Stream of Consciousness: FC Dallas at LA Galaxy
April 12th, 2007 . 10:07 pm . By: DJ WalkerSeriously, I thought we weren’t going to be able to watch the game . . . Cid was so upset about hearing David Beckham’s name every 15 seconds, she was on the verge of a spontaneous boycott of MLS this year. If not for the prospect of seeing Kenny Cooper in his bright red Adidas shorts, she may have called it quits. I’m not sure how I feel about that, actually. Anyway. Chris Gbandi is a surprise start, back from injury a little quicker than we all expected. It’s odd to see Joe Cannon in a Galaxy shirt; I’ve always thought him to be a class act – but it’s so much easier to like him now that he’s not with the Rapids. I mean, I hate the dirty dirty Galaxy, sure, but it’s a healthy, respectful hate. The Rapids are just a bunch of crapbags. (Sorry, it’s late, and I couldn’t come up with a better pejorative) Really, the Beckham references are starting to grate on my nerves now as well. Jaqua misses a header, and they talk about how Beckham would’ve crossed the ball to him. Are they on a quota? Are they getting paid on a per-reference basis? Do they get a cookie from the producer every time they say the man’s name? Pele His Own Self didn’t get this many name checks on all the NASL games ever broadcast. Remember a few weeks ago I told you Shaka was a professional, and that when he had a bad game in pre-season, he’d know what to do to fix it? Well, Shaka just made a great, aggressive save to rob Chris Albright. I TOLD you all he’d be ready. Everyone knows Dario is my man, and that’s he’s the source of all that’s good and right and true in the Western Hemisphere, but I’m also a firm believer in the power of the Shaka. He’s Hislop-rific. He’s Shaka-licious. See, he just came 20 yards off his line to clean up after the defense. No more trash talking on the man. The broadcast has been on the air for roughly an hour, and we’re up to 40 Beckham references. This is more than one per minute and includes 20 minutes of actual game time. Let it go, fellas. The Beatles didn’t get this much buzz in ‘64, okay. He’s English, we get it. He’s married to one of the girls from the Bangles or something, okay, let it go. Dax McCarty gets his first MLS start, and for his trouble he gets the job of bird dogging Cobi Jones all night. And even though Cobi is nearly 59 years old, he’s still got some wheels. Welcome to the Majors, kid. If I was given to profanity, I’d be saying “oh s**t” right now. Marcelo Saragosa just came down all funky on his knee and is screaming in pain. He gets up and limps off the locker room and Wynalda says, with a little sadness in his voice, “I know that walk”. And it’s true, he does, Waldo’s had a blowout or two – I don’t like the way this looks. Aaron Pitchkolan comes on for ‘Gosa. JC Toja’s hair kind of reminds me of Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (but, as the great Dom Irrera would say “I don’t mean that bad or nothin’ . . .”). NO WAY! FC Dallas gets to take a penalty kick . . . for the first time since the 2005 season. Toja cracked a left footed bomb that hit Ty Hardin right on the arm. El Pescadito schools Cannon on the PK and we’re ahead. “Against the run of play” as the soccer guys say. Not that we don’t look good, in my opinion. We’re playing a pretty composed brand of soccer for a bunch of guys who can barely buy their own beer. I mean, take out Ruiz and Shaka, and the average age of this lineup is about, like, twelve. Wow. I hadn’t thought about this before, but did you realize Cobi Jones is older than Steve Morrow? And they’re both a couple pups compared to me. That, for lack of a better word, is freaky. Oh! OH! GOOOOOOOOL! Ramon Nunez drives a free kick onto the six, and KCoop gets on the end of it and drives it home. 2-Nilllllllll, to the super hoops, 2-Nillllllllllllll to the super hoops. Cid and I immediately begin, both spontaneously and simultaneously, to chant CANNNNNNNON . . .CANNNNNNNON Which is just one of the many reasons I love that woman. Eric Wynalda is really starting to grow on me. Not only because I met him at MLS Cup and he was a mensch, but because he’s really getting better and better behind the mic. He’s even starting to develop a sense of humor. “Every time I look at Steve Morrow, I mean he’s winning this game 2-0 and he looks like he’s down six to nothing. Come on.” So far, Goodson and Yi have both been shown yellow cards for hard tackles. Good job, boys. I think I’ll start awarding a Golden Valakari for the toughest defender of the match. So far Clarence and Alex are tied. Heh heh heh . . . Herbalife. Man, Shaka’s feelin’ it tonight. He’s sharp and proactive, and about 25 minutes from shutting out the Galaxy. HDC now stands for Hislop Dominatin’ Cali. Though I probably just jinxed him by writing that. Well, okay, the Gals get one back with five minutes left. The rookie Robert Findley gets some serious air and beats Alex Yi and Shaka with a finely placed and paced header. No shame in that, though, it was quite a goal. Oddly enough, I’m not even worried. I don’t think they have another one in them, and we’re playing some pretty stout defense. Three minutes? Terry Vaughn has called a good game, but has obviously traipsed off to another dimension for a spell. Three minutes? Blow the whistle! Blow it you sonofab . . . oh, there, it’s over. What a great win. Nobody, but nobody thought we were going to beat LA in LA this early in the season. Except me. And Steve Morrow. Oh, and Cid. Shaka was great, the D was great, Toja was great, Ramon, Fish, Coop, Daxito, Pitch . . . greatness. I’m blown away and very happy. And the weekend after this one is opening day at The Hut. I’m gettin’ all chill bumpy just thinking about it. See you Sunday for FC Taurine. 19 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
I said the same thing about Saragosa- it was the opposite leg from the one that got hit and it was non-contact. BUT- he was walking. Maybe its not the unspeakable injury we’re thinking of…
Can’t wait to see you next week, DJ! Give my love to the Cid. =D
Good game. Maybe we won’t end up in the cellar as I expected this year. I think this is a solid middle-of-the-pack team now.
Waldo commented several times on Toja and I would like to agree. His play was very good … very calming out there. How old is he? 21 or something? Hope we can hang on to him for some time to come.
Cannot say enough great things about Toja. To me he was the MOTM. Dax surprised me. At first he looked to slight to play in the MLS and was getting beat off the ball, but he pulled it together and with quickness and great passing really put in a great performance. Yi looks solid, Nunez had a good game, and though i want to hate him, Hislop was excellent.
Btw, loved the post-game interview with Ruiz . . . at least he’s trying. Can’t wait for Richetti to team up with Toja, especially with Saragosa going down.
DJ….I approve of your Yiddish usage, well done, lad.
Shaka was good, not great. The D got lucky a bunch of times, they are still capable of tremendous blunders.
This game could have easily been a loss.
Regardless A LOT OF GOOD to take away.
“I think I’ll start awarding a Golden Valakari for the toughest defender of the match. So far Clarence and Alex are tied.”
Who won it?!?! I am dying to know!
It came down to “go on a first date with a random chick I met last week” or watch the FCD game. I had a bad feeling and made the wrong move – pinhead blonde Dallas girl. That won’t happen again. Sounds like the game rocked. Are we in first?
Hey guys what up, so it was a really good game for FCD, I had the fortune to be there, and took advantage to use the game as a date too. lol. So I was telling my friend just before the first goal what happens when a team makea a foul inside the golie box, right , and that Ruiz has been wanting to score a goal here in the HDC since he got kick out by the useless Donovan. Well, just a couple minutes later the ref calls a penalty. It was great. If like someone heard me up there. I was all happy and scriming that goal if it like I scored that goal. I was very happy for Ruiz. It was a surprise to see Ghandi in the lineup tonight, I think he still needs to work a little bit more, I saw Chris Albright winning him some moves near net. Dangerous plays I must say. I now there are some good comments here about Toja, but on my opinion and what I saw in the Field, even though he plays very well he has that style of south american play, just like when Dario Sala started playing with FCD, remember? Something like that but over all very good player. For the rest of the team it was a goos performance. I was a little intimidated by some fans where I was but nothing make me stop cheering for the team. On Ruiz being a captain I think he is putting some effort on the new job. But needs to work a little bit more. I had a great night at the HDC with the team and with my friend of course. I took some pics I dont know if is possible to post them here, and I also recorded the second goal by Cooper by luck, I decided to turn on my camara for that play and it resulted in a goal. What a night. Buzz I’ll email you the pics if you want to put them. Peace!
