Game: FC Dallas vs Houston Dynamo Date: Sunday, August 25th Time: 7:00 pm [Local] | 0:00 [Universal] Location: Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas, United States of America Weather Forecast: Mostly Sunny; H 97, L 79 Competition: Major League Soccer Opponent's Recent Form: D-L-L-L-L Live TV: Fox Sports 1 [USA], Fox Deportes [USA], TSN1 [Canada] Radio: FCDallas.com/radio [English] | KFLC 1270 AM Univision [Spanish] Needless to say, this is a must win for so many reasons.
Well, it was an emphatic win. I have no idea why the second Ferreira goal was disallowed, but I guess it’s a good sign that the decision had absolutely no impact on the match. Still a very comfortable margin. Glad to see the Cobra get a brace. He’s not that mobile but appears to be a good finisher. I really liked what Pomykal added off the bench, and Ferreira looked really good as well. This was a must win game with Houston in terrible form and teams in direct contention for the final playoff spot losing this week. FCD lives to fight another day.
Apparently Pepi was offside on the play and he set up the screen that allowed Ferreira to finish. Don't know why they can't have the PA make a quick announcement as to why a goal is disallowed. Anyway, that was fun. Wasn't expecting Cobra (he's earned the name now) to have two great finishes. Should've had a third as well but can't get picky. Great win. We scored 13 goals in our last 4 games. Didn't see that coming.
The signal seemed to be for offside, and I figured it probably involved Pepi, as neither Pomykal nor Ferreira were in an offside position during the play. But I couldn’t see how he interfered. We’re back above the line but have played two more than Portland. For what it’s worth, with the comb, FCD is now tied for second-best goal difference (waaay behind LAFC) in the West and fifth-best in the league.
Was it an obvious mistake by the referee that needed correcting? I never saw an angle that looked like Pepi interfered with the play.
The only interference I could see caused by Pepi "might" have been that the keeper considered him a threat needing to be defended and therefore didn't shift towards Jesus during the cross to attempt the block. Or maybe Pepi impeded his vision of the cross by being offside. Either way, a bit ticky tack all things considered (score line/time remaining).
I don't get FCD fans - it appears most are giddy over a in the 6yard box brace by ZO, and very, very little talk and hype over the most excellent (and vastly superior) evening by Jesus. What a promising performance - going at defenders, with the ball, out of midfield, creating havoc. More of that please. Oh, and more of Servania's game too - what a night. ZO: While he was MUCH better, and trust me I logged each touch, his first 4 involvements with the ball were turnovers. His fifth was the excellent square ball to Jesus for the goal. After that it was largely a positive game. I still know he's a poor fit for Luchi-ball, he missed the easiest of his three chances (the Pax cross), only won a single contested arial ball, and only once even tried to receive a ball as a post up forward and turn his defender - the other 3 or 4 times he simply passed the ball back (and twice turned it over). If everyone is being honest, both of his goals benefitted from horrid defending and you'd expect your TAM signing to tap those in. Like everyone else I think he's an infectious personality and you can see why he was beloved in Poland - but my frustration is more with the poor scouting and recruiting and less to do with him personally. Dallas deserves a better #9. As for the VAR decision: Soccer is the only sport that has taken its most rare and valuable asset, goals - and chosen to actively melt many of them down because of an imperfection no one actually saw or complained about until the electron-microscope spent 60 seconds finding it.
This fanbase has been absolutely starved for a consistent goal-scoring forward. So when people see our actual #9 scoring multiple goals, this fanbase is going to react. We're used to see midfielders or wingers grab goals. It's not as novel.
It's nice to see a #9 that actually finishes his chances inside the box. If that is all that Cobra is good for, while sucking at everything else, then I'm fine with that.
I see where Hitman's coming from but we know we aren't getting a new great #9 acquisition. So we have to hope any of our imperfect candidates can do the job. I've actually been hoping Colman would get healthy thinking he might be a good fit with players who can hit aerial crosses that are the only thing he can finish while he is really good at winning aerial balls, pestering defenders and not bad at back to the goal passes. I watched him at a NTSC game a few weeks ago and he was anonymous. So if Cobra can just knock in two goals every game I'm fine with him not being that good at other stuff.
Until his first goal, he looked like the same old non-Cobra to me. Almost never touched the ball, didn't do anything when he did. Others watching the game with me pointed out that he wasn't getting any service. We can belittle his goals, but at least he scored them. How many times have we seen others on this team (especially Colman and Badji) blow chances like these? He doesn't rate the salary he's getting, but he might be the best option up top for us right now.
Also, (like every player on Earth) confidence is everything. 3 goals in 2 games are going to have his confidence soaring. Now he gets to play against the worst team in the league. Another multiple goal game and he's going to be flying. I agree that he's not great by any stretch of the imagination; but in a post-Blas world, he might be as good as it's going to get.
Probably. Conversely the FO may be thinking that Ferreira and Pepi are close so why spend a ton of money and block two great prospects?
Well, for whatever his myriad faults, he at least has one thing going for him: He crashes the box. I cannot tell you how many times over the past few seasons that I've wanted to tear my hair out because someone there was a ball around the goal that just required the slightest of touches to become a goal, and no one was there.