Gabriel Gomez’s 56th minute equalizer salvaged a 1-1 draw for the Philadelphia Union on the road at FC Dallas on Saturday night.
The Union fell behind early when Blas Pérez beat Chase Harrison in the 7th minute to give Dallas the 1-0 lead. It was Harrison’s first MLS start in place of the injured Zac MacMath.
“Sometimes when that early goal gets in you have to say, ‘Alright that’s done,’” Harrison told the team’s website. “There’s nothing else I can do about it, so let’s just play hard for the rest of the 82 minutes left in the game. Let’s recoup and move on to the next play of the game.”
In addition to MacMath, the Union were without Freddy Adu (suspension) and defender Carlos Valdez had to leave and get stitches. Manager Peter Nowak said that that teams’ fightback last night showed that they are starting to believe.
“I think it’s a very positive result for us after a disappointing loss against New York,” Nowak said. “We all felt bad thinking that we had played our best game of the season (against NY but still lost), so it’s a good sign of the continuation that the guys are starting to believe in the way we play. As I’ve said, there’s still work to do, but we are moving forward as a group and we are going to keep fighting.”
The Union are back in action next Saturday away at Toronto FC.