots on target (17 total) - 37.5 percent.
Skilled footwork will also be on high display on Saturday with two clubs fond of dribbling the ball. San Jose is 2nd in MLS with 20 dribbles attempted per game and FC Dallas ranks fourth with 19.2 attempts. Four players slated to see time at Toyota Stadium currently feature among the league's top seven dribblers: FCD’s Michael Barrios, Fabian Castillo and Mauro Diaz and San Jose’s Amarikwa.
With a pair of highly-skilled offenses, the defensive units for both clubs will have their hands full. Dallas' Carlos Gruezo currently leads MLS 30 total tackles, 25 of which have been successful, and thanks to the Ecuadorian’s contribution, Dallas averages 25.4 tackles per game - 3rd best in the league. Matt Hedges and the back line have shut down opposing offenses as well, allowing only 6.2 shots against per match in the early season. The Earthquakes are used to seeing a lot of shots headed towards David Bingham, surrendering a league-high 15.8 shots per match, but the newest USMNT keeper has stood tall, allowing only 4 goals against.
You won't want to miss this battle of two of the hottest teams in MLS at Toyota Stadium on Saturday - secure your seat now!
