FC Dallas were in the doldrums in late July with just one win through 11 contests, a stretch that left them lingering in the Western Conference basement.
Now, with a 2-0 win over Texas rival and expansion side Austin FC on Saturday night, head coach Luchi Gonzalez's team is riding a four-match unbeaten streak, still unbeaten at Toyota Stadium this season and suddenly back in the playoff mix.
Gonzalez credits his players for weathering their difficult start and rattling off impressive showings, including a statement win at Sporting Kansas City, a come-from-behind draw at Seattle, and a 4-0 win over the LA Galaxy that included Ricardo Pepi's historic hat trick.
"Credit to the boys to have an internal desire to wake up tomorrow and show motivation to improve, to take feedback and use it," he observed in the post-match press conference. "And they themselves to not get caught up in maybe some of the opinions of how we're doing or what we're doing, but just focus on trying to improve, work, not just work harder but work smarter, do things simple and find solutions."
Assessing the lessons FC Dallas have taken from recent matches, Gonzalez noted that they've been working on their collective mentality and navigating the game's ups and downs.
"Whether we score first or not, whether we make mistakes or not, don't play with fear, go, and go for it," Gonzalez said. "Push the game. Think about the process over 90 minutes, go about the process, respond to the next moment."
Ryan Hollingshead, who scored the first and decisive goal in his 181st appearance with the club – putting him fourth on the all-time FC Dallas list – detailed how they've put Gonzalez's teachings into action.
"We're obviously really excited to be in the rhythm that we're in," Hollingshead noted. "We've been preaching to ourselves all year long, it's just a matter of time until we find our rhythm. We've got the players, we've got the team, we've got the tactics, the style we want to play. We know that it can be successful in this league, and so we've been doing that, putting that together every week in training, knowing that these things are going to change and it's finally happening."
Hollingshead also noted that FCD's young players can get fazed by the occasional hard-luck stretch that many teams go through. But the club's seasoned players have helped them navigate the at-times choppy waters.
"It's really hard to pinpoint exactly what's changed because I don't think too much has changed," he observed. "Our motto all season, even in the slump that we were having in the beginning of the season, was [to] keep doing what we're doing, keep doing the right things. Don't throw all of our tactics out, don't throw away all the things you've been doing in training, because it's going to change."
Noting that FC Dallas were "doing a lot of the right things but just not coming away with those results" during the 1-for-11 string, he observed, "You get that one win ... you build on it with the second win, their confidence just shoots up and everybody's like, 'Oh yeah, we can play, we are good.'"
Jesus Ferreira, who scored the decisive goal against SKC and the insurance goal Saturday night, acknowledged the challenging valley they've been through without getting too ecstatic about the current peak they're on.
"We had a rough start of the season," Ferreira admitted. "Everyone knows that ... we look at the negative and positives of each game, we look over the video, and we try to fix everything that we can. And in the past couple games, we were fixing it, we were showing that we can play, that we're a team that you know likes to press, likes to keep the ball, away or home."
Ferreira and Pepi are two of FC Dallas' youngest players, but they've been instrumental to this recent solid stretch. Ferreira said their homegrown connection is a simple and natural one – and they'll need it to continue heading into next weekend's rematch with Western Conference leaders Sporting KC at Toyota Stadium.
"We have a connection even outside of soccer. We're just regular teenagers," Ferreira said. "We go out there and play like we enjoy it, we have fun out there, and we just have a connection – it kind of just shows out there."
