Game: Colorado Rapids vs FC Dallas Date: Sunday, October 28th Time: 3:30 PM [CST] Location: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colorado, United States of America Weather Forecast: Sunny; H 65, L 38 Competition: Major League Soccer Last 5 For Opponent: D-W-L-L-L Live TV: KTXA-21 [DFW] | KBTX-50 [Bryan] | KWTX-10 [Waco] | KAMR-4.2 [Amarillo] | KMYL-22.2 [Lubbock] | KFXK-51.2 [Tyler] | KFDX-28.2 (KJBO) [Wichita Falls] | Altitude [Colorado] | ESPN+ [Out of Market] Radio: FCDallas.com/radio [English] | KFLC 1270 AM La Voz del Pueblo [Spanish] The opponent is weak, the weather is perfect and a win locks up a first-round bye. Obviously the big concern is finishing on our end.
Gonzalez Cannon - Hedges - Ziegler - Marquinhos Lamah - Gruezo - Ulloa - Hollingshead Urruti - Barrios If Urruti's going to be a '9.5', then he might as well be a 9. Stack the flanks and perform double duty on the sides. Look for opportunities to counter with pace by feeding Lamah, Urruti, and Barrios. Sit back and wait for our chances. Final chance to test something out before the playoffs so go with something like this. The 4-2-3-1 with basically four forwards wasn't/isn't working.
Sit back against Crapids? This could produce a game like the one on the Simpsons where neither team crosses the center line. I like the idea of pushing another guy up higher. For Urruti's strike partner, I'd go with Lamah or Mosquera and keep Barrios at his usual wing mid. Barrios is valuable tracking back to help on D.
Mosquera and Barrios have to play. He's not dropping Urruti either. I would still start Badji in case he wants to stick it to his old club. Yank him at minute 60 if he hasn't done anything and play Lamah. I can't believe I'm saying this but I miss Lamah's goals.
Man going into the Dick needing points gives me the yips. Have they killed off more hopes and dreams of the FCD faithful than any other team in the MLS? Its like Halloween 6 or 7 by now. Plus Acosta factor. Probably an early red or some new torture is in store for us. Feeling optimistic though!
History of Rapids Nightmares 1997: Western Conference Finals 2005: Western Conference Semifinals 2006: Western Conference Semifinals 2010: MLS Cup Recent example of going to the dick, needing a win & getting one: October 18, 2014 Don't think we've lost in their house since the Schellas days.
I think there are some more semi necessary wins that turned into losses/nightmares that happened more recently/this decade in addition to those full on gut punches mentioned. Maybe resulted in lower playoff seeding or something. Lost is the fog though.
I was looking at the MLS list of goal scorers. https://www.mlssoccer.com/stats/season?page=1&year=2018&group=g Not counting Badji at # 41, our leading goal scorer is Lamah at #49 with 8 goals (bottom of second page). Amazing we've done as well as we have while our top scorer is barely in the top 50. Maxi's goal scoring % (goals / shots) is 6%! Compare that with Lamah's 22.9%, and Barrios and Mosquera at about 10%. Maxi's percentage is the lowest of the top 75 MLS goal scorers. Maybe Maxi should move to the #10 role and concentrate on setting up goals instead of trying to score them. The stats say he's just not good at scoring.
Jesus, if that stat chart doesn't scream we need a true goalscorer, I don't know what does. It's a shame about Maxi though because it wasn't too long ago I was very impressed with his finishing abilities.
Yeah, the 4-0 (random) loss at home in early 2015 after our really hot start comes to mind. Also, the 0-0 draw last season that we had scored in but got taken away by VAR for a foul by Harris at midfield. Rightfully win that game and we would've made the playoffs.
I am not going to suggest that there is not chance of Dallas collecting all three points in this match. It is not impossible. It is, however, very unlikely. It is unlikely that Dallas will earn a single point. Colorado will be loose, Dallas will be withering under the microscope. Colorado has really nothing to play for, but Dallas does. In addition, Colorado know is the score a goal, the will win. Eay=sy ti play that way,
Typical game for FCD. Needing points against one of the of the worst teams in the league, and... well... Defense wins championships, I hope?
