FCD Drops First Leg of Rio Grande Plate
February 21st, 2008 . 8:25 am . By: Buzz CarrickWithout a traveling reporter nor any TV coverage, we’re forced to rely on FCD’s media report for any information about the first leg of the Rio Grande Plate. According to FCD, Ricardinho netted the loan goal for FCD in the second half. Dallas was clearly in preseason mod, swapping the entire side at halftime after allowing two goals in the first half. Based on the lineup provided by FCD and the formations we saw in training, we can make an accurate guess about the 3-4-3 Dallas looks to have played. First Half
Second Half
Here’s the PR report… FCD DROPS PRESEASON GAME TO TIGRES IN MONTERREY, MEXICOMonterrey, Mexico (Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008) – FC Dallas dropped the first-leg of the third annual Rio Grande Plate friendly series with Mexican-partner club Tigres UANL by a 2-1 score on Wednesday night at the Estadio Universitario in Monterrey, Mexico. Tigres scored early and late in the first half, with forward Ricardinho scoring the lone FCD goal early in the second half on a long-range shot. The return-leg of the aggregate goal series will be played at Pizza Hut Park on a date to be determined later this year. “Given that we are still very early in our preseason, there were a lot of pleasing things to come from the game, especially in the second half,” said FC Dallas head coach following the game. “We had a couple of defensive lapses which cost us big in the first half; but in the second half, we had better possession and created more chances. There were several pleasing individual performances. Our fitness and quality of play will get better as we go through preseason.” FCD, playing only its second preseason game, used two completely different lineups in each half, with seven players seeing their first action of the year. To start, Ray Burse manned the goal in front of a three-man backline consisting of Drew Moor on the right, Duilio Davino in the center, and Alex Yi on the left. The five midfielders were Abdus Ibrahim on the right, Dax McCarty and André Rocha in the center, Blake Wagner on the left, with Juan Toja playing behind forwards Arturo Alvarez and Kenny Cooper. Tigres got on the board after just five minutes, when midfielder Carlos Esquivel sent a cross from the left side to the opposite post where Jesus Palacios headed home the first goal. Tigres had success controlling possession throughout the first half, with FCD only creating a couple of half chances in the opening 45. Tigres stretched their lead with a minute left before the break. Forward Francisco ‘Kikin’ Fonseca beat a man on the right side and took the ball toward goal by the endline. As FCD keeper Ray Burse stepped to cover the near post, Fonseca chipped a ball to the top of the six yard box where Esquivel came running in to one-time a shot past Burse. Dallas entered the contest planning on giving each of the 22 players 45 minutes of action; therefore eleven new faces started the second half. And it was a tail of two halves, as FCD controlled play early and often throughout the second part. In the 51 minute, Ricardinho got one back for FCD when he picked up a lose ball on the left sideline and raced toward goal, stopping to fire a 35 yard left-footed blast from outside the box that hit the right side net for his first goal in an FCD uniform. The Brazilian created another problem for Tigres 20 minutes later when his free kick from just outside the box bounced around before landing in front of Abe Thompson. With his back to the goal, Thompson hit a back heel that surprised the keeper but who reacted quickly by diving to his right and making the save on the goal line. Dominic Oduro also came close to tying the game in the 87th minute, however his curling shot from just outside the arc was denied by the fingertips of outstretched Tigres goalkeeper Enrique Palos. Dallas won the inaugural 2006 Rio Grande Plate 5-4 on penalty kicks after the teams split the two games, each winning their home leg by 2-0 scores. Tigres took the Plate in 2007, winning 2-0 at home and 1-0 in Frisco. FC Dallas returns to play two preseason games at Pizza Hut Park before departing for the second phase of preseason training in Brazil on Feb. 29. Scoring Summary: TIG – Jesus Palacios (Carlos Esquivel) 5’ Tigres UANL: 1-Cirilo Saucedo (Enrique Palos 46’), 4-Flavio Rogerio, 29-Carlos Esquivel (8-Alejandro Villalobos, 86′), 5-Fabian Cubero, 9-Blas Perez (Jonatan de Leon, 46′), 11-Guillermo Marino (85-Jonathan Arenas, 59′), 17-Jesus Palacios, 22- Enrique Escudero, 26-Francisco Fonseca, 27-Diego Martinez (24-Jose Rivas, 65′). FC Dallas: Ray Burse (Dario Sala 46′), Drew Moor (Andrew Daniels 46′), Duilio Davino (Aaron Pitchkolan 46’), Alex Yi (Adrian Serioux 46′), Abdus Ibrahim (C-Bobby Rhine 46′), Andre Rocha (Marcelo Saragosa 46), Dax McCarty (Anthony Wallace 46′), Blake Wagner (Brek Shea 46′), Juan Toja (Abe Thompson 46′), C-Kenny Cooper (Dominic Oduro 46′), Arturo Alvarez (Ricardinho 46′). Disciplinary Summary: FCD – Andre Rocha (yellow card) 16’ Attendance: 16,000 17 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Burse played first half, Sala second. do we read into that Burse has the edge on being the number 1? or is it way to early to be having that discussion?
