Game Grades: Chicago Fire vs FC Dallas
September 21st, 2007 . 7:50 am . By: Peter Welpton
Steve Morrow and his FC Dallas squad are replete with issues. Injuries, new personalities and an overall funk has overcome the squad of late and Thursday night’s display continues to show that the team struggles to beat teams that are even behind them in the standings. From front to back Dallas just cannot seem to find its form. Defenders struggle mightily to make passes out of the back, midfielders cannot find a way to manufacture an attack that works, and up top? Well, Carlos pulled a rabbit out of the hat at the very last minute to salvage a point, but before that, it was sparse. Morrow is obviously going to ride Carlos this season, and that is understandable. Ruiz on is now on five goals in the last seven league games. That’s better than anyone else, but is that an endorsement or back handed compliment? So, love him or hate him, Morrow has played his hand for that position and it is now clear that Dallas will live or die by Carlos Ruiz. When Ricchetti came out at halftime the little amount of chemistry and possession the team had was lost. Morrow also made a move that was questionable: Changing two positions for one player. Moving Serioux to midfield and putting Pitch in the back turned out to hurt. Pitch had a miserable 45 minutes, mostly with some disastrous passing. Aaron works very hard, and he is new to the position, but his rate of unforced turnovers out of the back in this game was glaring. Aaron isn’t alone. The one thing that looks to have escaped the team in the last several weeks, is simple passing. There is a lot of attempts at tricks and showtime, but on the whole the squad is failing to convert the simple stuff. The ESPN team kept applauding the Fire defense (which was organized), but Dallas’ inability to hold possession was way more their own fault than anything Chicago was doing. The bottom line is that with five games remaining, FCD now sits as close to falling out of the playoffs as they do first place. That is a stunning turn from when the team was hunting the Supporter’s Shield. FC Dallas flat out just has to find its form and start winning games, especially against teams that it likely will see in the playoffs. The team has gone from a side that always gave a sense that they can hold their own, to a side that exudes frustration and low confidence. At this point, four of the five games are against playoff squads. There is plenty of time to got on a roll… right? GRADESSala: 8 – A wonderful night. Great to see an effort we all know he is capable of Subs: 13 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Agreed on most of above…especially about Moor (some horrible passes by his standards) and Gbandi…my section was screaming at him to get up after a crash…he just laid there pouting with action all around. And sad about Pitch, but I think he’s peaked…hard to believe Yi isn’t better at this point, unless he’s still not 100%.
Also agreed on double switch…why not leave Serioux be and put in Dax? I’d vote to rest Toja until US Open Cup game. Anyone see what happened to Ricchetti!? That sub startled us all.
I agree, too.
What do you all think is the problem? What’s the difference between the first half and the second half of the season?
And next comes LA without Goodson, without Ricchetti (maybe, given an “injured hamstring”), and possibly even without Toja (depending on how the ankle is doing).
Great job Peter. I agree with each and every grade and your assessment of the state of the Hoops. We really missed Ricchetti in the 2nd half, but I don’t think Dax is the answer. He just doesn’t have the skill or style of play for me to keep up with guys like Toja, Denilson and Alvarez. I think we really miss Saragosa and we’re finally realizing the valuable role he played on this team.
Last night I sat near mid-field to watch the Denilson vs. Blanco matchup. What a disappointment. The passing through the midfield looked like U10 rec league fare. I was stunned at the number of passes that were off target, without pace, or poorly conceived. I’m not sure that the passing has improved since ROB and/or Ramon left town.
OK, Peter doesn’t like Ruiz. Not even when he scores and saves the team a point. If Abe scores he gets an 8 and is MOTM. I know Ruiz’s bar is set higher, but jeez.
Otherwise scores are okay.
Disconcerting that we seem to lose composure when the other team scores first (which is seemingly every game).
Give Ruiz his due. that goal is by any standards amazing. any other player would have screwed that up. I think clarence using his head toward the end of the match has been what we are missing. hint–cooper provided that before. thats one problem. attacking doesnt mean your dribble the ball till you lose it…(come on dallas). pass and find the open man. thank goodness chicago has young players that shoot when you should pass and pass when they should shoot.
second…I really like Denilson and Ricky but this is soccer a team sport not (and one basketball). pull magic tricks after you have grinded chicago into the dirt. thumbs up to denilson for knocking blanco of the ball.
third…defense? the only thing i see is that they dont trust each other to make the play. which they arent but…thats why we have 3 guys marking one player and 3 open guys in the box. Pitch learn how to pass…PLEASE. Moor just had a off night. Gbandi looked better but no where near what he is capable of.
SUPER DARIO… out of body performance. its nice to see that again. the goal is no ones fault just a bad clearence and a amazing shot by a very good player. those happen sometimes.
Heres to being a die hard fan and the hope that we dont end up knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.
GET IT TOGETHER GUYS!!!
WE CAN STILL WIN IT ALL
Peter Welpton tell the fcd president to pay $ 7 million SO THEY CAN BRING Drogba or Eto YOU CANT COMPARE THAT TO $ 450.000 per year THAT Ruiz make Ruiz is been the best for FCD the last 3 years end the best straker in mls so far. I DONT LIKE YOUR GAME GRADES COMENT ANY MORE PETER WELPTON YOU ARE PATETICWHO AGREES WHIT ME HOW MUCH YOU GIVE TO PETER WELPTON COMENTES I GIVE HEM 2 IT S TO MUCH
HOW MUCH YOU GIVE TO PETER WELPTON COMENTSI GIVE HEM 2 SO FAR HI HAS THAN NATING BUT JUST CRITICIZE RUIZ
Gotta disagree and say Ruiz had a very good game – the goal and a perfect setup to Denilson. Super Dario, making the impossible look easy. In this game I really thought we could have used Cooperinho. Injuries are beating up the “Double Dragon” Toja and Richetti. Denilson is getting there. Overall, maybe a disappointment in some ways, but a comeback is a comeback and points are points. Like Keith Richards sings in Thru and Thru, “You know that we do take-away….but we deliver too.”
While the Ruiz goal was excellent and he deserves credit for maintaining his composure, he should have gone in at half time with a hatrick.
Arturo can make some nice runs at the defense, but he often takes so long to line up the shot that it becomes completely predictable. His corner kicks last night were completely guff. Somebody else, please take the corner kicks.
I think Denilson is getting there, but not sure about Ricardinho. Rico has some good technical skills and is like a little whirlwind, but half the time his head is down and he doesn’t seem to know where he’s going or really have a plan. Abe is not as quick, but he is much more settled and purposeful in his play.
Like many others I’m looking forward to the return of Coop.. but I have this uneasy feeling I’m going to be disappointed. Coop did some great things last year, it’s going to be hard for him to re-integrate himself and hit top form, especially given that he was struggling a little even before his injury. Prove me wrong Kenny!
I am certainly not a hard core Ruiz supporter, but he has been in good form recently. I thought his performance was nothing short of inspired last night. He exhibited a Toja like work rate and created scoring chances. He made a fantastic play to set up Denilison in the box early in the game (unfortunately, Denilson froze and didn’t even get a shot off). I think he was man of the match for FCD even before he scored the goal.
Ruiz should get a 7 here but Goodson was clearly MOTM. W/o him we lose 3 or 4-0. We don’t score w/o him (assist) and he saved several clear Fire chances when other Hoops screwed up. I’m guessing he may be playing in a higher league next year.