Match Report: FC Dallas 3, Columbus Crew 1
October 7th, 2007 . 10:35 pm . By: Jamie FougerousseAfter going down 1-0 to an Eddie Gaven goal in the first half, Dallas responded with three unanswered strikes in the second half, the second two coming quite against the run of play. Arturo Alvarez tied the game just after halftime, and Abe Thompson added two more in the final five minutes. The result gave Dallas their first win in Crew Stadium, but more importantly it qualified them for the playoffs with two games remaining. Crew Coach Sigi Schmid made three changes to the lineup that lost 2-1 to LA last weekend. Forward Jason Garey and midfielder Ned Grabavoy went to the bench. Andy Herron moved up into Garey’s forward slot, while Stefani Miglioranzi came into central midfield. US U-20 Robbie Rogers got the start at right midfield. Finally, defender Tim Ward replaced Danny O’Rourke, who was not on the bench for this game. Dallas Coach Steve Morrow returned to the 4-2-2-2 system after trying the 4-3-3 for a couple of games, but in doing so he also made some key personnel shifts from the team that lost to New England in the US Open Cup Final Wednesday night. First off, Ray Burse got the start in goal over Dario Sala. Defensive midfielder Pablo Ricchetti, who left the game Wednesday with a groin strain, was still out, so center back Adrian Serioux moved up into his spot. Aaron Pitchkolan replaced Serioux in the back line. Another big surprise was the return of Denilson to the starting lineup, replacing Dax McCarty. Finally, up top, Abe Thompson got the start due to the suspension of Carlos Ruiz. Dallas only needed a point to cement their place in the post-season, but the Hoops had never won a game at Crew Stadium. The Crew were fighting to keep their chances of snagging the 8th playoff spot alive, but nothing would be decided by this game’s outcome. The Crew came out attacking from the first minute. Keeper Ray Burse made a stellar stop on a free kick by Eddie Gaven. In the 10th minute, he made two saves on long shots from Duncan Oughton and Robbie Rogers. By the 17th minute, Dallas began to work the ball forward, as the front six created some good combination play, but Columbus absorbed the pressure well and picked smart times to counterattack. In the 18th minute Robbie Rogers sprung Andy Herron behind the Dallas defense with a long ball, but Herron missed just wide at the near post. The defensive errors that have plagued the Dallas side reared their ugly head again as Clarence Goodson misjudged the bounce of a high ball in the 26th minute. Alejandro Moreno stole the ball and got off a shot from a tight angle, but Burse made the save. The Crew had a great chance in the 28th minute as Robbie Rogers beat David Wagenfuhr and got a good cross in front of goal. Herron headed the ball on goal after an awkward bounce, and Burse managed to block it. Herron cleaned up the rebound and poked the ball back toward the penalty spot, where a wide-open Eddie Gaven fired high and wide. Columbus finally broke through in the 31st minute. Eddie Gaven played a ball behind the Dallas defense on the left side for Alejandro Moreno’s diagonal run. Goodson was right on Moreno, and Moreno held the ball up and dropped it back to Gaven. With a shot that looked very similar to the Chris Rolfe goal two weeks ago, Gaven ripped a curling right footer across the Dallas goal from distance. Andy Herron was right where the ball was going to bounce, on the edge of the six-yard box. He could have played it himself, and that forced Ray Burse to wait. Herron then dummied the ball, and it took one hop and skidded into the goal at the far post. 1-0 Columbus. For fans wondering about Herron being offsides, he was pretty much dead even with Pitchkolan when Gaven hit the ball. Dallas seemed to perk up a bit after the goal, with Adrian Serioux taking advantage of the room Columbus was giving him to dribble the ball into midfield a bit. After some direction from Morrow, Denilson did a good job of adding some defense to his play for the first time in a Dallas uniform, and he contributed to the attack towards the end of the half with some good work up the left side and a long shot on goal that finally forced a save out of Will Hesmer. In general, Dallas had some good ideas in the midfield going forward in the first half, but they were not finding any penetration into the final third. They had a little better luck in the opening minutes of the second half. In the 48th minute, Drew Moor played a long ball down the right side for Dominic Oduro. Oduro held it up and did some great, patient dribbling work on Marcos Gonzalez until he could poke it back to Arturo Alvarez. Say it with me, Dallas fans: Alvarez cut inside across the top of the penalty box and fired into the goal. He