Is it too early to read after last nights results that Sala should have started and played the entire game?
We were apparently played better all over the field in the second half and we played against the same Tigres group (3 subs). Morrow has a lot of work to do.
Given that that was the first true test for the guys (and they’ve just been back two weeks after that long 2-month break), I would think that there are a LOT of motivated players in the first group, now. They’ve still got the trip to Brazil for training, so I’m not worried . . . yet.
Good that Ricardinho was on fire, though!!
With our fresh 11 in the second I wold hope we would be all over them as they (mostly) had played the entire first half. don’t try to read too much into that.
I am really happy with a 2-1 loss at this stage for sure.
I am really happy with a 2-1 loss at this stage for sure.
This mentally is what’s wrong in Dallas, we are okay with losing and not playing well. Anybody hear about Houston losing lots of players this offseason and looking even better than last year (see yesterday’s crush), of course they are Champions and that starts in the preseason.
Buzz,
From game accounts, it sounds like Toja played beneath Cooper-Alvarez and Ricadinho played beneath Thompson Oduro, which points more to a 3-5-2 as opposed to the 3-4-3 alignment you suggest
Assuming that the 1st XI represents the starting lineup, then the only thing I don’t get is that it seems that the 2nd XI did better than the 1st XI against essentially the same XI from Tigres… either we got better tactics going into the second half or some of the 2nd XI players should be 1st XI starters.
Who knows… except SM
Is it possible that Ibee could be starting at right wing when the season opens?
Drace, yes the PR guy wrote it as Toja behind. I based my shape on the tactical shape Morrow used the day before the game in training. It would be very unlikely he would use a 3-4-3 in training the say before and then not use it in the game at Tigres.
its still too early to know what the opening day choice will be at GK or right wing.
I’m a little confused about the opening choice for GK. From what I’ve seen at the practices I’ve managed to make it to, there’s a big gap between Sala and Burse Jr. Sala seems to be in tip top form and Burse Jr. looks like an amateur in comparison. I thought Morrow was a “play the better guy in practice” type of coach?
You can’t say this whats wrong with Dallas. It’s a PRESEASON match the first one since the guys got back. We also played a far superior team to the one that Houstank played. Sydney FC=a huge joke.
Okay, I’m concerned about this team because we have been in a downward spiral for the last year and nothings been added to help.
In 2006 we were 3 pts from the Supporters Shield. Last year we dropped to third in the West and dropped 2-4 of our best players with only an old defender and cast off in Rocha to replace them. How long does Hitch and Morrow get to stop the bleeding and turn this thing around? It’s easy to get rid of players but we need to get rid of the decision makers.
len – thank God you’re a blogger and NOT a decision maker. Winning teams are built over time and have a consistent approach to player acquisition and development. Knee jerk reactions to pre-season losses accomplishes nothing.
Houstank and the Revs are consistently good because they don’t change coaches or GM after every loss. This team had it’s best years under Andy and Dir. They were together for several years and we won the Open Cup. If Sutter had not been injured, we may have won it all.
And then came the knee jerk changes. Andy goes…then Dir…then Jeffries…then CC and on and on… And what do we have to show for it? Nada.
So let this play out. Give it time and for gosh sakes, it’s pre-season.
Hey FF,
Have you notice we are getting worse not better? 2006 was a high point but we got rid of the those players so we are constantly starting over. Morrow and Hitch have been terrible with no accountibility.
Spot on len. Let’s remember that Hitch is the man that brought in players like Hislop and Denilson and let our very own R.O.B. and Sir Richard go by the wayside. We need a director of player personnel in here stat. Hitch knows absolutely nothing about soccer, and apparently even less about vending tickets, if that’s possible.
Has anyone thought of looking to Kenny Cooper Sr.? He has the experience and knows what it takes to make a team successful this side of the pond. Just a thought.
Hey Buzz, any word yet on what happened on the 2 goals. Some have said it was Moor and Yi and others Burse. What are your sources telling you?