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FC Dallas keeps playoff hopes alive

Oct 18, 2009 - 4:04 AM By JOHN TRANCHINA STATS MLS Correspondent

FRISCO, Texas (STATS) - FC Dallas desperately needed a victory to keep its slim playoff hopes alive and it took a goal from a highly unlikely source to secure it.

Defender Ugo Ihemelu scored in the 66th minute and FC Dallas beat the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday night to keep its playoff hopes alive.

With its fifth win in six games, Dallas (11-12-6) has 39 points to tie Toronto, New England and DC United for the final playoff spot in MLS .

"I thought it was a really pressure game," Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said. "It was a game that we went in and desperately needed to win, so the focus was to play to our best.

Colorado (10-9-10) remained in playoff position, but is 0-2-4 in its last six and 0-5-4 on the road since May 30.

"I thought Dallas played extremely well and the only saving grace for us is that we didn't get embarrassed," Rapids coach Gary Smith said. "They forced the issue, they made the game quick. They really took control of the game and really played the way they wanted to and deservedly won the game."

Ihemelu, who joined Dallas after a trade from Colorado on Aug. 31, scored his first goal of the season and just the second of his MLS career - in his 123rd game - to put Dallas up 2-0.

"From how the whole team performed, you could tell we really wanted to win this game, we're really fighting to make the playoffs," Ihemelu said. "We created tons of chances and I think we did a good job of eliminating theirs.

"Week after week, we've just been fighting and playing our style of soccer. This is the way we want to keep going into the next game and hopefully into the playoffs."

Coming off a free kick by Dax McCarty from about 35 yards, Atiba Harris headed the ball toward Ihemelu as he charged the left post. Ihemelu managed to get his right foot on the ball, which then bounced off goalkeeper Preston Burpo, off the post and just over the goal line.

"I was trying to cover back post and the ball bounced to me," Ihemelu said. "If you knew what went through my head, 'Don't miss this, don't miss this, don't miss this.' I didn't want to over hit it, I just tried to tap it on goal and it just went in. I'll take it."

Pat Noonan notched his second goal of the year in the 71st minute to pull the Rapids back within one. After making a deft move to slip past Ihemelu, Noonan boomed a shot from just inside the penalty area that beat Dallas goalkeeper Dario Sala just inside the left post.

Despite thoroughly dominating the action almost all night, missing on several glorious opportunities, Dallas still had to sweat out the final minutes.

"They made numerous opportunities to extend their lead and really gave us a little bit of a lifeline by not doing that," Smith said.

FC Dallas controlled the early portion of the match, taking the lead in just the fourth minute on rookie defender George John's first MLS goal. This goal was also set up by a free kick, as Dave van den Bergh lofted the ball from just outside the penalty area into the middle and John leapt up and headed it past Burpo.

"When you look at the number of opportunities we had to put balls into the goal, and we didn't - we kind of made it a little bit hard on ourselves, but we can't complain too much about winning," Hyndman said.

Van den Bergh's assist was his 11th, second in the MLS to Colorado's Omar Cummings.