Game Grades: Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas
May 28th, 2008 . 9:22 am . By: Peter WelptonHere is how bad things have gotten for FC Dallas. Fans, coaches, players and media alike are all a-twitter over two Dominic Orudo last gasp goals… …against Real Salt Lake …to win a match. How sad is that? RSL might have improved, but they still are a historically horrid team on the road. Beating them on your own turf should be expected, even in the wake of a coach’s firing. The game was a bit screwed up because of the red cards, but even before that it was a flat out ugly, boring match. FC Dallas is still all but incapable of building an attack through midfield, and again, both goals came from balls behind the defense. (note: goal via long ball isn’t a bad thing, just when it is the only way a team a score) I think Dave Dir’s excellence at color commentary showed Saturday night with his experienced opinion on how to use the Dallas heat as a team’s advantage. Dave is not normally one to knock a coach’s training, but his honesty about FC Dallas not using the temperature as an advantage was refreshing. The harsh reality is that Dallas simply is not a good side. There is a reason the general consensus was that they would struggle to be a .500 team. It is a squad that is lacking in an veteran striker. Also lacking on the roster are “experienced players with motors” for a formation that requires them for the wide positions. Maybe Wagner, Shea or Wallace can fill those spots in the future, but none of those three will lead to 2008 MLS Cup glory. There were parts of the game that were better and some that were worse. Cooper got in the box more, and that’s a good thing. Rocha in the middle was a improvement over being out wide. For all of his faults, Saragosa’s midfield destruction is needed in covering for the back three. And all credit to Dominic. For all the crap he gets for his youthful, silly decisions – his finish on the 2nd goal was as nice as you will see on any given MLS weekend. Give the guy a start on Wednesday. If there is one constant about this team that is un-nerving it is the ball-watching and lack of running off of the ball. It happens in the first minute, it can be seen in the last minute. Whatever the reason for it, it is the biggest cause of the teams inability to attack without booting it forward. Whoever ends up as coach, it is the #1 issue to be addressed. The good news for FC Dallas is that it likely will not take too much to get things back on track. The MLS playing field is so even from top to bottom that it could be as simple as a player addition, formation change or just a flip in attitude could be enough to push the team forward. So, as bad as things are now, MLS provides for those sides that find their form late. Grades:Sala 4: Subs: 4 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
I agree that they defintely seem to have a disconnect in building an attack through the midfield especially with Toja and McCarty out. I don’t think our goals were really long balls out of the back. Oduro’s header was after quite a few passes in the midfield then out to wide open Moor on the right. Rocha’s pass was a nice pass that overlapped the pushed up RSL defense. Neither goals were booming kicks from the total opposite side of the field. But I do agree with the final third passing is lacking, maybe putting Oduro in will push Houston’s back line back enough to create space enough for Toja and Rocha
The players just need to make more runs off the ball. If there isn’t any space to run in to, they need to create the space by running at the opposition and taking players one on one. So far, the only players with the confidence to do that are Toja and Alvarez. Everyone else just passes backwards towards the D, play long balls up top, or just hold it waiting for the defense to make a mistake. Thus we have an offense with big limitations.
I would like to blame this on the coaching, however, players in the MLS should already know how to build an attack before joining the league.
Now that I got that out of my system, time to focus on the game tonight. Go Toros. Hope to see you at the game tonight.
Wowowow Hoolihan you said it. What a lot of people don’t realize is that, while controlled, to-feet possession looks easy, it’s actually the product of MORE running/effort as people are moving without the ball to provide those options.
Why we don’t do this…I have no clue.
I also noted last game how infrequently people tried to beat someone off the dribble. Until Alvarez and Toja came on, the only people who did it were slow KCJ (altho it got us the first red) and Wallace (keep up the good work youngster).
Wallace was also the only one who passed and then moved – and received the ball back a few times on nice cuts inside from the wing.
Peter,
You are tough! The game was atrocious, I’ll concede that. Cooper was pretty good, though. Rhine got a TERRIBLE red card, but he was playing pretty darn well up to that point. I won’t argue with you letting him have it for getting sent off, but I’d start him next time he’s available, if I were the coach.
The comments about lack of movement and one-on-one dribbling are dead on. I think three things cause those problems in our squad: (1) players with talent but no soccer brain, which infects all of US Soccer up through the national team; (2) the weather in Dallas, and not just on game day (on this point Dave Dir’s recent comments about using the heat to our advantage are particularly incisive); and (3) lack of confidence, which Dallas has suffered from for years (perhaps since ‘96)