TORONTO - The late goals that plagued Toronto FC last season returned to haunt the squad again Saturday.
Just when it seemed like TFC would make a 17th-minute goal by Toronto native Dwayne De Rosario stand up, FC Dallas captain Pablo Ricchetti scored in the 87th minute to draw 1-1 and silence a crowd of 20,272 at BMO Field.
"It's really disappointing to concede a goal with two or three minutes to go because I thought there was a vast improvement after last week's performance," said Toronto coach John Carver.
"I thought most of (Dallas') chances were from distance."
The tendency of giving up late goals had Carver hard-pressed for an explanation.
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe a little bit of anxiety crept in. When you get the first goal, the second goal sometimes kills teams off. It didn't (come). So they stayed with it.
"They made a few changes, they changed tactically as well and I could see a little but of anxiety creeping in among our guys."
The goal came after a corner kick by Dax McCarty. Ricchetti redirected a ball by Eric Avila to give Dallas (0-3-1) its first point of the season.
"I think we showed we're better than an 0-3 team," Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said.
"It was a tremendous goal by Ricchetti. It was one of those goals where everything has to be perfectly right with your back to goal and I think it just caught everyone by surprise. It was a quality and composed finish."
After TFC (1-1-2) looked bad in losing 2-0 to a well-organized Seattle Sounders expansion team in Toronto's home opener on April 4, Carver promised some changes and worked with the team to improve the defence.
The team looked better and rookie goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who started in place of Greg Sutton, made six saves, some of them impressive.
"He had a super game today and I feel for him a little bit," Carver said. "If anybody deserved a clean sheet today it was Stefan."
TFC also came out with more bounce than it showed against Seattle a week ago. De Rosario, who was obtained from the Houston Dynamo in an off-season trade, nearly scored his first TFC goal in the first minutes, but the ball was cleared from the goal-line by a defender.
De Rosario did score in the 17th minute, nodding home a long throw-in from fellow Canadian national team defender and Toronto native Adrian Serioux who was acquired in an off-season trade with Dallas.
Serioux was disappointed with the result against his former team.
"We started off the way we wanted to by getting an early goal and limited them in their opportunities," Serious said.
"I hope it's not going to be one of those years where it comes down to the last two minutes or so and teams capitalize on us."
Serioux felt that TFC improved defensively over last week but then started to drop back a bit instead of continuing to press.
"We were doing much better," he said. "We dropped a step back and let them come out."
TFC had some chances to increase the lead. In the 34th minute, TFC midfielder Amado Guevara hit the crossbar and Chad Barrett put the rebound wide, one of a few opportunities he wasted in the first half.
McCarty came close for Dallas in the 43rd minute when his header struck the bar.
Dallas opened the second half with a chance to tie but Andre Rocha put a shot wide in the 48th minute. A few minutes later, Dallas striker Kenny Cooper hit a shot from 30 yards that Frei stopped.
Carver followed through on promised lineup changes after the loss to the Sounders. Fuad Ibrahim and Sam Cronin started in midfield with Rohan Ricketts and Pablo Vitti on the bench and De Rosario moved up to forward from midfield. Ibrahim played well but was remove late in the game with cramps.
Notes: The teams play again next Sunday at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. . . . Former TFC striker Jeff Cunningham was not in the starting lineup for Dallas but entered the game as a substitute late in the second half. Cunningham ran into Frei on a chance in the 80th minute and picked up a yellow card. . . . Frei made four saves in the first half and Ray Burse made one. . . . Danny Dichio took over from Barrett in the 69th minute.