had to go far post instead of his usual near due to defensive traffic, but the goal tied the game for the Hoops. Alvarez had another chance just like the goal a minute later; this time, going for his usual near post, he pulled it just wide. Clarence Goodson pulled his hamstring in the 53rd minute off the ball. Dallas played with ten for about five minutes while trainer Josh Watts evaluated Goodson and Bobby Rhine warmed up. They finally made the sub in the 58th minute, but during the time he was out Columbus had some dangerous chances. Burse came off his line to cut off two Tim Ward crosses into the area with punches. Ward continued to cause problems with his long balls, and the one in the 60th minute to Andy Herron drew Bobby Rhine away from Robbie Rogers. Herron dropped the ball to Rogers, who fired just wide of the far post. For most of the rest of the game, the Dallas goal was under siege by the Crew and it looked like the Hoops would be lucky to escape with a draw. Miglioranzi had a go from distance in the 64th. Robbie Rogers got in behind the defense in the 65th, but Bobby Rhine managed to recover and close down the shot. Abe Thompson flicked a goal kick on for Dominic Oduro in the 69th minute. Oduro beat Gonzalez and got around keeper Will Hesmer at the edge of the 18, only to fire into the side netting from about twelve yards out on a shot he should have finished. Ray Burse continued to have an excellent night in goal, saving the Hoops’ bacon throughout the match. The one knock on his performance would be his decisions to punch many of his saves instead of catching them. Sometimes that was necessary, but many times the punches left messes that defenders had to clean up. Burse saved a scorching strike from Tim Ward in the 76th minute, and Eddie Gaven collected the rebound and sent a cross to substitute Kei Kamara at the far post. Denilson made a saving diving header to cut off the cross. The Brazilian made another good defensive cutoff two minutes later. Columbus kept up the pressure, and by the 80th minute Dallas was in trouble. The Hoops had absolutely no possession, and the whole game had turned into Crew attack, Dallas takes ball, Dallas clears, repeat. At this point, however, two things happened that changed the game. First, Steve Morrow subbed out Denilson for Dax McCarty, and he had McCarty and Arturo Alvarez swap sides. This put defensive pressure on Columbus’ left-sided attack where Schmid had stacked Tim Ward and Robbie Rogers. Then, three minutes later, Schmid took off Rogers and Oughton and replaced them with Jacob Thomas and Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who was returning from injury. This allowed Dallas enough room to breathe on the right side, and they immediately began looking dangerous in the attack again. In the 86th minute, Dallas broke through. Adrian Serioux played a ball toward the endline for substitute Ricardinho, who arrived just in time to get a low cross to the near post. Abe Thompson flew into the area and beat Will Hesmer to the cross. Thompson held it up as he fell backwards until he saw daylight and the Hoops striker placed his shot between Frankie Hejduk and the near post to give Dallas the lead. The goal changed the game. The Crew sat back and defended, while Dallas suddenly looked confident in the attack, possessing the ball and getting numbers forward. Aaron Pitchkolan did very well to clean up a long clearance by Columbus even with Alejandro Moreno hanging all over him. Pitch sent the ball back upfield and the Dallas attack began again. In the 89th minute, Abe Thompson hit a quick free kick out to Dax McCarty on the right. McCarty pushed forward to about 25 yards from goal, then cut inside and fed a wide open Arturo Alvarez on the left edge of the penalty box. Alvarez fired low. Hesmer saved it, but his spill allowed Abe Thompson to crash in and bury the third Dallas goal. Columbus threw themselves forward for the duration of stoppage time, and Moreno forced one more nice save out of Burse as he pushed a good shot into the post. Dallas weathered the late storm for the 3-1 win. The loss keeps Columbus in 9th place overall, 5 points out of the last playoff spot. Dallas clinches a playoff birth and remains 5th overall and 3rd in the West. Columbus is away to DC United Saturday, while Dallas hosts Chivas USA Thursday night.
FC Dallas (13-11-4) vs. Columbus Crew (7-11-10) Scoring Summary: FC Dallas Lineup: FC Dallas Lineup:
Substitutes Not Used: Kenny Cooper, Dario Sala, Blake Wagner, Anthony Wallace Columbus Crew Lineup:
Substitutes Not Used: Jason Garey, Ned Grabavoy, Andy Gruenebaum, Adam Moffat
Misconduct Summary: Referee: Mark Geiger 1 Comment(s) Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
a relief knowing that we got the job done for the playoffs…