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Urruti’s golazo powers FC Dallas past Earthquakes

Photo by Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports
Photo by Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports

A moment of brilliance from FC Dallas’ Maxi Urruti ended the San Jose Earthquakes’ perfect run at home on Friday night.

FC Dallas stretched its lead atop the Western Conference to four points by way of their 1-0 victory at Avaya Stadium.

Urruti opened the scoring in fantastic fashion in the 51st minute as he used a superb combination of concentration and technique to flip a bicycle kick goal into the left side of the net from close range.

The ball fell to the Argentinian after Victor Bernardez cleared away Michael Barrios’ cross from the left wing. The tally was the first for Urruti since March 26.

The goal came after a frantic first half that was full of quality chances on both ends of the pitch.

The Earthquakes created the first scoring opportunity of the contest six minutes in as Anibal Godoy struck a blistering free kick at Chris Seitz, who made a top-notch denial on the midfielder.

The visitors’ first major chance came in the 19th minute off the boot of Urruti, but David Bingham pushed the forward’s attempt away from goal.

Godoy came close to putting the home side ahead in the 32nd minute as his free kick curled in from left to right and struck the top-left part of the crossbar.

Five minutes later, Mauro Diaz produced an audacious chip from the left side of the box that caught the noggin of Bingham before the ball soared out of play.

After Urruti’s goal in the 51st minute, the match calmed down as FC Dallas sat back to absorb the pressure produced by the Earthquakes.

Dominic Kinnear’s men were unable to beat Seitz during the final 39 minutes of the match and fell to 5-6-8 overall and 5-1-3 at home.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Maxi Urruti combined well with Diaz all night and he was rewarded for his production in the final third in the 51st minute with his fourth goal of the season.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH

Seitz made a few key denials to keep the match scoreless in the first half and he made one big stop on Simon Dawkins in the latter stages of the second half to preserve the shutout.

MATCH TO FORGET

Chris Wondolowski failed to produce a significant chance with any of his 27 touches in the 1-0 defeat. The United States international hasn’t scored in league play since April 24.

Comments

  1. Have Hedges and Zimmerman become the best center back random in the league? I think an argument could be made.

    Reply
  2. A very well played game, it was good to watch two very evenly matched teams got at one another with a lot of skill on display.

    Reply

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