Great performance by the Hoops, it’s unfortunate that some of the fans are so pessimisstc (long-term loser mentality)that they can’t just accept a good performance w/o a bunch of BUTS. This is a good team and now that the games count we are getting results. Accelpt it and w/o all the loser comments. WE just beat LA at HDC for the first time ever, ENJOY IT !
I have to give the first Golden Valakari to Clarence, not only for his hard tackle yellow card, but for his roughing up of Nate Jaqua during the run-up to the corner kicks.
Well done, son.
Excellent win. Hoops will now carry a mental advantage over the Galaxy. Morrow just have these boys ready to roll.
Ever play that drinking game “Bob” watching the Bob Newhart show? We thought about playing “Beckham” last night, but I likely would have been passed-out before the second goal.
Was lucky enough to watch the game in HD and the broadcast quality was outstanding. I will be recording every Thursday night game this season. It was sheer pleasure to watch.
DJ,
Plse. give Cid a warm felt hug from us. We miss you guys.
Love,
Gordon and Kearby.
and spot on Toja He’s the man.
You are wonderful! Don’t stop writing…ever!
Took my buddy to the Londoner last night so he could watch his first ever FC Dallas match…he’s now hooked and can’t wait to go to the first home game! The Football Club really played well once they got that first goal, and we were very pleased with the win (so much so, that we celebrated at the Idle Rich). Toja is looking good and Nunez too. Also, Shaka played a solid match! Yay ESPN for Thurday Night Futbol!
well done DJ. I was pert near sick when Saragosa went down….thats not a good scream, i know it well. Overall i was really impressed with the team’s performance last night and once again great report. See you in a little over a week.
What I love about Toja is his first touch. A hard pass to his feet is handled with such ease. I fear that his talent is going to leave us in a year, though.
Good, solid performance by Shaka tonight. A few mistakes, and with each fall he looks like he might break, but overall a very good job by him last night
And I hate to admit it, but our defense looked good without bobby. With Yi maturing well, and Clarence back in his “im gonna kick your ass” pre- own goal form, Our center D looks good.
I had my doubts about Morrow, but he has proved to work well with this group of guys and show off their talents.
Gotta love a game where the underdog plays with so much heart that they win. GO HOOPS!
Watching Saragosa go down hurt me. I didn’t know what it would do to FCD as Saragosa is a more experienced player. I am glad they responded the way they did. Toja was nothing short of exceptional. I agree about him being the MOTM. I didn’t know what to expect out of him as his first game was somewhat average. I was also shocked to see a two forward line-up. In my opinion, that is the best formation for this team at this time. Ever since I watched Shaka in the World Cup, I cannot have too many doubts about his heart. The goalie manages the defense, and despite some massive bending, the defense never really broke. Credit to Hislop and the four youngsters.
FCD just performed very well overall. Can’t say enough about every player on that team.
“Heh heh heh . . . Herbalife”
My thoughts exactly!
Great article, I laughed my ass off!
DJ – Thank you, thank you – I don’t feel like my game experience is complete until I have read your stream of consciousness.
I found the date for the last PK before this game – Sept 24, 2005 – that’s 565 days!
I have a name for the broadcast: ABATT (TM)
All_Beckham_All_The_Time
See you and Cid at thr home opener?
does the absence of landon in the article reflect an absence of landon in the game???