Lightning Thompson Strikes Twice
July 2nd, 2008 . 12:29 pm . By: John CarltonWith a superior display of touch passing and attacking football Tuesday night at Pizza Hut Park, FC Dallas dominated Miami FC Blues in the third round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. With two stoppage time goals, one in the first half and one in the second half, Abe Thompson continued his excellent play in the national championship and provided coach Schellas Hyndman with his first victory as manager. Hyndman fielded a team of missing only a couple starters, despite the quick turnaround from Sunday night’s friendly against Chivas Guadalajara and a return to league action this coming Friday. Before the Hoops could establish their dominance, however, Miami FC opened the scoring. In the 8th minute, Blues’ forward Alex Alfonso stole a ball in midfield and raced for goal before firing a powerful shot from just inside the penalty area past goalkeeper Ray Burse into the left corner of the net. The Dallas players were left wondering, “Who is Alex Alfonso? ‘Cause that was a clinical finish.” Meanwhile, the Hoops had a series of corner and free kicks that came agonizingly close to equalizing, but the final pass went begging for almost the entire first half. Forward Dominic Oduro and midfielder Juan Toja were especially active and both had shots on goal in the first half. Toja ripped a shot wide right from about thirty yards. Oduro had a wide open look at goal from a great cross from Anthony Wallace, but kneed the ball wide left. Miami FC did manage a handful of chances in the first half after their score. First, Jamaican striker Sean Fraser shot from close-in on the right side of the penalty area, but was denied by Burse. Then in the 42nd minute, Blues’ midfielder Sean Cameron lifted a shot first time over the head of Ray Burse, but it hit the right post. In light of what happened over the next five minutes, this was the chance that Miami would be ruing at the final whistle. Oduro again had a chance as halftime drew near. He tried an audacious scissor kick that was on target, but had no power and was easily saved by Miami ‘keeper Josh Saunders. Hyndman then made a substitution, bringing Eric Avila on for Anthony Wallace. Avila immediately brought more vitality to the attack, combining with Juan Toja for a pretty give-and-go sequence that was unluckily broken up in the box. Moments later, Avila and Rocha worked the ball into the area where Oduro very nearly re-directed a shot towards goal, but it went just wide right. Despite the referee’s addition of two minutes of first-half stoppage, it must have been well into the third minute when Abe Thompson lifted a perfectly placed shot into the top left corner of the net. The goal was a crucial equalizer for the Hoops to get heading into the locker room. In the second half, Kenny Cooper replaced Oduro up top and the Red Stripes got back to work opening up the Miami defense. For the entire second half, FCD continued their dominance and created myriad scoring chances. Avila had his shot saved in the 72nd minute and Toja’s long range effort a minute later was just high. It wasn’t until stoppage time that the Hoops got the game winner. In the 93rd minute, Drew Moor hit a cross that found Abe Thompson, who easily finished past a stunned Josh Saunders. Thompson’s brace put him in the team record books as the leading all-time scorer (6) for FC Dallas in U.S. Open Cup play. Next up in the U.S. Open Cup is a quarterfinal home tilt on July 8th against Charleston Battery, who defeated Houston Dynamo on Tuesday. Before then, the Hoops return to regular season MLS play to host the Kansas City Wizards on July 4th at Pizza Hut Park. Miami FC Blues vs. FC DallasJuly 01, 2008 — Pizza Hut Park Scoring Summary: Miami FC Blues — Josh Saunders, Eric Brunner, Caue de Mata, Avery John, Chris Williams, Sean Cameron (Eric Vasquez 80), Jarryd Goldberg (Bruno Menezes 58), Leo Nunes, John Pulido, Alex Afonso, Sean Fraser (Juan Galavis 58), Substitutes Not Used: Luis Calix, Ricardo Cavalcante, Nicolas Mosquera, Samuel Reynolds FC Dallas — Ray Burse, Drew Moor, Aaron Pitchkolan, Blake Wagner, Marcelo Saragosa, Juan Toja, Anthony Wallace (Eric Avila 39), Andre Rocha (Michael Dello-Russo 64), Chase Wileman, Dominic Oduro (Kenny Cooper 46), Abe Thompson, Substitutes Not Used: Ricardinho, Andrew Daniels, Josh Lambo, Brek Shea
Misconduct Summary: referee: Jasen Anno 10 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hopefully FCD can continue refining their offensive production and quality of the product they put on the pitch.
Well, that was SO not the game I was expecting last night, but I will take a win regardless.
I’ve made this comment elsewhere, but I think Eric Avila was fantastic last night. Well Done!!
Fix the scoreline – Thompson had 2 goals (second one at 93+) and certainly at least 2 shots on goal!
Pardon the expression, but we pulled that one out of our ass. Thank God for extra extra time!
Glad this crack new coach finally won a game.
Completely agreed with CM…we need much more Avila. Thought Wileman & especially Wally were over-matched, and thought we got out-hustled in the first half & much of the second.
Luckily the refs couldn’t read their watches – both scores seemed to come way into the extra minutes. Avi was exciting. Wileman was painful and shut the left side down. Dello was a pleasant surprise. Wally needs more minutes that don’t count – seems like he, Wileman, and Shea need to work through some freshman mistakes so they can learn from them. Overall, glad we pulled out the W.
Thank-you Cai and sotg for your interesting views! Moronic, but as always, interesting!
I disagree with the comments on Wally and Wileman. I think they both did an admirable job considering the circumstances they were put in. Wally has a played a few first team games but Wileman, this was his professional game. He probably only played because of the injuries and Hyndman must have trust in him defend honestly which is so important on the wing in a 3-5-2. This was exposed in the game against Chivas on Sunday, Arturo, Brek and Avila cannot play a lick of defense. i think you guys need to take it easy on Wally and Wileman. Wally got pulled for no apparent reason and Wileman is a JR developmental player who filled in under difficult circumstances.Go after the guys who are making bank but sitting on the bench.
Wallace and Wileman have regressed in match situations recently. Brek you can tell will be very fruitful with his play in the matches, but is making it way to easy on opposing teams by turning the ball over. Similar comments were made on the spanish telecast when FCD played Chivas.
Thank Christ for Coops. He came in at half time and changed the outcome of the game. While he almost scored, he showed great determination to show we needed to score goals. Abe and Kenny are on the same page when we get the ball. I wish I could massage Dominics head in front of goal. its called composure !!!!
The non starters need to find some meaningful games to hone their skills, where is that in the MLS?