San Diego FC looks to strengthen its hold atop the Western Conference and complete the season sweep over FC Dallas when the two teams square off on Saturday in Frisco, Texas.
San Diego (11-5-3, 36 points) beat Vancouver 5-3 on Wednesday to leapfrog the host Whitecaps and claim first place in the West. Milan Iloski scored a team-record four goals in his first MLS start — three in a nine-minute span late in the first half — as San Diego won for the third straight time in MLS play.
Iloski, a 25-year-old native of Escondido, California, has seven goals in the last three matches and nine overall in 12 games.
Substitute Tomas Angel scored for San Diego in the 90th minute as the expansion team continues to surprise while moving to the top of the table.
“I’ve never had a crystal ball in my whole life, and I’m not going to start now, so we’re going to take it one day at a time as always,” San Diego coach Mikey Varas said after Wednesday’s win. “It’s about stacking performances on top of performances home and away (for the rest of the season), and training with the right mentality.”
San Diego dismantled the Toros 5-0 in the teams’ first meeting May 3 in Southern California.
Dallas (5-7-6, 21 points) looks to rebound from a 4-2 home loss Wednesday to San Jose. Petar Musa and Shaq Moore scored for the Toros, but Dallas fell to 1-4-3 over its past eight MLS outings. The Toros, who ended the night with just nine players on the pitch due to late red cards, have won just once in MLS play since April 27.
Dallas is just 1-5-2 on its home pitch this season, tied with the LA Galaxy for the most home losses in the Western Conference.
“We need to bring a bounce-back mentality to Saturday’s match,” said Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes. “But we feel a huge responsibility to the fans who come every week to support us and one win is not enough, we feel that.
“Saturday will be another moment to give everything for them. We have a good roster and we’ve got to get our heads together and fight for the whole entire organization.”
–Field Level Media
