This team needs a warrior that will lead this team. You would think that between Ruiz and Adrian, there would be enough fight in the team but it just hasn’t materialized.

Urgency, focus, killer instinct – that is the only difference between Dallas and the elite teams of the league. The elite teams have it, Dallas doesn’t.

And I hate writing that. I’d love to be wrong. Character can be forged in the playoffs, so I won’t say it is impossible, but it sure hasn’t shown itself so far this year. The youthful “devil may care” come from behind wins are different. That isn’t consistent enough for the playoffs.

This isn’t the kind of building momentum towards the end of the year that Morrow talked about having.

Excellent analysis. Even I have very little hope for the playoffs at this point, though of course we’ll be tailgating and cheering loudly.

I do urge everyone out to support their team. If you don’t want to tailgate with us, tailgate next to us! Or in a different parking lot. Or just buy a ticket & cheer at the game.

Agreed that the Denilson signing was a complete bust, but worth a shot at the time, I felt. Unfortunately, it turns out there were good reasons for him playing last year in the Middle East and being so available to us. Have never seen a strong team chemistry bite the dust so fast.

I agree completely that our team is lacking what my favorite Burn/Hoops player of all time brought…guts, toughness, a zeal to win. That’d be Leonel Alvarez, the enforcer for the toughest National team in their era, Columbia. That’s who Jason Kreis, Brian Haynes, and others from that era credit most for their own developement as pros.
We are absolutely lacking that at the moment. Though I think the future looks good if we can keep Toja & Ricchetti around and healthy.

Trying to talk myself into reasons for optimism, and here’s what I’ve come up with:

1) No Ricardo Clark.

2) Houston have only scored 2 goals in their last 3 matches.

3) Kenny Cooper is due to make an impact.

4) Alvarez, Toja, Richetti and Serioux are all coming back to form after a couple of months of injuries/lackluster play.

That’s all I can come up with.

I am currently reading “Fever Pitch,” which was recommended by someone on the BigSoccer Board. . . as this is my first full year as an FCD supporter, the book is hitting home, because I realize that I am truly addicted. And even though I can say, as most everyone else is saying, that I seriously doubt (unless the miraculous happens)that FCD can defeat Houston, I WILL be there cheering them on. The most frustrating part about the team, to me anyway, is that I DO believe that we have some very talented players — enough, in fact, that winning is not inconceivable, but . . . I have let the reality seep in. I will cheer and scream and shout. All I ask, at this point, is that the guys FIGHT for whatever result they get.

GO HOOPS!!!

My how our standards have changed.

A year ago Clarke faced a “win MLS Cup or your fired” ultimatum. Nevermind improving every year, including a USOC final appearance in ‘05 and a franchise-best division title and three points from the Supporter’s Shield finish in ‘06.

By almost every measurable standard Morrow’s squad has done worse. (The same number of goals allowed was in two fewer games this season.) Check that: Morrow’s team can win shootouts…the only thing keeping Clarke’s side from hosting two semi-final matches.

I suppose you could argue the talent level, while getting younger, has improved. But wouldn’t that be a further indictment of the tactical approach?

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, but I scratch my head at the lack calls for Morrow’s head from those demanding Clarke’s.

Fight for the shirt, indeed.

Anybody have any feel for SM’s job status for next season? You can make a case, as Peter did, that this team is worse than last season’s. If last year’s failure got CC canned, then how does SM survive?

Morrow will get the inevitable “its his first season” excuse. But then again, who else is available?

That is a hard call on SM. He made some bold moves to change things around and one big component was injured and the another is a serious work in progress that may or may not pan out. He really hasn’t had a full off-season with this group and when you compare this group to the other elite teams who have been together for a number of years, it isn’t unreasonable to think an off-season together might not make a big difference.

This season is all about “retooling” – if it all goes down the sh#tter, Denilson and injuries will take the blame. A little bit of good news – an early score against Houston on Saturday – would be great.

in the press Morrow was saying how he wanted a settled lineup going in to the playoffs. but he tried dello and blake in the defense in the last few games. the defense is the one thing that should have been settled over a month ago. i just dont understand it.

Allow me to clarify… I do NOT think Morrow should be on the chopping block.

But he did make a series of bad decisions this season, and the arguement can be made that the number of bad ones outweighed the good ones of Toja and Ricchetti.

Morrow will be fine after the season. he made big improvements initially this season and had 4 big finds (Toja, Richetti, Burse, Serioux) and ship out the crap of last year’s team (Mulrooney, ROB, Vanney). He’ll use this off-season to find another 2 guys that will be big time for us and we’ll be better next year.

it is too late for 2007 though.

Well, i will go with the “first year coach” excuse. I didn’t want Colin Clarke to go , but i do remember a ton of people calling for his head. Morrow got screwed in the goal department pretty early on losing our best forward. This team will be better next season, and hopefully we’ll have Ray J in goal for the whole year. Sorry Inferno fans, Dario has gotten old and fragile. There is a possibility that we can still pull this out , but they’re gonna have to play like they did in the early portion of the season

Mr. Welpton, I’m tired of you hating Carlos Ruiz. Every column you mention him, it’s “Ruiz is a sneaky weasel” or “Ruiz was just miserably poor” or “the team continues to struggle to create any real offense, mostly caused by a horrible lack of movement and touch from Ruiz.” You’re not a professional journalist and you’re more than entitled to your opinion, but you’re also ridiculously biased against FC Dallas’s captain.

