Game Grades: LA Galaxy vs FC Dallas
May 27th, 2009 . 5:05 pm . By: Peter WelptonThe good news is that Dallas can say that they survived and grabbed a point despite having played a man down for 2/3 of the match and two men down the last five minutes. During that span of time, while fans dreamt up ways to kill Saragosa, the remaining 10 players worked hard to not only pull back the goal but also prevented LA for finding a winning one. The bad news is that before Saragosa’s red card Dallas was sporting that much requested 3-5-2 formation. What Hyndman got was exactly as predicted: A jumbled mess of a backline and opposition flying down the wings with nary a red/white hooped mark near them. It took all of three minutes for LA to open the new three man Dallas defense. If it took a team as meager as the Galaxy to score against Dallas in the 3-5-2, just imagine what the Fire might do with that this coming weekend. It should also be pointed out it was only a mix of horrible LA finishing and amazing Ray Burse kung-fu reflex that kept the Galaxy from taking a two, three, four or more goal lead – even before Saragosa was ejected. Saragosa’s booting might have been the best thing that happened to Hyndman as it allowed him an out. He reverted to the 4-4-1 for the 2nd half and that was enough, just enough, to stave off the feeble Galaxy attack. Bruce Arena must be near suicide after his team’s morbid performance. Seriously, if you can not beat FC Dallas playing a man down then you might as well put a bullet into your season. David Beckham can’t fix that mess. As for Dallas and the seemingly never ending list of things that are going wrong, now Hyndman is faced with his two starting center backs out with injury, and two starting holding midfielders either hurt or suspended. Because of this you can expect that Ricchetti will remain in back, certainly Dax will magically reappear and the team will have to go back to the 4-4-2. It is hard to figure out what Dax did wrong to lose his starting spot. One bad match in DC, which was more about tactics than his performance, and Dax has been the forgotten man. Maybe this weekend he gets a shot to prove Hyndman wrong. Hyndman as some really tough decisions to make, the easiest would be showing Saragosa the door. His insanely stupid head shove of Eddie Lewis is exactly the tipping point to unemployment for a player who’s pro/con balance sheet was already not adding up. Then there is Bruno who isn’t ready for MLS prime time, but likely out with a knee injury. Both players bring that level of hardness and bite that the team lacks in the midfield, but both also turn the ball over way too much and fail to make the most simple of passes. Bruno is young and salvageable. Saragosa is a meathead. The rest of FC Dallas is a jumbled mess for an endless number of reasons. There does not appear to be anything that signals that the season is going to get better. There are not even any good rumors about a dreamy signing, or trade to debate. Attendance is depressing and one wonders if Pizza Hut Park has become more of a concert venue than a soccer specific stadium. Yes, it is mostly doom and gloom in Frisco and that is unfair to those fans that have followed the team for so long. If you want good news, it appears that Kenny Cooper has played himself out of any decent offers in Europe, so fans won’t have to worry about him leaving anytime soon. Is it unfair to begin to ask what exactly is going to turn this thing around? Yes, it sounds dramatic to ask, but where is the bottom? While the team is squeezing out draws there is nothing to suggest that Hyndman has either the plan to succeed, and even if he did – the quality of player to pull it off. Grades:Burse: 8 – His quickness is amazing, saved the tie Subs: 8 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
The problem with Cooper is that there is no one to link up with him from the midfield so I think his grade is a little harsh but not far from the truth. With Rocha and VDB so bad it is time to start the young guys. Avila would be more effective than Ferreira and you can put Tom on for Rocha. It is definitely time to start Wallace at L back he is way better than Meathead and is a lot faster. I say go back to the 4-4-2. Torres, Richetti, Moor, Wallace, Tom, Ferreira, Avila, VDB, Shea and Cooper. Play a flat four in the midfield and hope that Ferreira works a little which is not doing right now.
Pablo a 7? Did u see the goal was his fault? VDB a 5? did you see he doesnt help at the defensive side at all and all he does is complain….
Burse was the best player on the field, wallace played good too, I do believe Guarda played better than 4. Not to mention since the 1st half he was feeling his hamstring and still sticked the whole game and played really good , having in mind he was the only CDM in the 1st half w a man down, thats a lot of distance to cover..
Cooper and DAvid just useless….
Peter, I think your analysis is spot on, with one minor tweak. I don’t think SH has either the plan to succeed OR the ability to objectively assess talent required to succeed in this league. Brazilian players may be real hot stuff at the college level, but it’s no guarantee of success in the MLS. I think SH can’t see that.
As the guy who once said last year that an orange cone might make more positive contributions to the team than Guarda, I have a foot slowly making its way to my mouth. I agree that he still turns the ball over too much, but Bruno looks like he might be rounding the corner to me. I think he deserved better than a 4 this game, especially if VdB gets a 5. Other than that, I generally agree with your grades, Peter. Not that the LAGals are any kind of benchmark – and not to sound like Herm Edwards – but we can build on this!
While the goal was Richetti’s fault, did you also see the goal he saved by covering back? Or the many passes that he broke up and then did something positive with? He clearly screwed up on the goal, but that just took a 9 down to a 7. I thought he really had a good game with that one exception. What he does particularly well is distribute the ball out of the back, which given how much we turn the ball over is a very good thing.
Peter’s grade 0.
The goal was not completely Ricchetti’s fault. I would put some blame on him, but mostly on Torres. He allowed LD to slip in behind him to get the toe poke on the ball. Torres was a tale of 2 halves. He was a horrible “3″ in the first half, but improved to a “5″ in the 2nd (after SH shifted to 4 in the back).
All that goes to show that SH doesn’t know his players’ strengths and weaknesses very well. Torres in a 3-man defense? Really?
Obviously, I’m not a big fan of Torres. He seems to be slow to respond to his opponent’s offensive adjustments. At this point, I’d rather see Davies getting some time back there. Torres just isn’t getting it done.
I think the most disappointing one on our roster is Ferriera. Ferreira is probably our most gifted player technically – a great first touch and is also very fast, but despite that he is not making a good impression. I don’t think it’s all his own making. He doesn’t get a lot of the calls that he might get in another league – MLS refs simply don’t call a lot of the shoving/pushing that goes on.
Part of the problem is also the diamond formation that SH loves to play. It tends to leave Ferriera more open to being sacked like a quarterback. I’d prefer to see Ferreira played alongside another midfielder who can hold up the ball and distribute better in a more flat formation (rather than a Diamond) – Dax would really be ideal for this role I think, but I’d be willing to see Wally or Avi too. Bruno holds the ball fairly well, but is still not a good passer.
Good write up Peter.
I sure hope we’ve seen the last of Saragosa – even if SH loves him, hopefully Dax can come in, play like a King and essentially give SH no choice but to bench Marcello.