Kaick picks the top corner as FC Dallas beats Seattle Sounders 1-0 despite seeing less of the ball

A 62nd minute strike from Kaick, curled with his right foot into the top corner, was enough for FC Dallas to win a match in which it saw less of the ball, managed fewer shots on target and, by at least one postgame measure, generated less attacking threat than the Seattle Sounders FC. The 1-0 final at Toyota Stadium handed the home side three points that count for more in the Western Conference standings than they reflected on the field.

The first half was end to end without a payoff. Dallas gave an early warning through Santiago Moreno, but the Sounders answered with persistence: Dejan Joveljic tested the Dallas goal repeatedly from the middle of the box, at the 12th, 22nd and 27th minutes, without the ball finding the net, while Albert Rusnak also had his moments from distance. Petar Musa, for the home side, missed two clear chances before the break, one of them skimming the right post. The teams went into halftime level at 0-0.

The goal that decided it

The second half opened in much the same rhythm until a set piece broke the deadlock. From a corner kick in the 62nd minute, Osaze Urhoghide flicked the ball on with a header and Kaick arrived at the top of the box to finish with his right foot into the far top corner. It was the only goal of the match and, by the numbers, the moment that separated two teams who had shared almost everything else on the night.

Seattle pushed for an equalizer after falling behind. Jordan Morris, freshly on from the bench, rattled a shot off the frame of the goal in the 68th minute, and Jesus Ferreira, also a substitute, had a look of his own shortly after. Albert Rusnak closed out the night with two more attempts from outside the box during stoppage time, which ran eight minutes, but Dallas's goal held firm.

What the numbers say

Possession clearly belonged to the visitors, as the match statistics show:

The expected goals figure calculated after the fact from the match's shots backs up that impression: 1.598 for the Sounders against 1.276 for Dallas. In other words, the visiting team created more danger by this estimate, but it was the home side that walked away with all three points thanks to the efficiency of a single set piece.

The result also runs counter to what we projected in our preview, where we gave FC Dallas a 40% chance of winning, the Seattle Sounders FC 33%, and a draw 27%, with combined expected goals of 2.98. The final score, a tight 1-0, ended up looking more like a draw or a low scoring affair than the offensive showcase those numbers suggested.

Where it leaves the standings

With the result, FC Dallas moves to 50 points from 29 matches played (14 wins, 8 draws, 7 losses) and holds onto third place in the Western Conference, nine points clear of the Seattle Sounders FC, who sit on 41 points from the same number of matches (11 wins, 8 draws, 10 losses) in seventh place. For a team that needed three points more than it needed style, the mission was accomplished even if the ball spent most of the night at the opponent's feet.