FRISCO, Texas – The Blas Perez show returned for an encore at Toyota Stadium on Saturday night.
Following his late-game heroics last week, Perez scored his team’s first two goals and nearly hit a hat trick to carry FC Dallas to a 3-1 win over Sporting Kansas City.
Hustle and teamwork earned Dallas the first goal of the contest in the 17th minute. On a throw-in from Moises Hernandez in FCD's half, Perez looped a pass that allowed Fabian Castillo to beat Sporting defender Amadou Dia and race towards goal.
Castillo found Tesho Akindele and the 2014 Rookie of the Year made a nifty turn and found a trailing Perez on the right side of the box, who fired the ball past SKC goalkeeper Luis Marin to put Dallas up 1-0.
But the visitors rallied as Roger Espinoza delivered the equalizer in the 44th minute. FCD's midfield granted the Honduran far too much space to drill a long-range shot into the left side of the net as goalkeeper Chris Seitz got his right hand on the ball, but could not keep it out.
Perez knocked in his second goal of the contest in the 52nd minute following a Michel corner kick. The initial delivery was deflected back to the Brazilian, whose looping cross found an wide-open Perez in the penalty box to give Dallas a 2-1 lead. He was one of several FCD players who appeared to be offside on the play, but the flag stayed down and the goal pushed Perez into third place on the FC Dallas all-time scoring list.
A hat trick stared Perez in the face in the 60th minute when Mauro Diaz found him streaking uncontested up the middle of the box. But the Panamanian did not capitalize, heading the ball right into the chest of Marin.
Kansas City continued to pressure the Dallas back line throughout the second half, creating multiple opportunities to tie the contest. The closest call came in the 69th minute, when Paulo Nagamura found Dom Dwyer in front of Seitz. Under pressure from Matt Hedges, Dwyer hit his shot right into a grounded Seitz, though.
Dallas immediately responded with their third goal of the contest, following a substitution that brought Ryan Hollingshead into the game for Diaz. Catching SKC in transition, Michel placed another perfect pass from the Dallas half to a streaking Hollingshead down the right side. Hollingshead then found Castillo, who accelerated past Marin and finished into an empty net in the 73rd minute to double Dallas' lead.
Kansas City had another golden opportunity in the 79th minute after a handball in the box was called against Hedges. Dwyer took the resulting penalty kick, but Seitz read him perfectly and dove right to keep the score at 3-1, a missed opportunity that epitomized Kansas City’s night.
Dallas will travel to Philadelphia next Friday, while Kansas City returns home to host Portland.
