Monday Morning Gaffer: Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas
May 26th, 2008 . 12:39 pm . By: Buzz Carrick
Sometimes it almost doesn’t matter how the team plays as long as they get a result. This was one of those days. If FCD had lost this one it would have been horrific for their psyche. Thankfully they showed some heart and got the result.
Real Salt Lake 1, FC Dallas 2El Bueno (The Good)When a guy comes on and scores twice to win the game, it’s hard to go against him for Man of the Match. I loved Oduro’s emotion after scoring. I usually like to pick 90 minute players, but Dom’s performance was such a step forward for him he deserves the nod. He was active and used his best tool effectively. Getting into the box and surprising Rimando with the athletic quick header was a opportunistic play. The through the gap sprint for the second goal was classic Dom. He’s been working hard in training to improve his weak point, and the improvement came with the touch into space. Dom’s so quick the touch doesn’t have to be tight, just clean into space so he can go get it. I hope this is the maturation of a player, even if it’s not three goals in two games deserves a start.
Rocha looks energetic and lively early, and that carried throughout the game He had a couple good free kicks too, although McCarty is still more consistent and dangerous there. I also like that Rocha didn’t take crap off RSL, won some balls, played good in combination. Great lead pass on the Oduro goal, he’s had several of those this year to Cooper. Cooper was much more in the box today, which is always a good thing. Did he change or is the team just playing higher? Perhaps both? He also held people off better and held possession more. Good players can improve their game and this game was a step forward for Cooper. Let’s see it translate to the Houston game. Dave Dir was really strong in the booth, lots of talk about coaching and players, heat in Dallas, what’s missing like lack of rotation and movement… great stuff. Of particular note was his comment about changing training times and holding shorter sessions as the heat got going in Texas. Any chance he could be up for the FCD job? They certainly could do worse; but Kevin Keegan aside, it’s awfully tough to go home again. Now technical director, that would work. I am as harsh as anyone toward Saragosa about his shortcoming for tight possession, but I am increasingly convinced his bite and tenacity as a defensive mid at absolutely vital to FCD. (Unless of course Serioux is moved to midfield). Without Marcelo in there clogging up the middle it’s just to easy for opposition go to through midfield. Sure FCD’s worse at the quick possession and movement, but they have been poor at that anyway the last 3 games. I liked the subs Ferruzzi made. Dom Oduro for Thompson to try and exploit the more open field, and Alvarez for Wallace in a second offensive minded move. Although Alvarez’s tendency to roam, which is not a bad thing per say, meant Cooper wanted to go wide to defend some. Toja for Ricchetti was another good one, a player that could get forward and beat players on the dribble when RSL was sitting deep. All three subs were positive in terms of trying to win the game. Overall it was a positive day for FC Dallas. Even more credit to Ferruzzi for having the guts to drop Toja, and on his birthday no less. It was the better move for the long term benefit of the team. It would have been easy for Ferruzzi to stick with Toja in an attempt to win this single game, instead he risked the outcome of this one, and ire of fans if it hadn’t worked, to bench FCD’s young star in an attempt to motivate him. In a sense Ferruzzi risked his short term reputation to help the long term prospects of whoever replaces Morrow. When subbed on Toja immediately worked hard, which was good to see after his performance against LA. He even said the right hing afterward.
El Camino Central (Middle of the Road)Wasn’t so sure about going basically 3-4-2 with Rocha sliding wide right after losing Rhine to the red mist. Rocha still wanted to get forward and into the middle and that would leave the wide parts of the field open. I might have been tempted to pull Abe back to right mid and leave Cooper high alone. Bringing in Dom was certainly a good idea, and he would have made great sense in the wide right spot if it had been 3-5-1. For example, the RSL counter came down their left, the FCD right where Rhine had been. In the end FCD won, so I suppose the result says it worked out, but I still wasn’t sure it was the right move. Big step forward by Wallace compared to the previous game. Active, mobile, got forward, played solid defense. Arguably as good as he’s played this year. Still the left is not as good as the right (prior to the Rhine red). Sometime this year some balance will have to be find and it will mostly likely require someone young, Wagner, Wallace, or Shea, to play into it. No Tan Bueno (Not So Good)Nice run by Rhine to end line for cross early, we don’t see that enough. Rhine did really well showing to give options to central players and balancing the field… right up until he got the dumb red card. I applaud the toughness and heart he’s showing this week, his contribution to getting the team rallied this week is incalculable, but Bobby knows better.
