April 21st, 2009 . 1:31 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

I love wining. You know?  It’s like, better than losing. - Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh

Thus ends the FCD series against TFC for the year.  The Red Stripes own the tiebreaker in the standings, if it comes to that, by winning the head to head series four points to one.  Hard to argue with the three points, although arguably FCD played better in the last two games on the road.  This game continues the unfortunate trend of poor home form.

I think maybe you always need a little bit of luck.  Fortunately, we got that call. I thought we did a lot of good things today. Coach was talking about the harder we work, the luckier we will get. I think we’ve definitely been working hard. I know that Schellas and the coaching staff have been working very hard. They’ve been up here all day, every day. It’s nice to have a win to show for that. I feel like this is a game of inches sometimes. You can look at a game sometimes and it can go either way. The game went our way today and it feels good. – Kenny Cooper

Toronto FC 2, FC Dallas 3

El Bueno (The Good)

- If you read this Thursday’s practice observations you may recall I talked about how MLS is a league of parity the difference makers for a team determine most wins and losses.  FCD difference makers haven’t been making a difference… until this game.  Cooper two goals, Ferreira a assist and the earned PK, DeRo gets hurt and is kept off the score sheet…  And FCD wins.  Simple as that.  If you check the Houston highlights you will see the same thing. Ching scores, Onstad makes two game winning saves, Casey for the Rapids fails to convert the PK… and Houston wins.  Such is life in MLS.

- I consider it a good thing the front six for FCD isn’t on same page yet.  You can see the discussion after every build up.  That means there is room to grow and improve.  The passes are often just a bit off, the runs are a bit off, and the understanding a bit off. Team building takes time and with this many changes it will take maybe half the seasons to really get dialed in.  Just as with the defense it’s why I thought FCD would start slow and rally this year.

- For me Man of the Match was David Ferreira.  The Gnat was a real pest all night and his battle with Serioux was a fantastic one to watch.  You could see them seek each other out afterward to shake hands.  Ferreira is so strong in possession and his defensive intensity is fantastic.  He loves to nip balls off guy, one of those grabs directly results in Coper’s first goal.  He also drew the PK for Cooper to get the 3rd goal on the night.

Coach [Hyndman] has been looking for me to get my shots off quicker. I think I might have done it there and fortunately it went in.  A lot of credit goes to David because he did really well to get the ball. His mind thinks really quickly and he was able to set a play up right away. He’s a quality player and a great addition. I think we’re really benefiting from these new players that have been brought in. – Cooper

- I also thought it was a really strong performance by Drew Moor.  He was excellent coving for Saragosa and John, running players off the dribble, and closing down Barrett and DeRo.  You can tell Moor knows how Saragosa will play cause he was right there for him several times.  Nice goal too.

- Kenny Cooper is coming out of his funk.  He was leading league in shots and shot on goal but not in goals.  Now banging in two he’s top of the scoring table.  That’s a terrific sign for the season.

I think Kenny is the face of this franchise. Today, he scored a great goal and then he gets the PK goal. Against Toronto, he’s really done well last year and again this year. I imagine that right now, he’s one of the top players in the league when it comes to goals. He’s an important player to this team. – FC Dallas Head coach Schellas Hyndman

- As dumb as the Yellow Tail yellow card is on some levels, I happen to love it for two reasons.  1. When was the last time we saw some new sponsors, and this one includes dasher signage too?  (MetroPCS is also new I think but that one didn’t make me laugh) 2. I also like the cheekiness of it being about something bad the other team did.  That’s funny.

El Camino Central (Middle of the Road)

- Marcelo Saragosa returns to the line up for one simple reason, Hyndman trusts him.  Saragosa is on the bus and has a seat right behind the driver.  Dello-Russo wasn’t bad in his games, and I wouldn’t flinch to see him out there.  But against TFC he was marking De Rosario on the goal throw in from Serioux.  That’s a blown assignment, he’s not supposed to be on De Ro.  Was it Dello’s fault he was on DeRo?  Who knows.  None of us were on the field.  But marking the wrong player on a long throw in is part of the trust thing.

I thought [Saragosa] did really well outside of grabbing a player there to get a free kick. Last time Marcelo was playing competitively was when we were in Brazil during preseason. So it was a bit of a risk on our part to put him out there and start him because he wasn’t match fit and his coordination with the team wasn’t there. But he’s such a good player and a good competitor that he makes other players around him better.

- Like Hyndman, who when desperate to win turns to guys he trusts, FCD head coach John Carver played De Rosario who has been nursing a tight hamstring in the effort to win a game Carver figured was there for the taking.  Unfortunately it looks to have backfired as De Rosario pulled up lame.  Did Carver risk the season for a single win?  We’ll see.  But that happens when a coach is feeling the heat.

- Good and bad form Ray Burse today.  You can see his weakness on game reading with the crosses, that’s only fixed by playing time.  But we also saw his quickness today.  I like his raised intensity, yelling at defenders and instructing.  I’m feeling better about him and I think the defense is too.

Ray did a good job today but I’ve seen him do better. The thing that he’s got going for him is playing time. That’s something that he didn’t have last year. He is getting playing time. The thing that he can’t do is get into a comfort zone because Dario [Sala] is wanting to come back tomorrow. I thought a couple of balls that were dropped could have led to goals and that’s a bit scary. I thought he did well today. – Hyndman

No Tan Bueno (Not So Good)

- It has bothered me for some time that no one up the gut for FCD will punish people. Ricchetti, McCarty, Moor, and even John don’t flat out crush people.  Although join might get there and Steve Purdy had that potential.  As it is now, no one on the opposition has any fear of operating in the middle.  Contrast that say New England where Shalrie Joseph and Jeff Larentowicz patrol the guts of the field.  Chivas USA with Jessee Marsh, Shavar Thomas, and Paulo Nagamura. Chicago with Wilman Conde and Bakary Soumare.   Not sine Simo Valakari left has there been any real punishment for coming through he middle of the FCD team.

- The FCD intensity at home, particularly in the first half of this one, is crap.  To comfortable at home, thinking they have the game cause of the result last week, the heat (what heat?), or just poor pre game speach?  FCD, a team with no wins and seeing a game they feel they can get their first points, come out and gets out fouled eight to one by TFC in the first half.  The lone foul on Ferreia when Serioux stopped his run and lowered the shoulder for Ferreira to run into.  Not shockingly the Gnat went down and then was called.  Getting beaten up like in these circumstance is inexcusable.  Was FC winning?  Sure but not by out efforting anyone.

- Once again the “opposition goal within five minutes of a FCD goal” thing showed it’s ugly mug.  That’s poor mental concentration and it was a big problem  this spring.  Just before the half FCD scores and then relaxes thinking it’s halftime.  They got punished for it.  Hopefully they will learn.  In MLS you can’t relax for a second or you will get scored on.

- The halftime goal was also planned play by TFC.  Robinson drifts in late on the back side for the long corner and then plays back in.  Someone high in midfield or a forward blew the tracking on that one.  Although on some teams a player is assigned to stand top of the box and look for those late runs.  So while I want to point to an un-tracked player it may be poor assignments too.

Obviously getting a goal on the stroke of halftime (from Serioux) on a set play that we worked on — I’m pleased it’s come off. – TFC head coach John Carver

You can imagine coming into the locker room at halftime, there weren’t very high spirits. Everybody was pointing fingers and we had the game tapes, so we were able to identify what went wrong. We should have had everybody back with a minute left. Instead we didn’t and they had a nice design. But still, we had opportunities to stop it. My main thing at halftime was to keep the players’ spirits up. We’re still winning. Let’s not get down on ourselves and to not give up a silly goal. – Hyndman

- FCD goal two Wagner didn’t hold the line, which allowed Barrett to get behind George John.  Then again John needs to recognize that Wagner isn’t holding the line and stay with Barrett.  So two young players both botch that one.  John as a rookie learning a new position I can forgive.  Wagner but this time should be better than that.  I miss Chris Gbandi.

Blake is a great player in this league because he’s so courageous and has got a great left foot. The thing that he just needs is more confidence and continuing to get more playing time. I don’t think we would have helped ourselves a lot making a change at that time and I know I wouldn’t have been able to help Blake by taking him off. We let him kind of play his way through it and see if he could fix it by halftime. If he couldn’t fix it by then, we would have thought about it, but he got it right. – Hyndman

- Adding Avila and Cunningham really hurt the FCD possession, although to be fair it was less about them than it was losing Dax McCarty in midfield and Ferreira up top.  I would say pulling Rocha hurts possession, but he played so poorly I don’t think he was contributing much.

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