Game Grades: FC Dallas vs Red Bulls
June 23rd, 2008 . 1:48 pm . By: Peter WelptonCould someone who knows Schellas Hyndman please tell the rest of us that look on his face during FC Dallas’ horrid display (a sad 1-0 loss to New York Red Bulls) in his debut as coach – is his normal game face? Please? For a guy that openly promoted his ability to take a punter’s kick to the nutsack, with barely a wince on his mug, his nervous and concerned look and body language was not very reassuring to those that aren’t familiar with the guy. The legend of Schellas is that he is a leader, confident and cool. What a national TV audience witnessed Saturday night was a twitchy and uncomfortable looking fellow. The look on his face in the many times Fox Soccer Channel panned to Hyndman could easily been read as, “Oh crap, what have I gotten myself into?” And if you watched his side fumble and struggle on that crappy surface at Giant’s stadium you certainly would understand that thought. As crummy as the Red Bulls are, and keep in mind that was a side missing no less than three starters and then a fourth before halftime, for most of the match FC Dallas could not do anything other than turn the ball over and defend. Anyone who has been watching Dallas this season probably knew going into this match what was going to happen, and did. When two of your better defenders are out and you plug in their place a couple of famously poor passers, and you pull a midfielder for a defender – FC Dallas is going to struggle to keep possession and build an attack. Dallas has had troubles doing those two things with five midfielders, so fielding only four simply exacerbated their problems. Funny, it appeared that the only time Dallas actually threatened to score was after it moved to five midfielders, but even then it was not much of a scare for the Red Bulls. One has to wonder just how closely the new coach has been watching this team. He was quoted last week that he’d seen “all of the games” and gave the impression that he’d been thinking about, “this is how I’d do it” lineups for some time. The result was an odd mix of players in places that just were begging for problems. Saragosa out wide? Seriously? The current FC Dallas roster is going to quickly put all of Hyndman’s famous tactical knowledge to the test. It is a very safe bet that the roster won’t stay this way for long. Then again, with Ellinger at the helm of that department FC Dallas fans can only hold their collective breath and “hope for the best”. Boy, does the head spin at the thought of this guy getting back into the business of making MLS roster moves. A way to improvement is tough to see for fans of this team. The move to a 4-4-2 is understandable, but is it workable? Fundamentally, until the team learns to retain possession and not make just shameful unforced turnovers it won’t make a difference what the formation is. Grades:Sala: 5 Subs: 9 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
But NY was also a team that played New England well on Wednesday in Foxboro.
I’m not saying lets be happy about a loss, but let’s also not assume that we lost to a terrible side that had nothing.
Yeah we lost to a tired team that isn’t very good.
Four shots with two on-goal, the midfiled running into each other time and time again, Rhine blasting the ball 40-yards down field over and over again to “God knows who”, zero creativity in the middle, and ZERO confidence to take on anybody with the ball and beat them!!! Schellas…shake things up and start to get some players worried about their jobs!!! I am a huge fan but this is becoming quite painful to watch.
[...] are already dumping on Schellas Hyndman after only 3 days with the club (Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exibit C). Ouch, guys. A dude can’t screw things up that bad in 2 days of [...]
I think this game should have been written off from the start. Too many strikes against the team, including having to play on that horrible concrete floor. We wouldn’t have done well that night against any team.
Right, Schellas says he’s watched all the games, but he was quoted in the Startlegram saying he was still “getting to know their names.”
not dumping,… but if after 25 + years of experience you cant hit the ground running it doesnt look good for FCD. You dont get on the job-training at this level!
Moose…Seriosly?
We played a team that just sold their best young player, both of their DP’s were on the shelf with injury, and the roster that did take the field would the be reserve team for the top 1/4 of MLS. For most of the rest of the league, this team would have been a right off as an easy W.
I figured our back line might be weak for the game against RBNY, but I never would have imagined our midfield and strikers would have so many problems getting shots on goal. It’s one thing to get a lot of shots and be unsuccessful, but two shots on goal?!? Yikes!
I hope things go better this week against Houston, but that’s not the easiest place to play by any means. Hopefully the rivalry brings out the best in the Hoops. We have let two wins slip away against Houston this season, so they owe us.