June 15th, 2007 . 7:17 am . By: Jamie Fougerousse

In a game that was truly a story of two halves, Dominic Oduro ran onto a flick into the box from Marcelo Saragosa, shook off defender Jack Stewart, and buried the game-winner at the far post. Dallas got its first shutout in 20 games thanks in large part to Dario Sala’s performance. While Dallas controlled the first half, Salt Lake likely feel a bit unlucky after dominating the possession and attack throughout the second half of a very physical game.

With the injury to Kenny Cooper and the Gold Cup absence of Carlos Ruiz, Dallas fielded all three of its available forwards in the 4-2-3-1 formation; this was the same starting lineup that defeated the Galaxy last weekend. Jason Kreis, on the other hand, made a radical change to his team’s formation; Salt Lake began the game in a 4-3-3. Jean-Martial Kipre replaced Nik Besagno at right back. The front six, while made up of the same players that lined up in the 4-4-2 in the 0-0 tie with the Revolution almost two weeks ago, saw a significant realignment for the 4-3-3. Mehdi Ballouchy held his central midfield spot. He was flanked by Chris Lancos and Atiba Harris. Wingers Freddy Adu and Chris Klein pushed up as wide forwards, while Alecko Eskandarian played the high attacking role. Clearly Kreis was trying to inject some offense into his team that, while managing two consecutive clean sheets, had yet to win a match this season.

The big story of the night was Eddie Pope announcing he would retire after the end of this season. The second biggest story was me watching my first Hi Definition soccer game thanks to my buddy Keith. I may be a little behind the technological curve, but I have to say I was pretty impressed with it. Without Keith’s spiffy plasma TV, I may have missed such important match details as Marcelo Saragosa’s face having FieldTurf faux dirt stuck to his face most of the second half, or Steve Morrow’s very fly Dolce & Gabbana glasses.

As the game got underway, Salt Lake had a little success attacking along the wings. Eskandarian ran onto a ball behind the defense and Sala saved his shot in the 14th minute.

By the 18th minute, Dallas began to exploit the space created by Salt Lake’s new three-man midfield. The Hoops controlled the ball and had several good chances at goal, with a stellar performance by RSL keeper Nick Rimando keeping the sheet clean.

Arturo Alvarez had four shots on goal during the latter part of the first half. Most of these involved either he or Dominic Oduro beating Willis Forko, RSL’s left back, and getting in to attack Rimando one-v-one. Three of these came in quick succession, with the service from the midfield being largely responsible for creating Alvarez’s possession.

As the half wound down, the game began to get a little physical. Gbandi rang Freddy Adu’s bell when his clearance caught Adu in the head at midfield in the 29th minute, while Alex Yi earned a yellow for hip-checking Adu at the very end of the half.

Coach Kreis recognized that his midfield was allowing Dallas too much space, time, and possession and made a tactical change at halftime. He replaced defensive midfielder Chris Lancos with attack-minded Andy Williams and put Atiba Harris behind him in the center of a 4-4-2. This moved Ballouchy and Klein to the wings and left Eskandarian and Adu up top.

The change in shape and the creativity of Andy Williams turned the tables almost immediately; the second half was a mirror image of the first, with Salt Lake relentlessly attacking Dallas. Dario Sala made several amazing saves as Dallas looked for the counter to try and steal a win without giving up the draw in the process.

Rimando did well to smother a free kick that had bounced into a crowd in the six-yard box in the 52nd minute. Just after this, as Salt Lake worked their way forward, Andy Williams got a cross over Alex Yi’s head to the edge of the six-yard box where Eskandarian blasted it on goal. Sala got a foot to it, and Ballouchy just missed his shot from the ensuing rebound.

At this point the Dallas defense looked a bit rattled as they tried to sort out the new attack and contain the distribution of Williams. Gbandi did very well to clear a cross from Eskandarian right across the goal line; his quick-reaction header managed to keep the ball from reaching an open Chris Klein on the far post while avoiding what could have easily been an own goal.

In the 56th minute Juan Toja made one of his now-famous slide tackles to win the ball from Kipre in the corner on Dallas’ end of the field. He sprung Oduro down the left sideline and Dominic managed to turn in towards goal and rip a nice shot on frame that Rimando did very well to save.

Salt Lake continued to possess the ball, and Mehdi Ballouchy got a good shot just wide in the 65th minute. The momentum of their attack seemed to slow at this point, and Kreis replaced Kipre with midfielder Chris Brown. From there on, the game turned into a bit of a boxing match, mainly between Saragosa and Eskandarian, as the two tangled on several plays and came up shoving.

Going into the final fifteen minutes, RSL found some success slipping balls in behind the Dallas defense with an attacker running onto them. The Dallas back line was beaten several times by these balls, one to Brown in the 75th minute, and one to Adu in the 76th. Sala’s quick decisions to get off his line and smother the balls kept the game scoreless. He also made a spectacular reaction save on Freddy Adu’s shot from near the end line in the 82nd minute.

Oduro managed another counterattacking run up the left side in the 84th minute that resulted in a shot by Alvarez.

Shortly after this, the soccer gods frowned on Salt Lake. In the 89th minute, just when I was thinking that a 0-0 draw seemed fair in this one, Clarence Goodson bumped Atiba Harris as Harris raced past the Dallas back line on the way to goal. There was no call, and I will say that Goodson definitely got Harris from behind on that one. Coach Kreis was so upset he was ejected for his reaction to the non-call. In the 91st minute, Pablo Ricchetti and Harris collided at midfield in what looked to be a 50-50 challenge, but referee Ricardo Salazar showed Ricchetti the yellow; he will miss the next game due to yellow card accumulation now.

During the final minute of stoppage time, Saragosa headed a long ball over the RSL back line. Oduro and Jack Stewart fought for it. Stewart fell down, and Dom patiently waited for the bouncing ball to settle, then buried the ball far post to give Dallas the lead and the win.

So, Dallas stole yet another late game-winner at Rice-Eccles stadium, and Salt Lake remains winless. Real has a good chance to snap their streak as they travel to LA Sunday, while Dallas heads up north to take on Toronto FC. Salt Lake remains at the bottom of the Western Conference with six points; Dallas again moves three points clear of Houston at the top.

Statistics:

FC Dallas (7-5-1) vs. Real Salt Lake (0-4-6)
June 14, 2007 — Rice-Eccles Stadium

Scoring Summary:
DAL — Dominic Oduro 2 (unassisted) 93+

FC Dallas Lineup:

Substitutes Not Used: Ray Burse, Ramon Nunez, Aaron Pitchkolan, Bobby Rhine, David Wagenfuhr, Anthony Wallace

Real Salt Lake Lineup:

Substitutes Not Used: Nikolas Besagno, Kenny Cutler, Christian Jimenez, Chris Seitz, Daniel Torres

Misconduct Summary:
DAL — Alex Yi (caution; Reckless Foul) 47+
RSL — Alecko Eskandarian (caution; Reckless Foul) 72
DAL — Pablo Ricchetti (caution; Pushing, Holding) 92+
DAL — Dominic Oduro (caution; Illegal Jersey Switch) 93+

Referee: Ricardo Salazar
Referee’s Assistants: Greg Barkey; Michael Salyers
4th official: Feliciano Palomino
Time of game: 1:51
Attendance: 16,278
Weather: Sunny -and- 90 degrees

Categories: Match Report.

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