Zip It: FC Dallas at Colorado Rapids
July 12th, 2009 . 12:53 am . By: Jay BrownleeThe Colorado Rapids entered their match Saturday night outside Denver with FC Dallas missing Omar Cummings, Colin Clark and Cory Gibbs. Dallas hoped to take advantage of those major contributors’ absence by sneaking out of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park with a win. No such luck. The Rapids speed and quickness gave Dallas fits in a match that ended in a 1-0 loss for the Texans on a goal scored by Kosuke Kamura in the 79th minute. Replays showed Kamura offside on the game-winning goal as he streaked into the left side of the Dallas penalty area, but the flag stayed down as he received the through-ball from Mehdi Ballouchy. Dave Van Den Berg, covering Kamura, quit on the play, sure it was offside. An apparent mix-up between Blake Wagner and Daniel Torres allowed Kamura a one-on-one with Dallas goalkeeper Ray Burse. Kamura finished superbly, punching the ball into the roof of the net. But even though Colorado benefited from a blown call, the result was still a fair one as Colorado dominated possession and play against an inferior and slow side for the second time in less than three weeks. Yes, I said slow. Of course, I am happy to explain. FC Dallas would start the night in their usual-of-late 4-1-4-1 with Kyle Davies making his first start at left back for recently ineffective and lazy Anthony Wallace, who had dogged it through Tuesday’s match in Midland. Davies would last only 45 minutes. Head Coach Schellas Hyndman was forced to bring on Blake Wagner at half because Kamura and Terry Cooke had simply tortured the FC Dallas defensive left the entire first half. Hyndman also swapped Van Den Berg back to his left to provide some offensive pressure hoping that Van Den Berg’s ability to control the ball and Wagner’s better speed would contain Cooke and Kamura. It worked- until the goal, that is. But Dallas accomplished little in the way of breaking Colorado’s stranglehold on possession. Time after time, Dallas simply turned the ball over or were outrun to balls. It wasn’t for lack of effort, the mountain air or spaceships from Mars. It was Dallas’ lack of speed. And a bad break did not help. George John went down to injury, yet again. This time, it was his head. A collision on a 50-50 ball with Conor “The Skull” Casey saw John go down clutching his head, blood staining his fingers. John did his best to soldier on, but finally succumbed to a possible concussion. John’s exit kept Hyndman from substituting Bruno Guarda for Andre Rocha, who had a very poor outing, and bringing in Torres instead. It’s a shame that due to injury and ineffectiveness, every time Dallas has a chance to stop a leak, another gusher appears somewhere else. The July 15th summer transfer window looms on the horizon. As Buzz had already indicated in this week’s practice observations, Hyndman is not happy with the current make-up of his club. He has to know that Dallas can neither compete nor run the type of offense he prefers with the current players. There are also those whose commitment seems to be lacking, namely Rocha and Wallace. So it is crucial that Hyndman and company have done their homework and have players ready to enter the team. Every bit as crucial are the players whose time has come to depart from Frisco. These are tough times for FC Dallas. Hyndman and company are still telling the fans that the playoffs are in reach, even as they show their clear dissatisfaction with the team’s make-up. The remaking of the club in Hyndman’s image is far from complete. It is time for Hyndman to take responsibility and make the moves that will improve this club for the rest of the season. Even if he is not able to position every chess piece exactly where he wishes, he must clearly and demonstrably move this team forward. In a season that started so badly, the fans deserve to see progress. And surely fans have seen some positive moves. But for whatever reason, this club is not yet ready to compete at the top echelon of MLS. Dallas has two weeks until their next MLS tilt, the only match in between a friendly with CSD Communicaciones of Guatemala. It shall be interesting to see how- or if- this club’s deficiencies are addressed. 26 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Its Kimura, not Kamura
how really cares??
Its who, not how.
ha ha.
Ahhhh…. this is why I do this, so people can get all excited when I misspell a name by a single vowel.
