Game Grades: FC Dallas v Colorado Rapids
August 7th, 2007 . 12:16 pm . By: Peter WelptonWhile watching FC Dallas struggle to hold their 1-0 lead against Colorado on Saturday night, the thought running across Steve Morrow’s mind might have been, “If we got movement up front like the Rapids get from Peterson and Hernandez, I wonder how many we would score?” Oh, and he also likely had the passing thought of, “Thank God, Ray stepped up and saved our three points”. The point isn’t that Colorado is a better team, no, in fact they actually are pretty poor in midfield. But, when you watch their forwards moving, making space, running into space and all of that – then you watch Carlos – you see a massive difference. It just makes one wonder if the FCD midfield had that kind of work going on in front of them would the offense work a little better? Make no mistake about it, when Dallas faces a team looking to clog up the midfield and sit back, they struggle to make anything happen in the opponent’s box. Saturday night’s match highlighted this fact. If there was anything from the Superliga that was made clear, it is that Dallas can work with space. The Mexican teams played more open (Pachuca more so than Chivas) and as they did Dallas’ attack found more room to work and do their thing. Alvarez had more opportunities, Richardino got to take on defenders and even Carlos found ways to turn defenders. Against MLS sides, opponents read the scouting report and stuff up the field and Dallas gasps for air. The Colorado match made this very clear as Dallas had to rely on a defender’s header to grab a goal. The same Colorado team that has given up the league’s 4th worse amount of goals. Unless Morrow gets move movement up top, Dallas is going to continue to struggle to score goals. Note: With 19 games played, Dallas’ goal differential is only +1. Yipes. Morrow has some very tired troops. As much as it pains to say it, he needs to sit a lot of people Tuesday night and allow the reserves to fight the Open Cup fight. Very important match against the Crew on Saturday. GradesBurse: 8 – Three stellar saves from the youngster and a second game that impressed Moor: 7 – Was in the right spot to score after Coundol flapped at the cross. Serioux: 6 – His confidence is higher than his ability as he got beat a few times stepping to balls and missing Goodson: 7 – Everything works better back there when Clarence plays Gbandi: 5 – Quiet night Dax: 6 – Lots of energy and two or three quality crosses, very much gives what is missing with Saragosa Toja: 6 – Needs a rest and needs it now. Sit him for the Open Cup match. Ricchetti: 5 – See Toja, maybe even more so Alvarez: 6 – More good things from him, but he in particular suffers when the opponents bunker Orduro: 5 – Some better decisions than recently, but still is more speed than results. If he converted even a small percentage of the breakaways he finds himself in, he’d be the team goal scoring leader Ruiz: 5 – His only movement is backwards. If I counted correctly, the first four balls played to him were lost on his first touch SUBS: Rhine: 4 – A hospital ball back to Moor almost gave Colorado the tying goal, but did make a good cross to Alvarez Abe: 6 – First touch of the ball was a sweet attacking pass to Bobby on the above mentioned cross. Saragosa: 6 – Came in and helped shore up a very tired midfield. 8 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Good article, but I disagree completely about match tonight…I consider it more important than one of many non-Divisional league games. I could see resting Toja OR Richhetti, but not both.
The US Open Cup is in our sights…let’s go for it. And note that the entire A team travelled.
Goodson only gets a 7?! I thought for sure he would get an easy 8 and maybe even a 9!
Oduro was the team’s most dangerous player. He deserves atleast a 6.5
I can’t agree with you more on Ruiz. Maybe someone should tell Ruiz that this isn’t the NBA and he isn’t Tim Duncan so stop trying to post up on defenders any time the ball gets near you. Ruiz might find space if he varied his game a bit and if his first move wasn’t backwards into the defender.
Charleston weather forecast was for highs in the 90’s and heat indices pf 110 to 115. As much as we NEED to win tonight, we can’t afford to burn out already tired people. However, I do trust Morrow to do what’s right (provided the players are honest about how they feel).
Big win tonight! And good quality on the webcast…better than some of the early Dallas Burn TV games!
I don’t think any atacking player can get higher than a 5 since they didn’t score OR keep the ball and control play as we should have. I think the backs all get 7’s and higher with Moor getting an 8 (goal) and Goodson & Ray probably 8.5 or 9’s. We won because of the defense and inspite of the attackers.
I guess I was watching a different game than you were. Thankfully, the defense got really lucky this time. Goodson deserves an 8.5 or 9 and Moor as well because of the goal…but there were miscommunications all over the place…which one would expect given the circumstances. Burse did quite well for a debut but he was out of position often, conceded corners that an experienced keeper would not have, and needs to work on his distribution. I think many of the lads were just plain tired and deserve a much needed rest.