I attended several games at PHP this season and was pleased with Ruiz’s efforts. He missed his share of chances, but he never dogged it on the field. Even when the odds seemed ridiculous, like when FCD went down 4-0 in the first 17 minutes against the Galaxy in SuperLiga play, he busted his butt like the rest of the team to bring Dallas back into the match. Ruiz is a good player having an off year, and while his style of play may not suit your fancy, it doesn’t deserve your level of criticism.

I don’t own any FC Dallas pajamas, but I do think the Hoops have more than a small chance to upset a Clark-less Dynamo, and I sincerely believe strong efforts from Ruiz, Cooper, Toja, and Ricchetti are going to lead the way.

As for the early goal, I’ll settle for A goal…period. I can’t remember what they look like.

Okay okay, honestly I think we will advance and win the whole thing. Hear me out. At the beggining of the season when we won, I was sceptical, as to me, we looked terrible. We couldnt pass and we kicked it out of bounds. I brought my opinions here and was blasted for them. Then we got into our annual slump with our annual injury to Ruiz. But the thing about MLS is its so random. As long as we make the playoffs we have as good a shot as anyone. As for SM, will someone who knows him please tell him to put Gbandi back in, take out Denilson, start Ruiz and Cooper (idc how they feel), and do something about Serioux because as much as I hate to say it, he looks shitty. Go with the lineup that hustles the most (besides Ruiz) because when we won, we didnt win because of talent or coaching, we won because we tried harder.

Morrow can bitch all he wants about “having a settled line-up” but he’s the one who f’d it up. This thing went tits up when be benched Cooper for the Real Salt Lake game at PHP, right after Cooper had scored in Chicago and K.C. (both 2-1 wins) why change things then ? why not keep Cooper in the starting line-up then ? Morrow didn’t, Cooper broke his leg a week later (coming of a bench he should NEVER have been on) and the whole thing went to hell in a hand cart since. Morrow and his idiotic tinkerman mentality brought this on himself.

I’m not an FCD supporter, but I enjoyed what I saw from the team this year … until Denilson showed up. I was excited about the addition, thinking (like everyone) ‘Toja, Richetti, Alvarez and Denilson.’

Yikes. Talk about a confluence of events: Richetti gets hurt; Toja gets fried and [i]and[/i] hurt; Ruiz never gets that step he lost back; Denilson vacuums up money to no good end. Dispiriting.

The beautiful thing about football is one goal against the run of play can give everything a new context. Here’s to hoping you can put paid to those orange-clad grinders from the malarial swamp.

Morrow is to blame. he doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. Why did he mess with the line-up so much. Cause he doesn’t know what…Oooppss. I already said that. AND,,,,DON’T give the credit to Morrow for Toja. He is not the one responsible for bring the guy here….Period….

“The beautiful thing about football is one goal against the run of play can give everything a new context. Here’s to hoping you can put paid to those orange-clad grinders from the malarial swamp.”

I expect we’ll have the run of play, but can we score in that circumstance? Thanks for the good post.

“Be careful when you go down there. You do realize that if God were to give the U.S. an enema Houston would be the insertion point.”

Boy, did we move completely past “glass half full” to “I never had anything to drink in the first place” ?

How about a little optimism. The playoffs are a funny thing. You never know when a time might get hot.

Of course that requires ignoring the last 8 games, and return to pre-September form.

So…. Here’s hoping that $1.6million plays like it, Ruiz actually shows up on the score sheet, Toja dominates the midfield like only he can, Alvarez channels his inner Mesi, and the defense doesn’t decide to take a nap.

Go get ‘em boys. We’ll be rooting for you.

To paraphrase Gary Lineker: “Football is played by twenty-two men in shorts running around a pitch and in the end Houston wins”.

if we lose to Houston…it will be in many ways expected…

but if we somehow beat Houston and then we tank against Chivas after overcoming Houston would be even more frustrating and dissapointing to me at this time…

but realistically we need to start thinking about who we should go after for next year…

There’s a lot of negative talk on here! Let’s just go support our team and not say, “Well they’re gonna lose but I guess i’ll go and support them anyway.” FCD has every chance to beat Houston and you need to quit acting like a bunch of fair weather fans!

I think there’s a difference between being “fair weather” and being “realistic.” I’m realistic about what the chances are, based on their season record, etc, of FCD winning the first round . . .

However, I absolutely still LOVE this team and will be there screaming and shouting and pulling for them. “Realistically,” logic dictates that the odds of them beating Houston are not so good . . . which is why if they play hard, fight with heart, but don’t make it, I’ll be happy. If they DO make it, however far past the first round, I’ll be even happier! Win it all? ECSTATIC.

Game is tomorrow!!! Everyone get your PJ’s on

Wow, would you look at that…FCD WON!!!