Yeah……everybody lay off Brownpee
Thanks for the write up. I’m sure that the person worrying about the spelling would NEVER make any typos at 12:30 am . . ..
Good and fair analysis. I hope John John is okay and I wish he’d stop getting injured. It was fun to watch him “dance” with Connor Casey and annoy him. Now, I dislike CC and his bald head even more.
Otherwise, it was a very painful game to watch. Oh, and concerning the sub of Davies — while he might have been struggling, the defense was the one thing that WAS working in the first half, or it would have been 3-0. The offense was stinking it up, so it’s too bad SH didn’t pull Rocha at halftime, instead.
We were definately watching the same match. I quite honestly dread the transfer window for what SH may bring to this team. The “Boyz” played “toothless” last night and were quite frankly painful to watch at times. I thought Richetti and Burse were stellar in their defensive roles and Kyle Davis shows great promise for the future.
Our forwards were outclassed on just about every run at goal and there weren’t many of them. Dave Vandenberg did a great job as always, but our team needs the same committment from everyone. Rocha…. please trade this guy! The rest bear no mention.
This game was hard to watch and I wish the TEAM could have seen the utter dissapointment and dejection on the faces of it’s supporters. Come on FCD! Let’s get it together!
Does Rocha have something in his loan agreement that requires him to play? If not he is one of the major examples (along with Saragosa when healthy) that makes SH a hypocrite on what he says about other players. Don’t like Avila because he’s inconsistent? Just add the two Brazilians who are very consistant. Consistantly poor. I didn’t get to watch all of this game so did Cunningham play like he did last week or we he incosistant? Anyone else worried about who gets traded and who gets brought in? After seeing the ones brought in in the Winter -Purdy, Torres, Ferreira, Sanchez – I am not really looking forward to more of the same. Did they learn and real upgrades will appear? Stay tuned.
ugh!! Thanks Jay, good observations and i could give a shit about grammar,names, and spelling! props for spending the time out of your day to post. this season is killing me I’m having trouble figuring out what we need here. All i can really figure out is we dont finish no one shoots. all other aspects seem mediocre at best but could simply be less apperant if we would put the ball in the net more I am ok with loosing its whats been going on here for years but at least make it entertaining for me. Its such a beting this year because the team doesnt seem to care!
So very offside. Yeah, we weren’t great, but we deserved a draw.
Also, I don’t think Wallace has played himself out of the left back spot, despite his weekly drubbing in this space.
For Schellas, I just think it’s hard for him to allocate his resources properly.
I thought Davies was fine, some of his distribution is so-so, but in terms of one on one defending I think he’s even better than Moor.
I think the problem on the left hand side was Shea – who in my opinion did not have a good game at all.. not sure if that was a hang over from Wednesday’s 90 mins or not.. but Brek looked tired.
Davies for Wagner was a wasted sub… (we might not have given up that goal) but taking Brek out for Avi and letting DvB cover the left was a good idea on the face of it.. although Avila didn’t have a great game either.
The only forward who did have a good game was DvB… Kimura was a good 2 or 3ft offside.. Close yes, but still offside and the ref should have caught it.
Dax I thought had a pretty solid game and Richetti was very strong.. but other than that pretty blah if you ask me.. Looked like a tired team to me. Oh ya.. and Rocha stunk up the joint completely.
Looks like Wagner should have come in for Shea at left mid. Shea may have been tired. He has only recently been starting and isn’t a 90 minute player yet. Playing a lot of minutes Wednesday and then playing at altitude might have left him out of gas. Oddly his defense has been better than DVB’s in other games.
I’m so glad I didn’t have to introduce anyone to MLS at this stinker of a game. Bad all around – players (both sides, except Kimura) coaches and referees.
Even Sham and Rhine didn’t have their best night – the angle on that offsides call that they showed a dozen times was horrible – the ref had a way better look at it. I don’t like when those guys try to make lemonade out of the lemon that this season is, either. Rhine tried to come out and call some players on their bad attitude. I think a few stronger well-placed words from him are in order, and would be well-received by everyone.
Just fyi, from FCD Twitter:
FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman to appear on Dale Hansen Sports Special tonight at 1030 pm CT (ch
Hmmm, don’t know why the cool smilie appeared ??? That’s supposed to be ch. eight
SH sitll hasn’t figured out that, despite his mistakes, MLS is a mistake league, and Wallce’s speed and athleticism needs to be starting for FCD.
Davies is the only vocal player FCD have on the backline, and shouldn’t be moved out of the middle.
Torress never has and never will be a quality MLS defender.
Although John got injured, SH wouldn’t have had to worry about subbing Rocha out if he wasn’t starting…Rocha was non-existent and needs to ride the bench.
Did Cunnigham leave his “touch” in Frisco? Wait…not quite sure if he ever had one.
Secondly, not a single shot a goal – no excuse at this level!
Finally, offside or not, is it just me, but does it seem like Burse is always “falling” and not “standing his ground and exploding towards the ball and diving” on shots?
Finally…take two…can we please just keep some damn position and have more movement off the ball!!! It’s almost like nobody wants it!!!
Although the less than optimal angle makes is hard to tell for certain, Kimura definitely appeared to be a good 2-3 feet offside as the ball left the passer’s foot…however, Colorado deserved to win the game based on the run of play anyway. What f*cking game were people watching who claimed we “deserved” a draw? Our defense played well until John got hurt and Davies was subbed for Wagner (who was supposed to be defending Kimura’s wing I must add).
The difference in the game was Kimura, offsides of not, the man really fought for the shirt full out 90 minutes. If Andre Rocha had that level of passion he would be seriously dangerous. Unfortunately, Rocha has a “passion” for action that is reminiscent of “the Dude” in the Big Lebowski.
“Play till the whistle”….how many times did we hear that playing soccer growing up!
Word on the street is Nick Garcia is unhappy in Toronto….hear that Hyndman???
Yet again, we are treated to the mysterious substitutions of the bus driver. And, yet again, it involves wasting a sub – of a NON-INJURED PLAYER – @ the half. So what that the opponent has exactly zero goals @ halftime… why not pull a defender? Show of hands who was surprised, then, that within minutes another defender gets injured. Presto, two subs already used on defense. Really comes in handy around minute 79 when you’re now down a goal and can’t bring on any offensive subs.
Do not expect anything to happen in the transfer window. With the playoffs a long shot, the FO will basically stick with what they have. They may bring in a couple of no-name, no-impact players, but nobody that will make a significant difference.
2 random thoughts:
1. Wouldn’t this season be more interesting right now if we had promotion/relegation? Won’t happen, of course, but fun to think about.
2. Are we the only team in MLS without a player that is a regular on his national team? (And please don’t say Cooper is a regular.)
Scooter I think we’ll get one decent person through the allocation – although it might be a B-tier guy because MLS forces us to trade it away for someone in the league (a la McBride).
I was watching the game thinking about how tired the guys looked. I was thinking they could use some energy and I thought back to how good Jamie Watson looked in what I heard about and was able to see of preseason. For me he looked great in the intra-scrimmage. I see that he has 9 goals in 12 games for the USL-2nd div team. Perhaps it was his time after all. Seems like his hustle and flexibility could help.
Found this interesting looking up Watson’s club. Funny to know that his coach David Irving has an English F.A. coaching badge and he seems able to get clubs like Sunderland and Sheff Wednesday to play in North Carolina. The club seemingly has friends in Jago, Newman, Cooper Sr….why can’t we get any English clubs to come over at least during their training periods? MH meet Mr’s Jago, Newman, and Cooper. The Wilmington Hammerheads are playing Sunderland and we are playing Midland followed by CSD…WOW !!!
Brooks, maybe the summer temperatures in Dallas being 15-20 degrees higher than Wilmington has something to do with it.