Santiago Moreno’s 87th-minute shot was stopped by Nicolas Hansen. Five minutes later, Moreno had scored the insurance goal. Logan Farrington, who entered for Joaquín Valiente in the 76th minute, sent the cross that Moreno converted in the 90th minute plus two, putting FC Dallas on firmer ground in a 3-1 victory over Colorado at Toyota Stadium in Frisco on Saturday night.
The late partnership was the cleanest expression of FC Dallas’ bench influence, but it was not the whole story. Moreno came on in the 67th minute, Farrington followed Moreno onto the field nine minutes later, one minute after Valiente’s equalizer, and both substitutes combined for the final goal.
Their contribution helped turn a match that had been uncomfortable for long stretches into a result that delivered Dallas 58 points and the Western Conference’s No. 2 position.
Moreno’s first chance and his second one deserve to be kept together. In the 87th minute, Farrington assisted a Moreno right-footed shot from the center of the box, and Hansen made the save. After Kaick put Dallas ahead in the 88th minute, the two substitutes connected again.
This time Farrington supplied a cross during a fast break, and Moreno finished from the center of the box. One attempt became a save; the next became the evening’s insurance. Soccer occasionally allows a player to revise his grade before the referee can find the whistle.
That sequence was possible because Dallas had already made another important change. Nolan Norris replaced Sebastien Ibeagha in the 57th minute because of an injury. Colorado led 1-0 after Morgan Whittaker’s 47th-minute finish, and Dallas needed more than possession or territorial pressure to get out of the hole.
Norris later provided the assist on Kaick’s 88th-minute winner, making his entry a direct part of the goal that changed the result.
Norris’ contribution was different from Moreno and Farrington’s. He did not finish the move; Kaick did, with a right-footed shot from the center of the box. But the substitution gave Dallas an attacking return from a change made under difficult circumstances.
The match required one change because of injury and received attacking contributions from several replacements. Norris helped produce the decisive goal, while two later entrants combined for the final one.
Before those late moments, Joaquín Valiente and Kaick supplied the necessary bridge. Dallas had gone without a goal in the first half despite several chances, including Daniel Job’s 45th-minute shot off the post. Colorado then struck on a fast break, with Whittaker finishing Georgi Minoungou’s cross.
The Rapids’ lead lasted until the 75th minute, when Kaick’s cross following a corner reached Valiente for a first-time left-footed finish.
Valiente’s goal was a set-piece solution rather than a transition play, and that difference matters. Dallas did not solve every problem with the same attack. Kaick’s delivery created the equalizer, Norris assisted Kaick’s finish 13 minutes later, and Farrington’s cross set up Moreno after a fast break. Three goals from the 75th minute onward came through three distinct attacking sequences.