Draw Your Fire!

Independence Day is a day with hallowed meaning, tradition, history, pride, and all around goodwill.

The birth of the USA some 238 years ago in addition to some wonderful and memorable reminders of things that have happened on this day. 

Birthdays for George Steinbrenner and Al Davis, Lou Gehrig with an emotional farewell goodbye 74 years ago due to ALS, Dave Righetti throwing a no-hitter on the Red Sox 30 years ago.

Baseball and the 4th are truly intertwined at the hip. 

You can stay home and get your fill of gluttony with the yearly hot dog eating contest at Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY.

You can also opt to do something on the beach, a lake, a barbecue, or even just lay low and hide within the proverbial mancave.

Or, if you like to try something new on the 4th of July in this case let it be a game of soccer in Frisco. That in itself is a tradition that is revered and enjoyed. 

Much like the Dallas Stars (Man, were they busy today!) on New Years Eve the boys of FCDallas had their 6th consecutive home game on Independence Day against the lowly Chivas USA team from California. Last meeting was March 10th in Glendale. A game where FCDallas would jump out to a 1-0 lead before the defense allowed three goals late for a 3-1 defeat.

22,036 patriotic fans attended tonight's FCDallas Chivas USA affair. Coming a month where FCD had 6 games in 29 games this was just what the doctor ordered. Even the weather was cooler than normal for July so all things looked like an easy three points at home, right?

WRONG!

In a case of taking one step forward and two steps back FCDallas and ChivasUSA would batte and play to 0-0 draw. Raul Fernandez would make 7 stops of shots on goal by the Cali strikers. Only once did FCDallas have a clear shot at the goal. Only to be denied by Dan Kennedy who proved equally tough in the trenches.

David Fereirra played his first game in exactly 1 year while Stephen Keel played a full 90 minutes. The term of the night for ChivasUSA was 'wide left' as no less than 5 shots went that route in the 36th, 41st, 60th, 80th, and 83rd minutes by Gabriel Farfan, Marco Delgado, Jose Manuel Rivera, and Eric Avila. 

FCDallas had a shot attempt six minutes on a header by Stephen Keel that went wide right. Jackson and Kenny Cooper also had clear goal looks only to go wide right and/or deflected.

For the 3rd straight week FCDallas played to a tie and gained another point. At worst they will finish no lower than 3rd, 3 points back with L.A. Galaxy straight ahead for a Sunday night matchup.

Chivas USA coach Luis Real-although new to the gig-has the team playing at a much better level. Especially when the opponent is FCDallas.

“All of us at Chivas know that Dallas have been the better team, they are in first place, and we knew that it was going to be a difficult game, very complicated,” Jose Luis Real said after the game. “Even though in the last minutes of the match Dallas was better, I think that the match, before the last 15 minutes, was a very close game.

“The team’s work has been very well assimilated in the last two weeks that I’ve worked with them. It’s a team that is very disposed and I think that the only difference at this moment is that it’s a team that works as a group rather than individually. I think that’s the big difference,” the Chivas USA Head Coach added.

In the last three games under Real, little by little there has been an obvious improvement for the Red-and-White. In Thursday night’s game, Real was able to get a taste of the team he wants to see for the rest of the season.

I asked Coach Real what the secret is as to why Chivas USA plays so well against the FCD.

“I know that each game, the motivation of each player has to be at the maximum. But for some reason against Dallas, we have the same colors. We want that the colors that stick out the most would be ours. They are very similar colors, and we have a lot of respect for Dallas, but there’s always a part of us that motivates us more because of the category Dallas has,” Real finalized.

They won not, they lost not. 14 home games in a row and FCDallas maintains a nice point streak. Something to write home about for now. It's July, yet three points sure seems like a much more viable option.

Happy 4th everyone. Hope you had fun wherever you were. Ballpark, racetrack, pool, lake, bar, etc. Also hope you were safe and careful. Oh, the traffic! Somehow that does not seem right on Independence Day.

Over and out in Big D.

Mr. Will