By JASON MITCHELL
It’s good to have the Super Raton back.
Blas Perez, returned to the FC Dallas lineup after missing last week’s match with a hamstring injury, scored in the waning minutes of regulation to give his team a dramatic 2-1 victory over Toronto FC at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
The win returns Dallas (5-1-1, 16 points) to its winning ways after the team dropped its first match of the season last week. Defender Matt Hedges assisted on the game-winning goal and also scored for Dallas in the first half.
With the score tied 1-1 in the 88th minute, a deep Dallas free kick was headed first by Stephen Keel and then by Hedges before falling to Perez at the top of the goalkeeper’s box. The Panamanian chested the ball down and managed to toe a shot into the back of the net as he fell to the ground.
Andrew Wiedeman got on the end of a Bradley Orr cross late in stoppage time, but zipped a close-range header over the bar. It was as close as Toronto would come to equalizing.
Toronto (4-3-0, 12 points) took the early lead and nearly escaped with a road point despite missing both Jermain Defoe and Dwyane De Rosario to injury.
Issey Nakajima-Farran opened the scoring in just the 21st minute, forcing goalkeeeper Chris Seitz into a diving save and then unleashing a blast off the rebound that deflected off Je-Vaughn Watson and into the net for the 1-0 Toronto lead.
Dallas answered fewer than 20 minutes later.
In the 37th minute, Hedges got on the end of a near post corner kick from Michel and thudded it into the far netting for his second goal of the season.
Dallas easily could have taken the lead before the last minute heroics, controlling possession throughout the night and earning a club record 16 corner kicks in addition to numerous free kicks from dangerous places.
Here are the match highlights:
