August 5th, 2009 . 10:55 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

Early in my career, I struggled with consistency, but I couldn’t get more consistent than this year. – Roger Federer

The inconsistency of this team is staggering, To go from some of the best soccer we’ve seen under Hyndman to the some of the worst we’ve seen in franchise history in the space to two halves is crazy enough.  But throw in a team come to Jesus meeting this week and perhaps the biggest but kicking in franchise history and it become a big min boggling.

Now you can’t undersell that KC isn’t exactly a great team right now, and the loss of Conrad ( their best player) for perhaps the season has to be both a mental and tactical blow.  But it looks like the changes made during this window might actually be helping, but at the same time some mental deficiencies still plague this team.

It was the type of performance every coach hopes for. All week we talked about our loss to Real Salt Lake and we had to fight the battle with Kenny leaving, so we were a little bit frustrated. I really wanted the guys to come out and make a statement these last 12 games and our mentality is to win all 12. – FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman

El Bueno (The Good)

Jeff Cunningham was Man of the Match with his four goals. When a dude gets four goals, he gets the glory.  End of story.  More importantly for FCD, he’s fighting hard, harassing defenders, creating goals on his own, and finishing chances.  I was glad he got to take the PK after missing against RSL.  That’s important.  It looked like the coaches said Dax should be taking PKs, that’s fine going forward, but if Cunningham demands it and wants it, I like that.  Congrats to Jeff for passing Jason Kreis to hold 3rd place all time outright.  I think we forget sometimes, perhaps due to his age, what a great striker he’s been over the years.  Cunningham with this one game passes Cooper and is now tied for 3rd in MLS in scoring (with four other players).   Cunningham has now scored seven goals in the last three games, and seven of the last ten FCD goals.

It was one of those games that every striker dreams of. It seemed as if everything I did went well. It is just one of those performances I am grateful for. I definitely want to thank my teammates. They were looking for me, they were very supportive of me and I was happy to score four goals tonight. – Jeff Cunningham

Speaking of Dax McCarty, what a game he had.  He’s been MVP for me this season but this many have been his best game yet.  He’s got a case for man of the Match, except for Cunningham’s four goals demand the glory.  Dax was tenacious as heck winning balls and creating havoc.  His possession was magnificent as well and he was driving the KC midfield crazy.  It was a dominate a midfield performance from him as we have seen from a FCD player for a couple years.

Dax McCarty really took quite a beating then because he was receiving a lot of balls and they were setting a defender up and pretty soon they were trying to match our numbers there. It was hard for us to get any kind of rhythm. It was interesting because we worked all week on defending a lead and I thought that showed tonight. – Hyndmn

As equally pleasing as the Cunningham break out, is Ferreira finding his groove. Hopefully it’s not just for this one game, but he seems over the last couple to be figuring this league out.  Today he was very effective in the final third scoring twice and adding an assist.  He’s looking for the final telling pass and is starting to be dangerous.

David Ferreira is a pretty good player and I think we haven’t seen the best out of him yet. I mean, how many international players come into this league and really step up their first year? It is a different game. It is different officiating. It is a different intensity; different speed. I thought he [Ferreira] had a good game against Real Salt Lake. I thought today [he did as well] especially with that first goal. He is a midfielder getting to the near post and a great ball comes across and he gets it in. Just through pure determination, he picks up the second one. He assisted on the first goal with the ball he gave up to Atiba Harris. – Hyndman

Van den Bergh was a big improvement in midfield, mainly cause he cared.  He improved possession game and added some defensive help compared to the apathetic Andre Rocha.  Unfortunately vd Bergh is looking a little tired and worn out.  He may need to decrease his minutes in training and in game down the stretch.  He outplayed Rocha easily today and may be able to do even more if he stays in here.  Alvaro Sanchez may yet factor.

Harris and Shea provided real balance on both sings, running at the defense with pace and getting behind the defense.  Harris has brought a compliment to the right side, in theory with van den Bergh.  Of course in this game it was Brek Shea.  Those are two very comparable in style and play at t his point in their careers.

Brek Shea did a really good job on the left side getting forward. Atiba Harris did a great job getting forward on the right side. That is something we have been talking about: getting some flank play. I thought we got it tonight. – Hyndman

Davies got the spot back he never deserved to lose.  Hyndman said he went with Torres at RSL cause Davies had a sore foot all week, although I certainly didn’t see it in training.  Davis has played good enough that he should keep his spot no matter who gets healthy.  This kid is a great communicator and has tremendous potential. I want to see him keep playing.

Jair Benitez has been a revelation at left back and plays the kind of game I think Anthony Wallace could play if he was motivated and focused.  He’s got relentless work rate and some serious pace.  However found this guy deserves some serious props.  I’m betting the Oscar Pareja Medellin connection may have been involved.

Don’t undersell the presence of Dario Sala in the net.  He didn’t have to do much, but the defense plays differently when he’s back there.  It’s no coincidence the second shutout game of the year came in the game he returns.  Listen, Ray Burse has huge upside and could someday be great, but for now Sala is better.

I’ll admit up front I’m a huge Jason Kreis fan, I think he’s a good man as well as having the potential to be a great coach.  And I love the reaction he had on the side line when Cunningham missed the PK to break his record.  Who cares that he got ejected, I love it when coaches give a crap

I was, first and foremost, very disappointed with the (penalty kick) call. I was quite emotional about that and said a few words before the penalty was taken, and then that was a game-changing play from someone who is a leader on this team. – RSL coach Jason Kries

El Camino Central (Middle of the Road)

Torres was ok against KC but crazy bad against RSL, I was surprised FCD didn’t leave him in Utah.  Torres recovered mentally and was ok in this one, although the gap from him to Ricchetti was massive and could have been exploited.  I give him some credit for shaking off the horrific game at RSL and recovering to play in this one.  I’m all in favor of sticking with the same lineup when the team plays like this, but Torres was not good enough to keep Drew Moor from instantly reclaiming back the right back spot.

No Tan Bueno (not so good)

I’ve long been a Hartman fan, but frankly in this game it looked like he didn’t give a crap.  When Hartman is bad he can be shocking, and this was shocking.  He’s long been one of the top shot stoppers in MLS, but his feet stink and he sometimes gets himself in trouble.

I love George John’s game.  But I am starting to get worried about all the injuries.  Nothing will kill a career than a bunch of injuries.  Just ask Alex Yi.  Take your time kid, it’s a long career ahead of you.

The second half against RSL was shocking.  RSL is looking to exploit the lack of pace in the FCD back line and Hyndman goes with Torres, the slowest FCD defender, as the replacement for John?  I’m not sure I buy the in juried Davies story, since he traveled and was on the bench.  Torres was brutal and while I can’t say he was single-handedly at fault, he was the biggest problem.

We sat back a little bit to try and protect a lead, which is always dangerous. Our idea was to not let them get back into the game. But we played a good 45 minutes (in the first half). I was very pleased with that, so I think that is what we should walk away with. Any team that gives up four goals in a half you have to be concerned about, so we are concerned about that. – Hyndman

The most troubling part of the RSL game was the continued trend of second half meltdowns.  Going into the KC game the teams weren’t all that far apart in the standings, but FCD had given up 30 goals against compared to 19 for KC.  Even more telling was FCD’s 21 second half goals to KC’s 10.  Coaching is probably part of it, fitness certainly, and I’d bet some mentality too.  If FCD doesn’t solve this problem, there is little hope for improvement.  There’s not much to take from this game, except for this…

Yeah, just not to give up four goals. We should be all right if we don’t allow four goals. Schellas “Captain Obvious” Hyndman.

Categories: 120 Fahrenheit.

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