04/19: The Red Menagerie: FCD vs TFC [R]

Discussion in 'FC Dallas' started by burning247, Apr 17, 2014.

  1. burning247

    burning247 Member+

    Liverpool FC
    England
    Sep 16, 2000
    Dallas
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    [​IMG]

    Game: FC Dallas vs Toronto FC
    Date: Saturday, April 19th
    Time: 7:30 PM [CST]
    Location: Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas, United States of America
    Weather Forecast: Partly Cloudy; H 80, L 60
    Competition: Major League Soccer
    Last 5 for Opponent: L-W-L-W-W
    Live TV: TXA-21 [DFW]; Direct Kick [Out of Market]; MLSLive [Non-Restricted]
    Radio: KWRD 100.7 FM [English]; KFLC 1270 AM La Voz del Pueblo [Spanish]

    Sorry, work has been kicking my ass this week and I'll be in NOLA this weekend so I'm out for this one. Time to bounce back but it'll be a tough test.
     
  2. Skippysasquirrel

    May 11, 2012
    San Diego, CA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It'll be another test, that's for sure... But I'm feeling confident. Wonder if Blas will be back
     
  3. Parrothead FC

    Parrothead FC Member

    Jun 29, 2005
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Austin Aztex
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I believe that Bradley and Defoe are still listed as questionable. Without them, and Bradley especially, it may not be too tough a test. With Bradley, they've looked nearly unbeatable.
     
  4. Skippysasquirrel

    May 11, 2012
    San Diego, CA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, I checked out their Red Wave or whatever (their BigDSoccer) and they said Bradley didn't practice Tuesday and they're not sure about him for Saturday.
     
  5. jamezyjamez

    jamezyjamez Member

    Apr 27, 2007
    Dallas
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    twitter said defoe definitely out this weekend
     
  6. Harper916

    Harper916 Member+

    Mar 30, 2001
    Lake Charles, La.
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Man, Michael Bradley got fat....and what's he doing wearing a suit?
     
  7. burning247

    burning247 Member+

    Liverpool FC
    England
    Sep 16, 2000
    Dallas
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    FYP :laugh:
     
  8. Hitman

    Hitman Member+

    Mar 31, 1999
    actually, TFC has DeRoe and Defoe officially out... Bradley and as many as four other key players are also "questionable"... TFC has good reason to sit them too, this is a non-conference game and after this is a two week break to rest them all up...

    terribly unlucky for the FCD front office if all, or most (Defoe and Bradley specifically) don't play.
     
  9. EvilTree

    EvilTree Member+

    Canadian S.C
    Canada
    Nov 20, 2007
    Frozen Swampland, Soviet Canuckistan
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
  10. ttujosh

    ttujosh Member

    Mar 9, 2003
    Dallas, Tx
    Well I would say this is exactly why you don't market other teams players for a specific game, you have 0 control over them actually appearing. Plus I will never understand the logic of promoting the opponent to your city, but whatever that ship sailed years ago for this club. Should be a fun match, both teams play on the ground and like to get forward. I think their defense is super sketchy, Castillo is going to get chances...will he be the productive guy we saw for a game or two, or is he back to his blockhead old ways??
     
  11. Cowtown Felipe

    Cowtown Felipe Member+

    Mar 12, 2012
    Fort Worth, TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'd bet those who are attending this game to see Defoe and Bradley don't follow MLS closely enough to realize they will be / might be out.
    IMO Castillo's decision making is improving. His improvement isn't continuously upward. There have been and will be some bad decisions and bad games, but he is improving kind of like a rising stock market.
    That said it's so %^&* frustrating to see him beat defenders to get free in the penalty area, then take an oafish touch to put himself out of position to do anything good.
    Related to the title of this thread, I'll bet some Toronto fans will be confused by our new uniforms which look almost the same as their all red unis.
    I'll go 2-0 for us in this one. No own goals. It's about time to administer our first schneidering of the year.
     
  12. theodore

    theodore Member

    Nov 7, 2003
    Well first half sees us getting disbalanced on the right side of the defense for a goal. Our set pieces and Michel keep us in business with a near post run from Hedges. The attacking third is stagnant. I can hear the Texieria critics warming up their typing fingers as I write. But, I think that we need some tactical improvement/teaching for all of our young attackers. We need mobility and variety. OK, we know that getting the ball to Mauro Diaz is always a good thing. But, we need more good things going on. Why do we not firstly work on player rotations whereby the guys up top exchange positions? Diaz does this, but few others know how. When Blas is in, he will check deep to open space for the other guys to exploit. Texeira stays on the last man and stays central. Then people wonder why he is not more involved. Castillo and Watson are so one footed that they are easy to rub out unless we are countering with space to run. So, why don't we switch the forwards side to side and back to front? Allow Castillo and Watson to switch play to dribble square and take the shot? Have Texiera make the diagonal run and allow any of the other three attackers, (front to back or outside inside), to switch into open space. We can then let the outside backs to provide a overlapping crossing option when the lefty forwards are on the right and the righty's are on the left.

    And, alternately we can sometimes mix it up and go "Old Britannia", by sending the early long cross and have the center and outside forward crash the box.

    It is early, and OP is getting this group to gel. But, now the league know what we do and we need different answers.
     
    Cowtown Felipe repped this.
  13. ivannomad

    ivannomad Member

    Aug 7, 2007
    Tyler, TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Has jellybean (my iPhone autocorrect for "Kellyn") Acosta proven he is a better RB at going forward and working with the attack than Loyd (whom ESPN lists as a midfielder FYI)? Is this why he got the start over Loyd? Or did Zach prove last week he is not fully recovered? Lots of questions.
     
  14. Hitman

    Hitman Member+

    Mar 31, 1999
    Hooo boy. That was a turgid game to watch.

    Dallas is so far beyond what anyone really expected this early in the season, but as Theo correctly (again) points out Oscar's team has much growing to do. While the amount of attacking movement, runs off the ball and tactical savvy has been hit and miss, last night - it was very poor.

    And for all the complaining I've done about Blas' tendency to play back into midfield too much, we now know why - he has to if he ever wants to see the ball. Again and again last night Dallas would get a counter on, push left, Jair pass to Castillo before midfield, and Fabian would just go forward. Now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in most cases there is Diaz alone in the middle running along waiting for that pass. it never comes until Fabian has run himself out of space, and his team too.

    But when the team did settle and build an attack, the lack of movement up front, along with the collective refusal to turn with the ball near the box and drive, meant Dallas spent way too much time passing laterally and negatively.

    I'm not ready to dump on Texeira, but his finishing is alarmingly, uh, basic.

    And lastly, it was all j u s t t o o s l o w.

    When Dallas would press the gas, they found danger. But that was very infrequent.

    And the good news is they won. and deservingly so, because Toronto appeared to care very little. In fact, the most glaring light was Michael Bradley. He clearly is hurt because I didn't think it was possible, mentally or physically, for him to play a soccer game so passively. SO very submissive in midfield. His passing was fine, the very little he had the ball, but he bowed out of just about every 50/50 presented to him.

    Dallas, frankly, should have dispatched TFC early and badly, and simply didn't.

    Again, they won. Sit on top of the league by 3 points, and have accomplished that without John, Moffat, Jacobson, Loyd, Fernandez and Thomas for most/much of the season. Amazingly good stuff overall.
     
  15. burning247

    burning247 Member+

    Liverpool FC
    England
    Sep 16, 2000
    Dallas
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Watched the highlights in the wee hours this morning. Is there a reason we let them wear red on our patch? Not happy about that. Otherwise, glad to see us pull out the 3 pts that would have been a frustrating tie.
     
  16. Parrothead FC

    Parrothead FC Member

    Jun 29, 2005
    Austin, Texas
    Club:
    Austin Aztex
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Watson seemed to take a step back in this game, and his, uh, extracurriculars made me wonder whether that revoked red card a few weeks ago may indeed have been justified.

    The Castillo issue is not new to this game, but it didn't keep us from dominating, so I guess we'll just truck along with it as is. Diaz seems to be getting less and less space, and that makes Michel's presence quite welcome, since he can do a lot of the same things.

    Any win with Bradley on the field for the opponent is a good win, and this was a strong win even though we left it late.
     
    dtid repped this.
  17. Rex Kramer

    Rex Kramer Thanks Rex

    Aug 1, 2007
    Plano, TX
    It's a little concerning that, despite 60% possession and 23 crosses, we still aren't able to get a goal from the run of play. However, despite all the injuries, this team just has a better feel to it than last year's - it doesn't feel like they're not really as good as the table position would suggest, per this time last year.

    I'm still not going to pronounce us as Shield contenders, as there's clearly a lot of work still to do (Castillo's decision-making and Texeira's off the ball movement being the prime concerns), but Papi's "rebuilding year" team already looks better then any team Hyndman put together. Yes, even 2010.
     
  18. jamezyjamez

    jamezyjamez Member

    Apr 27, 2007
    Dallas
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    agree with hitman that we didnt push the pedal down frequently enough.

    i did like what castillo was trying with the cut-inside/curl-backpost and am sure that move is papi's doing. with his quickness and speed, that shot should be there whenever he wants it.

    but like hit says, when he gets the ball earlier from jair, he needs to lay it off centrally (or even back to jair) and get forward so he can combine/be an option.

    ps jair was excellent and owned that pony-tailed kid all day. really fun to watch and he put in some great service as well. our best sequence of the match was castillo cut in, no-look to jair on the overlap, first time to jvw for the header that shouldve scored. more of that please.
     
  19. SabreKhan

    SabreKhan Member+

    Jun 25, 2007
    United States
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sadly predictive (I think it was actually scored to the TFC attacker, but still).

    I'd prefer to wear the blue hoops than the red-on-red fugliness. I really prefer the red hoops to anything else, but obviously I have been voted off the island on that one.

    FCD looked dominant, which was nice to see. I wish we'd have put more of those corner kicks on-frame, but otherwise very few complaints. FCD got a lot of scoring opportunities, but really had very little off-ball movement up top. If we'd been better about keeping the front line moving for 90 minutes, we could easily have put 5 past TFC this weekend. They looked lethargic and generally bad. TFC clearly does not have the depth off the bench that we do.

    Michel is certainly earning his keep. With Diaz getting hacked like crazy, it's nice to have Michel as a midfield horse. When Moffat comes back full time, I hope Michel is still starting somewhere on the field.
     
  20. ttujosh

    ttujosh Member

    Mar 9, 2003
    Dallas, Tx
    I have to agree with Theo, the knowledge of tactics upfront really needs to improve. I am amazed at how little movement when we have the ball Tex has. It's odd, he seems very in tune when he needs to press defensively, but offensively he just stands in the center of the field waiting...waiting..waiting. It's almost like he wants a through ball, but that certainly isn't his skillset. And when crosses come in, he is to late on his run. It reminds me a lot of Jozy Altidore, very tactically naive.
    The good news is the team still won, Bradley was marked out of the game relatively well by Thomas and friends. Still plenty of room to grow, but got the important piece of 3 points. The team still looks head and shoulder better than any point I can recall from last season.
     
    jamezyjamez repped this.
  21. jamezyjamez

    jamezyjamez Member

    Apr 27, 2007
    Dallas
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    really good jozy analogy. if he is the uruguayan jozy, then who is the american suarez?! :)
     
  22. Cowtown Felipe

    Cowtown Felipe Member+

    Mar 12, 2012
    Fort Worth, TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    After about 20 minutes into this one, I asked my buddy, "Has Texeira touched the ball yet?"
    I mostly liked Castillo in this one except for the shots going wide instead of in the goal.
    In the second half I was disappointed to see so much of our offense going through Jair, who did alright, but do we really want Jair running the offense?
    I thought the second half of this game was crying out for Blas to come in to provide a vulture-like finish. Cheers to him for doing it. Cheers to OP for subbing him in to do it.
    Anyone else notice Keel trying to fire up Castillo, Jair, and others during a stoppage in play in the second half? Pretty bold initiative and leadership from a part-time starter.
    Even while not at 100% (he really was backing off 50/50s late in the game) , Bradley was a class above all on the field.
    Another good game for Seitz.
    The back line wasn't bad, but looked unaware of wide runners at times. Better finishing by them could have killed us.
    Just when I'd gotten used to us wearing solid red, we let the visitors wear solid red? WTF?
    Good win for us. Tighten up the D a bit, improve finishing, stop with the own goals, and move on to the next win at DC.
     
  23. boneall

    boneall Member

    Sep 8, 2008
    Allen
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was puzzled by the Acosta start. It only lead me to believe something is tweaked with Loyd. Acosta captained the U20 US team and played significant minutes in the Dallas Cup. He looked fatigued to me. Touch is the first thing that goes when you're tired as it's a disconnect in the head, and he showed a few times it wasn't sharp. He was also ball watching a few times. I will say he played mightily given the run his body/mind had been through.
     
  24. Hitman

    Hitman Member+

    Mar 31, 1999
    Loyd is still not 100% fit. And considering Kellyn got all 90 minutes, despite his week, I'd say Zack is further behind that even he realized.
     
  25. Hitman

    Hitman Member+

    Mar 31, 1999

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