FC Dallas rivalry not lost on Nelson
Growing up as a soccer fan in the Houston area, Michael Nelson has vivid memories of the Dynamo facing off against FC Dallas in the Texas Derby.
Nelson, who went to Seven Lakes in Katy, attended plenty of games at the Dynamo’s old home of Robertson Stadium. He’ll never forget seeing orange streamers flying everywhere and the intensity of the games between the archrivals.
It was always a dream to play professional soccer, and he is currently riding a four-game streak of starting at goalkeeper for the Dynamo — the longest such streak of his career.
It is not lost on him that his fifth start will come in Houston and against FC Dallas. In the lead-up to Saturday’s game, which kicks off at 8:30 p.m. at BBVA Stadium, there will be no need to explain what’s at stake and what the game means to Houston.
“It’s always been a matchup that’s had a lot of intensity to it,” Nelson said. “I think there have been quite a few notable — we’ll call them comings together — in the past. It has a lot of fire, a lot of passion, both from the players’ and the fans’ perspectives. It should be a good one in a very competitive outing.”
Saturday’s game will be the third of the season between them. The first two ended in ties — 1-1 in Frisco on May 8 and 2-2 in Houston on Aug. 21.
FC Dallas (6-10-9, 27 points) won El Capitan in 2018 and has yet to relinquish it. The Dynamo (4-1011, 23 points) likely need to win Saturday to claim it for themselves because if they tie again, the only tiebreaker that could come into play is a meeting in the MLS Cup playoffs.
That’s unlikely because both teams sit below the playoff line. Even if one gets hot the rest of the way and qualifies, it would likely be at the expense of the other.
Because both teams need to start putting positive results together in a hurry, there is added urgency.
The Dynamo snapped a franchise-record 16-game winless streak last weekend and added a small amount of momentum Wednesday night with a road draw against the fourth-place LA Galaxy.
They remain 10 points out of the final playoff position, but now that they have a bounce in their step from their last two results, they’re not writing themselves off from making a late-season surge.
“I expect it to be a hard game for both teams,” Dynamo coach Tab Ramos said. “We both need the three points at this point. Obviously, it’s that part of the season where you can’t give any more points away. I’m proud that the team has gotten itself back to a position where we have another important game, and now we need to win it.”
Ramos said Houston’s attack could get reinforcement from forward Corey Baird, who came to the Dynamo after a trade with Los Angeles FC in July and played three games before getting injured. Baird has missed the last seven games.
On the other end, the Dynamo will have to focus a lot of their defensive attention on FC Dallas’ dangerous attacking duo of Jesús Ferreira and 18-yearold Homegrown star Ricardo Pepi.
Nelson, who was named to MLSsoccer.com’s Team of the Week on Thursday, will have a big role in limiting those players. It’s a tall task, but because of his longstanding knowledge of the rivalry, he’ll be as ready as anyone.
“It fills me with a lot of pride,” Nelson said. “I feel very lucky to be in the situation that I’m in. I’ve said that a lot and I’ll continue to say it. It’s something I’ll never take for granted. I’ve done a lot of work to get to this point, but I still have had a lot of people and teammates that have supported me along the way so it’s really special to have the opportunity to play in one. I’m hoping to make the most of it.”