TORONTO – Maicon Santos and Milton Rodriguez exchanged goals in the second half as Toronto FC and FC Dallas drew 1-1 Saturday to keep both teams’ streaks intact.
Something had to give with both sides sporting streaks. However, the result extended Toronto’s unbeaten run at home to nine games while extending Dallas’ record of undefeated games on the road to seven.
Maicon Santos gave Toronto the lead in the 61st before Milton Rodriguez tied the game in the 77th minute.
With the draw, Toronto improved to 23 points, but more importantly they moved out of the precarious eighth playoff seed and into a tie for sixth with Colorado and San Jose.
It looked like Toronto would end Dallas’ impressive run when Maicon Santos gave the Reds the lead in the 601st minute. The Brazilian took a great through ball from Julian de Guzman along the left wing, held off Dallas defender Zach Loyd and sent low left-footed drive by Hartman inside the near post.
But Rodriguez responded for Dallas.
After redirecting a Heath Pearce pass over the cross bar two minutes earlier, Rodriguez made amends by getting in between Toronto defenders Nana Attakora and Dan Gargan to head a David Ferreira corner past Toronto goalkeeper Stefan Frei in the 77th minute.
The weather was a factor for both teams. Steady rain fell throughout much of the game causing passes to skid and balls to take unusual bounces on the slick grass.
Despite the conditions, Toronto controlled play for most of the first half and had a number of chances to open the scoring.
The best by far came in the 23rd minute, Dwayne De Rosario drove a free kick over the player wall, but Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman got enough fingers on the ball to redirect it over the crossbar.
It was a good sign for a Toronto offense that has struggled of late with just three goals in their last five games. But the situation went largely unnoticed during the recent eight game unbeaten streak by everyone—except the TFC brainstrust, who brought in Santos and Mista to kickstart the offense.
Santos started and Mista came on as a substitute in the second half, but neither could give Toronto the winner despite late pressure.
FC Dallas 1 at Toronto FC 1
Current record: FC Dallas (6W-8D-2L) vs. Toronto FC (6W-5D-5L)
July 24, 2010 -- BMO Field
Scoring Summary:
TOR -- Maicon Santos 1 (Julian de Guzman 2) 61
DAL -- Milton Rodriguez 1 (David Ferreira 5) 77
FC Dallas -- Kevin Hartman, Heath Pearce, Ugo Ihemelu, George John (Zach Loyd 59), Jair Benitez, Atiba Harris, Bruno Guarda (Eric Alexander 46), Daniel Hernandez, Brek Shea, David Ferreira, Milton Rodriguez (Jeff Cunningham 81).
Toronto FC -- Stefan Frei, Dan Gargan, Adrian Cann, Nick Garcia, Raivis Hscanovics (Nana Attakora 67), Dwayne De Rosario (Jacob Peterson 81), Julian de Guzman, Amadou Sanyang (Mista 55), Nick LaBrocca, Chad Barrett, Maicon Santos.
Misconduct Summary:
TOR -- Dwayne De Rosario (caution; Tactical Foul) 17
DAL -- Daniel Hernandez (caution; Reckless Tackle) 21
TOR -- Amadou Sanyang (caution; Reckless Tackle) 23
TOR -- Adrian Cann (caution; Reckless Tackle) 39
DAL -- Dario Sala (ejection; time wasting) 95+
DAL -- Jair Benitez (caution; Reckless Tackle) 96+
TOR -- Nick LaBrocca (caution; dissent)
Referee: Edvin Jurisevic
Referee's Assistants: Sean Hurd; Adam Wienckowski
4th Official: Steven DePiero
Attendance: 19,743