Morales breaking forward untracked a few times is bothering me… He was finding to much space between the midfield and defense of FCD. He drifted wide and sprung Espindola for the goal. I still think the ball movement isn’t good enough in midfield. Given the combination of players it wasn’t as bad as I expected. But I like to see crisp passing and the ability to keep the ball form the opposition, thus making for less FCD running, One of my favorite MLS players, Kyle Beckerman, wasn’t as good for RSL today. He has a game I just enjoying watching. I don’t know if FCD did something to counter him, but he just seemed to be a bit casual in this game. Which isn’t bad for FCD, just my enjoyment. 9 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Great write up as usual. It will be interesting to see who starts on Wednesday against Houston.
P.S. Maybe Toja read your game grades last week (ie as when you were discussing those colored shoes and said that after the LA game, everyone should be wearing black), because he had black shoes instead of white on Saturday.
Beckerman? Really?! Yuck.
Beckerman is one of those guys you absolutely hate when he is with another team and love when he is in your shirt. He could play for my team anytime.
That space between MF and DF is what Saragosa is supposed to be shutting down. I thought he was ineffective in this role at times Saturday night. I think he is best suited as a sub in situations where we have the lead (not too common of late heh).
Wallace looks terrible out there, he just is not ready at all to be a player at this level. Not sure what you are seeing……
All things considered – coaching change, suspension, injuries, national teams, etc – I don’t think we could have expected anything more from the players who were there on Saturday. Only real negative was Rhine’s bonehead move. Hate to say it, but I had written that game off when RSL scored. Full marks to the team for their effort and resilience. Now keeping my fingers crossed that this was the boot in the arse that Toja (and also Alvarez) needs to get going.
Also, question for Buzz… What do you make of the fact that Kreis wouldn’t speak to the media after the game? Is he under that much pressure that he couldn’t speak after a road loss? Sure, his team probably could have done better with the lead, but leaving it up to his players and assistant coaches to handle the media after all that doesn’t exactly reek of strong leadership from the head coach.
Glad they got a win on Saturday, but I thought the attacking was poor. I seem to remember FCD being better at stringing short 1- and 2-touch passes together 2 years ago, and somewhat last year.
And to me, entertaining, attacking soccer builds up with a surge of players going forward alongside the player in possession of the ball, with movement in many directions (like Barca, Roma, Arsenal, etc…even Chivas USA does this to some extent). Too many times it seemed that FCD would hoof a ball to the corner and race to it for a wild cross or to earn a corner kick. As is the criticism with the EPL sometimes, the goal of attacking in soccer shouldn’t be to win a corner by playing out-of-control dashes to the corner. And other times it seemed that all FCD attackers would run away from the FCD ball possessor in hopes of getting a long ball; I’d prefer to see folks going to the ball, away from it, parallel with it — generating some kind of movement rather than the ‘run and hoof it’ approach…
Anyway – enough for my rant. I’m glad FCD got a win, and I think they play some of the most attractive soccer in MLS when they are on their game.
RSL wins games when Beckerman gets forward and makes runs. He didn’t do that at all. I think Richetti and Saragosa decided to cut him off earlier and not let him be able to get in the attack. Richetti at least in the first half seemed to be up higher. Maybe Saragosa was also helping Beckerman, but they
it looks to me that FCD mgmt has done one thing good this year…..they’ve gotten Dom hooked up with the Michael Johnson place and they’ve helped him harness his speed and turn him into a fast soccer players, rather than a fast guy on a soccer team.