Zip It: FC Dallas at Colorado Rapids
June 25th, 2009 . 2:42 pm . By: Jay BrownleeThe word “passion” often appears when the topic is soccer. At its best soccer inspires passion in players and fans all over the world in a way that truly makes the sport unique. Passion from players best manifests itself in a never-say-die attitude, refusing to give in or give up. Every player on the pitch is expected to give until he can give no more. When a player quits, his team suffers. In Wednesday night’s matchup between FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Anthony Wallace’s decision to quit on a play caused FC Dallas to settle for a tie, 1-1. Perhaps Dallas should be grateful for the point. Colorado dominated the run of play much of the match. Kenny Cooper’s slick flick-on to a wide-open David Ferreira led to the first goal at the 37’ mark and Cooper’s first assist in this year’s campaign. The rest of the first half was characterized by Colorado acting as the Gang Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Colorado had ten shots, but shot after shot went wide of the mark. Goalkeeper Ray Burse threw in another nice save or two and Dallas ended the first half as the unlikely leader. The lack of ability by Dallas to go forward and their year-long struggle defensively did not bode well for the visitors on the night. Add in the high altitude and Omar Cummings’ blistering speed, and Dallas’ chance to hold onto the lead for another 45 minutes looked grim FC Dallas gaffer Schellas Hyndman inserted Brek Shea into the match as the second half began. Shea’s insertion did little to slow down the Colorado attack as they picked up where they left off in the first half. Although Colorado would keep missing the net, there became less and less doubt as the match went on that Dallas could keep the clean sheet. Cummings only seemed to get stronger as the match continued. Terry Cooke’s insertion just increased the pressure as his dangerous service from Colorado’s numerous corners always seemed to be just one bounce away from notching the match. And even though Cummings finally scored, it was Anthony Wallace who should have received the assist. Only six minutes from full-time, Mehdi Ballouchy grounded a ball to Cummings that seemingly split Pablo Ricchetti and Wallace. All Cummings had to do was poke it to the far post past Burse. But replays revealed Wallace giving up on the play. Wallace’s lack of passion, a desire to never say die, cost FC Dallas two points. Wallace is young, and young players are prone to mistakes; most reasonable soccer fans recognize such things. But a lack of passion from any player is disheartening to the team, the coaching staff and the fans. One act ruined a chance for FC Dallas to sneak out of Colorado with a win in a match dominated by the home club. Too bad passion is so important in soccer, right?
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Wow. He did decide to jog that off didn’t he? It’s actually easier to tell in real-time that he’s given up on the play. Egregious in my opinion. There wasn’t much of chance of getting back in front of that ball, but a decent slide could’ve at least made that shot more difficult to make.
I credit Cummings for a great turn on the ball. Not sure what else Wallace is supposed to do in that situation.
Agree with JC that it was more about a nice turn from Cummings than poor hustle from Wallace. He did look gassed, which I can understand after chasing Cummings around all night at that altitude. Pablo look slow coming over to help too, which could also be a function of his fitness at that point. How about our friend Jair calling the game before our corner kick? I hate that.
Jay,
Nice report, but I think you’re too harsh on Wallace. I do agree, however, that at times we look like a team with less than 11 fully committed guys…
My view on the goal: The play leading to the goal started on a throw-in, deep in our territory, to a wide open Ballouchy. Mistake #1: unmarked player on a restart.
Ballouchy had way too much time to collect the ball and make a pass to Cummings’ feet. Credit to Davies for stepping out of the defense to apply pressure, but he didn’t manage to get Balloughy to put his head down… And where was the midfield? Mistake #2: Lack of pressure on the ball in our midfield, deep in our defensive territory.
Based on the amount of time Ballouchy had, Pablo and Wallace were too far apart from one another after Davies stepped out of the back line. Also, Pablo was to the right of Davies (and very deep); Pablo should not have been so far away from Davies and perhaps Pablo, not Davies, should have stepped to pressure the ball. Bad things happen when the center backs go in across one another. Anyway, once Davies stepped up the other three backs needed to pinch in and close the space created by Davies’ departure; they didn’t do that quickly enough. And Wallace was too close to Cummings’ back (and not between him and the goal), which allowed Cummings to make a really nice turn into the space vacated by Davies. Mistake #3: Lack of discipline in the back, with players out of defensive shape in the closing minutes of the game.
Team fitness looks like it is a problem; we are consistently more tired than our opposition in the closing minutes of games. Why aren’t we the fittest team in the league? If we are going to do so much defending, we need to be in much better shape. It is a lot of work to chase the ball for 90 minutes….Mistake #4: Bad physical preparation, which leads to mistakes and injuries.
Then, Cummings got in behind the defense but was only running to the end-line, with not much of an angle on goal. Burse, it looked to me, made Cummings’ job easier by coming off his line too aggressively. If Burse closes more slowly and stands up, making Cummings beat him with a quality shot, I think Burse makes the save. Mistake #5: Arguably bad decision by the keeper. (I could be wrong here: it’s tough to tell all the angles, etc on the tv…)
Wallace doesn’t challenge the shot with a slide. Likely he was too tired, thought Burse would hold his line and make the save, was scared to commit a foul, or all three. Mistake #6: Wallace needed to make a challenge there, if possible without committing a foul.
Like most goals, it was the result of a chain of mistakes, and I think putting it all on one guy is a tad harsh.
” Pablo and Wallace were too far apart from one another after Davies stepped out of the back line. Also, Pablo was to the right of Davies (and very deep); Pablo should not have been so far away from Davies and perhaps Pablo, not Davies, should have stepped to pressure the ball.”
Pablo was marking down the line because Drew wasn’t there. So he came back to help but Wallace didn’t defend at all. I don’t think Pablo had something to do, I think Davies and Wallace were out of position and Cummings was smart enough to see that
After watching the replays it looked to me like Wally did not think he could get a clear shot at Cummings without fouling him in the penalty area.. do you make the decisive tackle and risk giving up a pk or do you close him down, force the shot knowing the angle is pretty tight and allow Burse to make the save. I think he chose the latter. I think it was a double edged sword.. the big mistake was in not closing down the space created by Davies.
james,
I looked at the clip again (thanks for posting it, 3rd Degree) and I see your point about Pablo having gone over to cover for Drew. Of course, that means we were essentially playing with 3 at the back (in that moment), which really should not happen at that point in the game. And Davies should probably not have stepped up then, but perhaps just jockeyed and invited the long-range shot. In any event, what your comment really reinforced for me is that defending is a collective exercise. If one guy is out of position or makes a mistake, it can throw things off for everyone else. When a defense is on the same page and playing together, the system will inherently provide cover for individual mistakes and the other defenders can step in. But when folks are not together, then things happen like we see on the tape. Players out of position, not in synch, and not spaced properly, which means they can’t help each other out.
If you watch the US team from the Spain game, for instance, you can see a wonderful example of how to defend a lead late in the game. Even against Brazil, the US team kept their shape pretty well (for the most part). You certainly never see them defending with only 3 or 4 players behind the ball deep in their own territory…