Game Grades: Houston Dynamo vs FC Dallas
June 15th, 2009 . 9:33 am . By: Peter WelptonLet’s just get the obvious out of the way, FC Dallas is not going to the playoffs. Right, that is pretty obvious to anyone that’s been paying attention – but for the remaining spoonful of hardcore hopefuls (and from the miserable attendance, that would be a teaspoon) that might need to be reinforced as to help lessen the blow come this Fall. Hyndman has the team in the best formation for the personnel he’s put together. The 4-1-4-1 does give FC Dallas the best shot at winning. It plays to the team’s few strengths, but it requires two simple things – that it finishes the few chances that the formation will create and just do some simple defending. Neither of which Dallas pulled off Saturday night. The inherent issue with the formation is it isn’t an attacking stance. It allows the team to clog the midfield, spread the play wide and focus on defending. Because of the lone striker it means that there has to be midfielders supporting in the box. Note that many times crosses whizzed thru the penalty area only to be missed by an on-rushing FCD player, or no one at all. The crosses were coming too early most of the time, and on the turns where there was someone there – the opportunity was blown. The simple truth is that if Dallas had only converted a couple of those good attacks, and defended a little better, they would have won. This was not a “blow out” in the normal sense of a 3-1 scoreline. Dallas owned the possession for most of the game and was dictating play for the vast part of the first half, but they were being played by the very good and very smart Houston side. Kinnear came in the game with an outstanding game plan. Sit back and let Dallas pass it about. He knows that Dallas can’t do much with that formation. He also knows they are more than likely to turn it over, and then the counter attack is on. Hence the first goal. Some terrible defending on the part of a few players allowed Houston to take the lead. Don’ t let the early Dallas possession fool you. That was part of the plan – Don’t waste energy, let Dallas do the work, make them bring the game and capitalize on their inventible mistakes. Worked like a charm. Dallas tried to claw back with the 4-4-2 in the 2nd, but it was too little, too late. Dallas is just not a good enough team to get back from that damage. Even against a Houston “B” team. There was a list of players that had flat-out bad outings. Wallace in particular had the game Schellas was worried he would have. He had a large part in the first Houston goal, and his passing was really brutal. Rocha turned in another lazy match in the middle. Why he doesn’t take a shot at turning with the ball and taking on a defender himself, versus his repeated failed one-touch pass off is a question that needs asking. Cunningham was an interesting experiment out wide but isn’t making a dent as his touch fails him time after time. Cooper is exerting a tremendous amount of effort with little show for it, and to make matters worse he is flubbing chances he normally takes to the bank. Grades:Burse 6 – Not much to blame SUBS: 14 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Largely agree with your ratings. Altogether now: “This is a re-building year.”
and,
Altogether now: “BEAT ITALY!!!”
McCarty is playing fantastic. Avila and Shea have provided a real shot of energy lately and should get the full 90 instead of Rocha and Cunningham.
This Fall? At the rate we’re going, we’ll be out of contention by the end of August.
Anyone will tell you I’m a big Dax fan, but he’s the one rating I completely disagree with here – he had a shocking game against Houston. Sure he made a lot of crucial interceptions and tackles, but that was almost always because he’d given the ball away just moments before.
Regardless of that, he should still be playing all 90 minutes of every game, if only for the fact that he’s one of the few players out there who looks like they want to be there and is willing to put in the effort. I lost track of the number of times Rocha watched a ball in easy jumping distance whizz over his head in the box. Why he’s starting over Avila I have no idea.
At this point I’d say Rocha is my least favorite player. I never want to see him play again.
While Wallace’s game may have been bad, I hope they allow him to continue to play & get better.
That’s what this year should be about from now on for all the young players.
Davies should have a better ranking. About the one good thing from the game was his play and passing in the back, You can tell this kid is gonna be good
It was so disheartening to see Oduro in Orange. Why did we trade him anyway? Are we any better with Vandenburg? Also, Cunningham is proving to be a bust. On paper, I guess, he was worth picking up, but him and Cooper do not work well together. Bring Oduro back and let him play 90 opposite Cooper. We seemed to score a lot more that way. And get rid of Rocha. He has no upside.
No one can get above a 4 when the team loses 1-3 and were completely dominated in every department. REbuilding means trying to recapture the CC years when we made the PO’s and were competitive.
Coach’s grades?
That would be a big fat zero for SH and 8 for DK.
The funny thing Saban is that you’re right about playing the young players but that is exactly what Morrow told Hitchcock he was going to do last year. When his young team made youthful mistakes in the LA game he was fired and SH was hired to change everything. Now full circle in one year. Without either ownership change or a change at the top with Wagner it doesn’t matter at the GM or coaching level because the ownership and club president have been in charge for several GM and coaching changesand yet nothing really changes does it?
Pegasus, agreed. But the situation is now different. They can’t afford to have a ‘win now’ philosophy for the rest of this year.
Similar to what I said a few weeks ago, what’s more embarrising, losing one game 5-1 in front of 20,000 people, or being 2-7-4 or whatever, in front of 7000?
I agree with you just felt that Morrow had talked with Hitchcock about re-doing the roster with youth because they had gone as far as they could. Hitchcock or Hunt got embarressed at the LA game and Morrow paid the price. I would be pretty angry about it if Morrow hadn’t had the reputation for stiffing the veterans. Oscar should have been the hire and still should but not sure how much even he could do with Hitchcok, Wagner and Hunt still in charge.
I was just glancing over the 09 MLS salaries and noticied Cunningham is ranked #20 @ $267.5K!! In 11 games, he’s scored 1 goal and rigistered 1 assist. I’ve seen most of the games this year and the guy is bringing absolutely nothing to the table! He’s got semi decent speed left in the tank, but that’s it. At the game the other night, he looked pathetic. At this point, why the hell didn’t we keep Oduro?! Another fantastic signing by the FCD front office.
Fortunately, I think Cunny’s just signed to a one-year deal. I agree with Peter – time to ditch Jeff and give Brek 90 minutes. Cooper’s been his most dangerous playing next to Brek in a 4-4-2.