FCD News Recap
September 5th, 2007 . By: Chamo JonesDallas advances to the final for the second time in the last three seasons. This will be their third appearance in the US Open Cup final. They won the final in 1997 over DC United. They lost to LA in 2005. This time they will face the New England Revolution. Sala played well in this game saving various 1 v 1 chances. He kept things interesting at times with some poor distribution with his feet. The crossbar was his best friend once. Serioux and Pitchkolan did a good job covering for Yi and Goodson. The front six had found their rhythm by the time they had come into the game and had tilted the field towards Seattle’s goal, but in the few ocassions they had to be called upon they did job well. Moor played a pretty solid game defensively. Going forward he was a bit erratic. Wagenfuhr showed why he is where he is on the depth chart at left back. He hustles, but much of his contribution is not very effective. His crosses were woeful, and he had plenty of time and space to take them over and over. Ricchetti and Toja played their best games in sometime. The other front four didn’t gel in the firtst half, but looked much better in the second half. Denilson in particular created several chances for his teammates that should have resulted in goals. The give and go’s between Alvarez, Toja, Denilson, Thompson and Ruiz will only get better as they get used to each other. Ruiz’s radar was slightly off all night. Even on the goal, it looked like he miss-hit the ball. Thompson did a good job of doing all of the dirty work up front last night. It was nice to see him get rewarded with the chance to convert the penalty kick. That was some interesting “homer” commentary on the webcast. Toja and Wagenfuhr aren’t the type of players that fake injuries to kill time. Sala and Ruiz are fair targets for criticism, not the guys they were picking on. It probably is too much to expect some down the middle commentary from a couple of guys that didn’t know the names of the Dallas players other than Denilson’s. If Seattle is indeed an a viable candidate for MLS expansion, let’s hope that they don’t play at Qwest field. That field was reminiscent of Southlake. And the last thing MLS needs is another astro turf field on their schedule. There is some conflicting information out there about the date of the final. The US Open Cup site indicates that the final will be played on Wednesday, October 3rd. The FC Dallas site indicates that the final will be played on Tuesday, October 2nd. It looks like PHP may already be scheduled to host an event on October 3rd. Stories from last night’s game…Sounders can’t get past MLS’ FC Dallas - News Tribune - Don Ruiz FC Dallas in final of U.S. Open Cup - Star Telegram - Barry Pump Almost a perfect night for Sounders - Seattle Times - Steve Kelley U.S. Open Cup | Sounders miss chance, lose to FC Dallas in overtime - Seattle Times - Matt Massey FC Dallas wins; Open Cup final in Frisco - DMN - Matthew Gaschk FC Dallas ends Seattle’s run with 2-1 2OT victory - Sporting News FC Dallas makes it an all-MLS final - US Open Cup Sept. 4 - FCD 2,Seattle 1 (UPDATED) - FCD Blog Revolution Win In Extra Time - Courant - Tom Puleo Q&A FC Dallas Executive Clark Hunt - Star Telegram - Tobias Lopez Commentary…The 3-5-2: Argentine Love - Goal.com - Greg Lalas FCD facilities are state of the art…FC Dallas Team Physician Utilizes Zone Sonography(TM) Technology From ZONARE - Earth Times 4 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Good analysis, imo! Darn, that annoucer had me ready to throw things at my computer, at times, though. As you said Wagnefuhr and Toja do not fake injuries . . . and it seemed like Juan got knocked at least twice in the ankle. Ouch! It was great to see him be able to shake it off an keep playing, but I hope he’s okay. I also hope Goodson and Yi are okay!! Yikes!
To my inexperienced eyes, I thought FCD ruled Seattle; the only problem seemed to be that blasted turf (the ball sure took some strange hops that would never have happened on grass!). After the first half, it seemed like the guys had figured out how to better control the ball on the articial surface and that they began a slow assault on Seattle that finally led to the goal. I loved Denilson’s flicking passes . . . cool!
I don’t think Sala was faking the injury. He was thrown to the ground pretty hard by the Seattle player. Pitch and Dax got into the players faces over it. You don’t get that animated over a fake.
JuanIg,
out an out fake, no! They Seattle foraward did come through and connect with Sala’s leg. But if you don’t think Sala put on a performance, I got some swamp land down in Florida…
FWIW, I thought Ruiz played it straight up last night. No embellishments at all.
One last point about the turf. I thought it was interesting how both Denilson and Toja figured out how to use the turf to their advantage late in the second half by making passes with “english” to allow their teammates to run onto the ball. Soccer “pool” if you will.
“One last point about the turf. I thought it was interesting how both Denilson and Toja figured out how to use the turf to their advantage late in the second half by making passes with “english” to allow their teammates to run onto the ball. Soccer “pool” if you will.”
Can you explain what you mean to a newbie/still-learning-the-finer-points person?
I did notice that they both seemed to finally figure out how to handle the turf . . . but not sure what you mean here. Just curious!