Well, that was crap, and unfortunately I do not see this lasting very long in the playoffs. Three straight losses to begin the playoffs! The worst part is the heads drop at 1:1, absolutely no fight.
I'm pretty inclined to say that this team has hit rock bottom in 2018, precisely at the perfect time of year to hit rock bottom. They've lost three straight games, beeen outscored 6-1, and unlike the previous two losses, they managed to lose to a non-playoff team and actually had a lead in this game and they had it in the 80th minute! They've gone from losing a heartbreaking game at the death in DC to getting blown out of the water at home to SKC to blowing an 80th minute lead and losing to one of the worst teams in the league. In the process, they've gone from having a comfortable lead on top of the West to playing in the first round. It is possible, of course, for things to get worse, and it's far more likely for us to see that on Wednesday or Thursday than for us to see things get better. It is only thanks to Vancouver's win to send off Alphonso Davies that FCD isn't headed up to play on plastic in Portland in midweek. So if anyone wants to start the 2018 postmortem and start heaping recriminations on Fernando Clavijo and Óscar Pareja's systematic (albeit inadvertent) degradation of the attacking talent of this roster, I'm game. Seriously, they have scored a grand total of two goals from open play in seven games since the beginning of September.
You look at someone like Ruidiaz who has scored 8 goals in his half season with Seattle and you wonder why we can't seem to find a decent goal scorer since Blas left. I mean this team is just dying for an x-factor and they have nothing. I'm at a loss at this point. I knew we never looked like a 1st place team but this is just ridiculous.
If you really want some perspective - we all can agree the end of 2017 was pretty historic, but 2018's last five game form is actually worse than 2017 (6pt vs 8pt). It's pretty clear the nagging sense this team was never as good as it's place in the standings has played itself out; while Dallas has been running lean all season once the other teams decided Sept/Oct was the time to push the pedal - the cream rose to the top. Wednesday night, late start, rain predicted at almost 100% (not storms though). We can only hope someone, someday find a way to break the "Curse of Dragon Stadium".
The impending knockout game reminds me a little of Game 7 of the Rangers - Cardinals World Series. Had the thing won in Game 6. Then lost it. Couldn't come back for the next game. I predict 0-0, lose in PKs in the rain. Stretch the misery out just so I don't get home until around 1am before going to work on Thursday. At least with the rain, I won't miss out on much Halloween fun. Really excited about this one.
I'm not familiar with what you're referring to on this. I mean, I was there through the Dragon Stadium year and witnessed it all in horror; but this is the first time I'm hearing about anything regarding a "curse" because of it.
I want to say I'm not surprised about yesterday as I didn't really have high hopes we'd win which is saying a lot given the state Colorado has been in, but to lose to a bottom of the barrel team despite leading 1-0 with 10 minutes to go is infuriating. And of course, Badji missed another great chance at a crucial point in the game which could have wrapped things up at 1-0. And we signed this guy to do what again exactly? Luckily for us, Vancouver beat Portland otherwise we'd be heading to turf on Wednesday. We amassed 57 points this season, one of the best points totals in club history, yet it feels like we could have done so much more at the same time. 1 win in the last 3 games and we'd have finished 1st in the West instead we lost all 3. We picked up 1 point from a possible 12 against the worst two teams in the conference, SJ and Colorado. We threw away 2 points at home against Vancouver in a game we were 2-0 up in and coasting with the Whitecaps not having registered a shot on target in open play all game long. And on top of that, our highest scorer had 8 goals, the least prolific FCD top scorer in the league since 2007 and the third lowest top scorer in a single season in club history. I don't expect a long or happy post-season, this team is enduring its worst period of the year right at the wrong time and it's hard to be too optimistic when you see how the likes of SKC and Seattle are doing. We may, may get past Portland on Wednesday, but after that it's hard to expect much if anything at all. Such a disappointment that expectations are set so low now, but that's what an awful stretch like the one we've had will do to you.
We need to re-enact our version of the Major League voodoo curse breaker. Wonder if Dennis Haysbert is available for an appearance?