FC Dallas faces Rapids while knocking on wild-card door

FC Dallas looks to parlay a late-season hot streak into a jump above the playoff line when it hosts the Colorado Rapids on Saturday in a Western Conference clash at Frisco, Texas.

The Toros (8-11-10, 34 points) begin the weekend in 11th place in the conference, two spots below but just one point behind the San Jose Earthquakes for the final berth in the West's wild-card match. Including Saturday, Dallas has five regular season matches left on its schedule.

Dallas beat rival Austin FC 2-0 at home last Saturday in its most recent match as Petar Musa and Bernard Kamungo had goals early in each half, respectively. Jacob Jackson made three saves in the victory.

Musa leads FC Dallas with 15 goals.

The win was the first for FC Dallas since Aug. 9 against the Portland Timbers, snapping a run of three consecutive 1-1 draws. The Toros are on a five-match unbeaten streak and are looking to make the most of their recent success at home.

"Colorado is a conference rival that we're close to, and we need to win," FC Dallas coach Eric Quill said. "They're a couple of spots above us, and we're chasing. And when you're chasing you have to knock people off. It is one that we have to go after this weekend."

Colorado (11-13-6, 39 points) holds down the eighth position in the West table, four points clear of San Jose and just two points in back of Austin for an automatic berth in the postseason that would avoid the wild-card game, with four matches to play.

The Rapids hit the road after a 2-1 win at home over the Houston Dynamo on Sept. 13 as Colorado benefitted from an own goal six minutes into second half stoppage time. Cole Bassett also scored for the Rapids, who snapped a two-match losing streak.

"We're coming off a really big win but so is Dallas, so we are expecting it to be a tough game," Colorado coach Chris Armas said. "This is what it's all about -- it's like a playoff game for us, and we will approach it that way. We are not looking to just scrape in and stumble into the playoffs. We want to get some decisive results."

The sides squared off in the second week of the season back in March at Colorado and played to a 3-3 draw.

--Field Level Media