Game: Minnesota United FC vs FC Dallas Date: Saturday, September 16th Time: 7:00 PM [CST] Location: TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America Weather Forecast: Mostly Cloudy; H 81, L 69 Competition: Major League Soccer Last 5 for Opponent: W-L-D-W-L Record & Standing of Opponent: 8-15-5 | 29 pts | 9th in the West (19th overall) Live TV: KTXA-21 [DFW]; FCDallas.com [DFW]; WFTC-29 [Minneapolis/St. Paul]; Direct Kick/MLSLive [Out of Market] Radio: KWRD 100.7 FM [English]; KFLC 1270 AM La Voz del Pueblo [Spanish]
If we don't win this one, we'll need to get several points out of our two remaining games v. Colorado to have a chance at the playoffs. And we all know how good we are at getting points from Colorado. Only a couple months ago I wouldn't have dreamed I would be typing "to have a chance at the playoffs" here.
If we don't win this one, the season is over. If we can't fix our trouble and beat MN, we don't deserve to make the playoffs.
By the looks of it we are just cruising like we have a playoff spot already booked or maybe they feel the season is over, I'm not sure. No real sense of urgency, unless the defense is urgently trying to impersonate traffic cones. Do they practice defense during the week between games?
When there don't seem to be any consequences for the players who have put up a nine-game winless run, why should there be any urgency?
We pressed them back pretty well for the first 15 minutes until we finally got our goal. But after they got their first the entire team seemed to deflate. This defense is somehow worse than the sum of its parts. Seems like more second half goals are inevitable.
Wow Fig went out of his way to suck tonight. Should have been at least 6-1, ok 6-2 if you want to count the pk that was saved. I don't agree with the straight red to Tesho, but he was never going to get to the ball before the gk. It looked bang bang but the gk is always going to get that call. This was really just an example of the lack of discipline and "I don't give a damn" we have been watching on the field. This season is over. The funny thing is neither San Jose or Houston want that last playoff spot either. Maybe RSL will do something against Seattle and remove all doubt. At least it's a home game in Fortress Frisco on Wednesday against lowly Colorado.....Oh wait. Anyone have gif of an atom bomb? That was the summary of this game.....And season.
The truly amazing thing about this winless streak is that the worst Burn team ever, the 2003 team that finished 6-19-5, dead last in the West, dead last in the league, didn't come anywhere close to matching it. Their longest winless streak was six games, which they did to start the season: 4/12 - 1-1 vs. LA 4/26 - 1-2 vs. New England 5/3 - 0-0 at DC United 5/10 - 1-3 vs. Kansas City 5/17 - 1-1 vs. LA 5/24 - 1-2 at MetroStars They didn't get their first win until a 3-2 win vs. DC United at Dragon Stadium on May 31. But the rest of the season, they had three different four-game winless streaks. But each time, they managed to managed to show some temporary competence and eke out a win. This team, which was on top of the West at the beginning of this streak, has not managed that.
I simply don't get not starting Diaz. 4-4-2 has never been an attacking formation for this team, sitting back just invited pressure on a suspect defense and for the love of all that is good - Mauro needs minutes. I know "3 games in 7 days" - but this isn't June. It's September and this is a side fighting for its playoff life. If your best player can't put in starting minutes across these three games, you need to go find a another best player. I love me some OP, but that odd habit of him outthinking himself when the team really needs him to do just the most simple thing is very concerning. https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/so...rejas-odd-choices-fail-bring-change-fc-dallas
I hate to say it but I think this season overall (post injury) has shown that we need a new "best player." Badly. Mauro just isn't a game changer anymore. Hoping he can prove me wrong in these final games and (lol) in the playoffs but reality is really weighing hard these days.
Here's the thing: When Diaz came on, the game did change and if Mauro converts that PK, the game is 1-1 and I'm thinking Dallas rolls out with a point. But when he missed it, what little air was in the team blew out and we know what happened from there. Point being: OP's idea almost worked, but instead of putting Diaz on early and being an attacking minded team, he chose the other path and that did not work.
2-2, but I agree that FCD probably comes out with a point. Of course, when FCD got the first goal, we all probably figured that they'd be OK, since they hadn't lost a league game after scoring first since 2015, so maybe we shouldn't be so sure that they wouldn't find a way to derp it up if Diaz had scored the penalty. And the time for this was probably five games ago, but some of our vets need to have a night off, just to get their attention, because some of them are playing as if they've got vacation plans that depart on October 23 and they're just playing out the string. Saturday night was a cavalcade of unintelligent play, uninspired play, and going through the motions. So much of defending is about effort and focus and smarts, and we saw so little of that on Saturday night.
I disagree. At least Tesho made an effort to get to the ball to make something happen on a borderline 50-50 ball. I don't have a problem with the ref's decision to give him a red card. I just wish MLS refs were as protective of regular field players as they are of GKs. The frustrating thing about this team is we see them play well, like in the first 15 minutes of this game, then that team magically disappears and is replaced by a slow moving, careless, disorganized mess.
I think anyone critical of Diaz may not be up on how hard it is to come back from an achilles injury. I've been very impressed how quickly he returned and how good he's been. It's usually a two year rehab and some like John O'Brien never recover completely. Diaz should be much more himself next year. I just wish they had turned over the keys to Pomykal - at times.