October 25th, 2009 . 10:22 pm . By: Daniel Robertson

In the first ever Development Academy meeting between in-state rivals FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo, the Dynamo came out on top in a 3-2 seesaw battle. The first 20 minutes was a feeling out process between the two teams with neither side gaining a clear advantage. The chances were few and far between with the clearest one coming to Houston midway through the first half. The ball was won well in the midfield with an impressive tackle by Houston #15 who played the ball straight to Houston’s towering midfielder Sebastien Ibeagha. Ibeagha with plenty of time played the through ball to Jade George, but George could only manage to get a weak effort on goal saved easily by Dallas’ backup keeper Zach Downes.

Things started to heat up midway through the first half as the engine of the FCD midfield, Victor Ulloa was fouled hard from behind by Houston left back Chibuzo Odenigwe. Ulloa was down for nearly a minute in pain from seemingly getting his hand stepped on by Odenigwe. Soon afterward, Ibeagha was given a yellow card for a hard foul on FCD forward Ruben Luna in the midfield. However, Houston would take the first lead of the game with about ten minutes left in the first half. Jade George played a nice through ball to Dynamo forward Martin Castillo with Dallas defender Jacob Gerondale on his back. Castillo proceeded to make a beautiful turn on Gerondale and slotted coolly with his left foot into the far corner to give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead.

After the Dynamo goal, however, it was all Dallas through the rest of the first half. With just seconds to go before the half, Dallas tied the game up in bizarre fashion. FCD was given an indirect free kick just inside the box after Dynamo goalkeeper Patrick Wall was whistled for a handball after he proceeded to dribble the ball inside his box then picked up the ball. Off the ensuing kick, Ulloa blasted the ball into a group of players with the ball dropping to Luna. His shot was blocked straight to Gerondale who atoned for his earlier error tying up the game right before the half.

Frisco high school product Cody Adams was subbed on for Uriel Soto at halftime and nearly made an instant impact. Adams played a nice ball over the top which was misplayed by Houston defender Reagan Haisler allowing another Dallas sub, Bradlee Baladez, an opportunity at goal, but Baladez couldn’t hit the target from a tight angle. Adams would be a thorn in the side of Houston on the left side of midfield throughout the second half, getting the better of Houston right back Robert Kelley on many occasions causing Kelley to pick up a yellow card.

Adams would have a hand in Dallas’ go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute as Baladez heads a corner from Adams on goal which is cleared off the line by a defender. However, the ball fell to Dallas defender Moises Hernandez who beat Kelley on the outside and sent in a hard, low cross which beat the keeper and was finished easily by Luna to give Dallas their first lead of the match.

After the Dallas goal, the game was vastly opened up with both teams’ shape becoming less rigid and many more scoring chances. The physicality of the game picked up as well with two more Houston players picking up yellow cards for rough fouls. The game was evened up in the 75th minute off a beautiful free kick from Houston substitute Francisco Navas. Ulloa was called for a questionable foul 25 yards from the box and Navas managed to smash a beautiful free kick through the wall which beat Downes and evened things up with fifteen minutes to play and set up a thrilling finish.

Both teams pushed for the winner with either side coming close on multiple occasions, the best of which was Dynamo forward Martin Castillo’s excellent effort from easily 30 yards which looped over Downes, but clanged off the crossbar and out to safety. Tempers flared with about ten minutes left in the game after Adams fouled Houston’s #12 who proceeded to push Adams. The teams bunched up right at the center circle before order was restored with the referee shockingly failing to card any player.

Houston would take the final lead in dramatic fashion, with Dynamo midfielder Ibeagha pushed up to forward. A ball was played through to a seemingly offside Ibeagha, but the flag stayed down and he tucked a well placed shot into the low corner to beat Downes and give the Dynamo a fantastic win just minutes before the final whistle.

The Dynamo head back to Houston with four straight Academy home games in November while FCD Juniors return to play next Sunday afternoon against Solar at SMU’s Westcott field.

Man of the Match: Sebastian Ibeagha

Game Observations:

-FC Dallas came out in what seemed to be a 4-4-1-1 type formation similar to the one the first team plays with Moises Hernandez on the left side of defense, Jael Barrera and University of Wisconsin commit Jacob Gerondale in the middle and Giovanni Gomez on the right. Uriel Soto started on left side of midfield for FCD with Victor Ulloa and Damian Rosales in more defensive roles and Jose Perez in a more attacking role on the right side along with Rafael Martinez. U16 player of the year and SMU commit Ruben Luna was alone up top.

-Disclaimer: I am a sucker for the dominating defensive midfielder, but both Dallas and Houston have two spectacular ones in Victor Ulloa and Sebastian Ibeagha.

-You’ve got to get out to an FCD Juniors game just to see Ulloa in action. The long-haired FCD Juniors captain commands the midfield beautifully barking out instructions and basically controlling everything. He’s very good with both feet, works out of tight spaces beautifully, and just never turns the ball over in dangerous areas.

-After hearing all the hype about Luna, I was very excited to see him in action, but I came away a little disappointed. He always looks dangerous, but Houston’s central defenders had him in their pocket the entire game. Early in the game, it seemed that Dallas’ plan was to knock a long ball up to him and let him take the defenders on, which may have worked at the U16 level, but he just never really got going today. He did have a goal, but it wasn’t anything more than a tap in mainly created by Hernandez.

-Speaking of Hernandez, he’s a very interesting player. He does many things well, 1 on 1 defending, his distribution and he gets forward well, but he needs to improve his positioning and soccer IQ a bit. There were multiple times where he was caught out of position having either gone too far up the field or curiously pushing into the midfield. One of the top three or four prospects on the team for me.

-It’s amazing to me how the Academy sides of both FCD and Houston mirrored the pro teams in their style of play. Houston had the bigger athletes, held to their formation well and were very, very physical as evidenced by their five yellow cards to zero for Dallas. FCD played with the lone forward up top and looked to attack down the wings and were punished for just a few mental errors today. Sound familiar?

-Cody Adams really changed the game at halftime when he came in. He’s a bit undersized, but was absolutely torching Houston’s right back. He linked up very very well with Hernandez and has a bunch of tricks in his bag. The thing I like most about him, however, is the passion he had for the game. He nearly got himself sent off and was always in the middle of every altercation, but I like that out of a player as long as he’s smart about it. He always looked to attack.

-#20 Bradlee Baladez is another nice player. He’s got very good first touch, but needs to slow the game down a bit. He tends to rush his decisions and sometimes make the wrong one rather than picking his head up and looking around. He nearly scored a couple of times today from the midfield and offered a lot more than Martinez.

-The two players on Houston I really liked were Ibeagha and Houston’s huge left back Chibuzo Odenigwe. The two players who go to the same high school in Houston were far and away the best athletes on the field and with a little refinement could both be professional prospects.

-Regardless of the result, the Development Academy is probably the best thing US Soccer has got going for it right now. These kids are getting very high quality games and playing in a pressure-packed atmosphere getting some very good experience. I can’t wait to see how many kids on the 2018 World Cup team played in the Development Academy.

-If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out the FCD Juniors yet, do yourself a favor and get out to one of their next few games. They play Solar next Sunday at SMU and then have Dallas Texans at UTD on Saturday, November 14th. You can find the rest of their schedule here http://ussda.demosphere.com/teams/17276140/17297517-17276234/TEAM.html

-Apologies if I got any names wrong, all of the info is coming from the Development Academy website.

Categories: Match Report.

8 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment