Game: Atlanta United FC vs FC Dallas Date: Saturday, April 20th Time: 3:00 pm [DFW] | 4:00 pm [Local] Location: Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America Weather Forecast: AM Showers; H 57, L 44 (**stadium indoors**) Competition: Major League Soccer Opponent's Recent Form: W-L-D-D-L Live TV: ESPN [USA] | ESPN Deportes [USA] | DAZN [Canada] Radio: FCDallas.com/radio [English] | KFLC 1270 AM La Voz del Pueblo [Spanish]
To be honest, after 8-9 years of coming up with semi-funny puns and "episode titles" for our games, I'm just running out of ideas. I have to constantly search our forum to make sure I didn't already use a thread title that pops into my head. Felt like it's been forced lately, with the exception of "Luchi Gang." So I was trying to shift away from that format but maybe I'll change my mind.
BTW, I tried to stay away from anything related to the date, my current state of residence notwithstanding.
Apparently not, not even watching on the tube. Once they couldn't decide on a thread title everyone went home. Sad because I came here for my comeuppance even though I didn't even talk smack before the game. To be fair the AU board is dead too... well not quite this dead.
I was the only Dallas jersey in the whole stadium, I think. Among the 43,000 people, I did not see one other wearing Dallas gear. Atlanta absolutely dominated this game, though. Dallas turned their two clear chances into goals, and Atlanta failed to turn any of their 20-odd chances into goals. In fact, Atlanta's goal came on a random edge-of-the-box ankle stomp PK. Not sure what Gruezo was doing there. Dallas' MOTM has got to be either Jesse G. or Michael Barrios.
If you're out of ideas open it up for suggestions before the game. Pick a day (like 3 days before game) and go with the best one. Might get more folks involved as this place is sort of dead as many have moved to Big D Soccer and Reddit forums. Probably more fans altogether but spread over multiple places.
Yeah, thought about that but since it's so dead in here I thought I might have better luck talking it over with my cat. I actually had a good idea for this one that I totally forgot about but I'll save it for next season.
To be honest, this sort of message board is a format that’s in decline. It won’t ever go away, but between Twitter and Reddit and the comments sections of blogs, there are way more options for discussion than there used to be, and this sort of format ain’t the new hotness. Folks used to do soccer discussion on mostly on Usenet and email discussion lists, and message boards knocked them down the ladder. Now, other formats are knocking message boards down the ladder. Tis the way of the Internet.
I was there but in a suite. Policy is that you cannot wear opposing jerseys in suites. Friend of mine works for NPR. I screamed at first goal. Everyone turned and looked at me. They were nice but certainly surprised that any opposing fans would dare come in their stadium. Have to say....very impressed with their marketing, fan support, community support. Top notch. Food in suite was crazy good. I had sushi, lobster, steak etc. I did not see hoards of people leaving when they were losing either in the last 10 min. Jesse was my MOTM.
You know, sometimes we get so used to seeing player after player after player come out of the academy, step into the 18 and look like they belong or at least like they're not that far from belonging, that when I see players like Brek Shea or Leandro González-Pirez doing what they did on Saturday, it gives me a new appreciation for how FCD develops the kids and has been rolling them into the lineup at the right time. Seriously, LGP was a dumpster fire defensively and probably should had an early trip to the showers, but I'm not going to say anything about that for the same reason why I'm not going to anything about the sun coming up tomorrow morning. It's freaking obvious to everyone. I will however, talk shit about one of FCD's former players, Brek Shea -- but then, he's had so many short stints with so many clubs that he's a former player for one-third of the league by this point. I don't get it. When you look at a player's CV and the ONLY club at which he spent more that two seasons was his first professional club, you start to wonder why he never sticks around anywhere. Well, on Saturday, you saw why. I won't go so far as to call him "useless," but he was a turnover machine and when you do a head-to-head comparison between FCD's outside backs on Saturday, Reggie Cannon, Ryan Hollingshead, and briefly, John Nelson -- a third-year player, a sixth-year player who was almost killed in a traffic accident two years ago, and a rookie, there was almost no comparison. AND BREK SHEA HAS BEEN A PRO FOR 11 YEARS. I was watching him play, thankful that FCD ultimately figured him out back in ye olden days of 2013, but wondering what kind of galaxy brains they've got in Atlanta that said, "Oh yeah, he's what our roster needs." Probably the same galaxy brains that said, "You know, we should not only completely change our entire coaching philosophy after our fabulously successful coaching hire departs for El Tri, we should hire the guy that has got turbofired from Inter and Crystal Palace." (Yeah, yeah, I know. He won a bunch at Ajax. Just add him to the list of marginal managers that have won at superclubs in their respective leagues.) In the end, FCD won this game largely because Jesse stood on his head, but those two goals didn't hurt either, and those two goals were the reason why the only AUFC fan you could hear for most of the second half was the goober with the megaphone.
Oh yeah, Taylor Twellman was giving love to Luchi for going with three center backs for the game and I think that that was 100% correct. The reason why Brek Shea got to show off his relative uselessness is that the three CBs, in concert with Gruezo and Cerrillo, really gummed up the center and forced the play out wide. How often did we hear Darlington Nagbe's name on Saturday? Exactly.
We are spoiled even though we may never win an MLS Cup. Adding teams every year just makes it harder and we couldn't win the dang thing when there were only eight teams. FCD has been consistently good over the last few years and I bet over the last five years we are top three. Watching Toronto last year and now so far Atlanta and Portland shows that our dip after the double wasn't that bad in comparison and we've been near the top every other year. I dig the HG factory stuff because if we can't win the whole thing I'd rather watch up and coming exciting players even if they move on to bigger and better than watch a bunch of spare journeyman who will never be better.
Away games, especially on fake grass (420 reference?), and games on national TV are usually death for us. I'll take this win even with less than 30% possession.
Wasn't Brek one of those "kids" FCD rolled into the lineup for like four years? Word. I disagree. I won't say he dominated his position, but he had a ton of possession and to my recollection only had one or two plain giveaways. His style fits the Tata Martino attacking style more than deBoer's possession-oriented style. Like many other players of the Martino era, he runs fast and he's almost always going forward instead of sideways or backward. His most redeeming feature, however, is that he's cheap. On a roster loaded with expensive players in a cap league, the other 6 or 7 guys have to be willing to play for peanuts.
Shea may only be starting because their young left back phenom Bello got hurt early in the season. Once he's healthy we'll see if Shea is actually a starter. I kind of wonder how much slack Atlanta will give DeBoer. May be stuck with him this year because of the difficulty in enticing a similar high profile coach to take over mid-season.
De Boer isn't going anywhere. He was brought in not only to coach the team but also get the academy on a world class level. Congrats on the win, but those 3 points should have been ours. If we lose this weekend you can take the piss.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN, based on what? Possession? Shots? If we're playing in the imaginary world of should have been, FCD would have an overflowing trophy case.
Boy howdy. If the stats meant anything, we would've had a much more enjoyable evening in Toronto in November 2010 than we did.