Comments on: Game Grades: FC Dallas vs Real Salt Lake

By: Jaime

Jaime — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:48:06 +0000

Pegasus, that’s the lineup for me and I think that Wallace has earned a shot at the mystery LW spot. I’d love to see him get a run at Becks this weekend…but I bet Rhine starts

By: Kobe

Kobe — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:06:25 +0000

Skeeter, Juan Roman Riquelme is never going to happen, but Ariel Ortega is a possibility. Our own Super Dario is a close friend of El Burrito Ortega. It looks like they’ve played on 2 teams together, River and Newell’s Old Boys. Let’s tell Super Sala we need Ortega now.

By: Pegasus

Pegasus — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:47:39 +0000

3nOut has the gist of it. Try and put your best players in their best spots and then see how it looks (left mid is still a mystery guest).

Alvarez Cooper
Dax
? Toja Ricchetti Rocha
Serioux Davino Moor

Sala

See what the holes are after this. Aquire a DP forward and move Alvarez to left mid? Dax can’t hack it in the hole go after a DP Amid.

By: 3nOut

3nOut — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:43:18 +0000

as someone mentioned on another thread here, we have plenty of good MFs, but they just don’t seem to be in the right position. for example…even morrow admits dax’s future will be at CM, yet he’s playing wide. buzz mentioned rocha played very well at RM during TnT, but is now playing CDM. toja could benefit from playing deeper instead of playing wide, but morrow prefer’s the flow killer saragosa.

it’s tough knowing that our deepest position (MF) isn’t all that we expected. everytime they play, it seems as if they’ve never practiced together before w/ all the turnovers. i refuse to believe our team is that bad. does morrow have enough Xs and Os to help this team?

By: Skeeter

Skeeter — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:39:37 +0000

My suggestions for filling the obvious hole at attacking midfield:
Juan Requelme or Ariel Ortega. What do you think? Any one else have any ideas?

By: JC

JC — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:34:03 +0000

Just make some stinkin’ runs off the ball already. Sheesh.

By: Skeeter

Skeeter — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:45:23 +0000

I think Yahoo Serioux was the man of the Match for us even though he only played an hour.

In about the 75th minute, I had to ask my son if Toja was taken out at half time. Unfortunately, he was not.

Why do we need an Attacking Midfielder and not another Forward?
This Team has only managed 70 total shots this season. That puts them in 12th place in the league. Only ahead of TFC & SJ. (Is that company that a 13 year franchise should be in?) Despite that, we are in 10th in shots on goal and tied with 2 other teams for 6th in goals scored. (The Forwards are doing their jobs).

By: Wheezer

Wheezer — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:51:29 +0000

RSL may not have dominated, but they deserved the win more than FCD for sure. They controlled the ball more and won many more 50/50 balls. When Beckerman is up getting runs in the box and shots on goal, then you are losing the midfield battle.
I don’t want to see Saragosa on the field unless it is defending a lead. He supplies no offense and no good passes out of the back. FCD looked lost playing on that turf. Replace Saragosa with Dax and have a midfield triangle of Dax, Richetti and Toja. Wallace and Rocha on the wings.

By: fcdfan

fcdfan — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:47:10 +0000

I think the basic problem is this team just doesn’t have enough MLS quality players (not that that is such a high quality). FC Dallas lost 4-5 good, MLS-level players off of last year’s roster and replaced them with developmental players, a 50 year old defender that moves like my grandma, and an unproven (and so far, rubbish) young Brazilian.

By: marco4

marco4 — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:23:53 +0000

Any time I see a game played on a surface like that, I’m almost inclined to just throw out the result and move on to the next one. Other than the final score, did Saturday’s game really play out all that differently than previous games @ SL? I’m not sure it did.

From where I was watching, I saw FCD score a terrific goal, and if the communication in back had been better on the mess that turned into RSL’s 1st goal (just get the hell out of Dario’s way and let him clear the ball!), worst they come out is with a tie. And considering how that surface could have further exposed Davino’s lack of pace, I would have taken that in a second.

On the less optimistic side, I think two things were fairly clear: 1. not the same team w/o Dax, and, 2. not sure if the 3-4-3 is the answer with this group, especially for how it minimizes Toja’s impact. Whether due to injury or to the Olympics, that first point is one they better learn to address. As for the second, hard to see how switching formations like that goes along with Morrow’s stated desire to give Wagner a good run on the left side.