I'd say it was even a flattering result. The amount of attacking Dallas did, it was pretty much guaranteed they'd score just from dumb luck.
It looked like a Dallas team that had several matches under its belt against RSL knocking off the rust and integrating new parts. We were fortunate to get a point. Not idiotically so, but still the balance of attack and near misses were all for Dallas. What was good is how well our defense played. I wanted to fault Silva for the OG, but that ball was going to be put in by the FCD player at the far post no matter what (his name is not Sapong, after all). So, I wish we'd carried it through, but we got the point. And, honestly, there were a lot of combinations that looked good by our boys. I'm optimistic.
Not dumb luck. That was all on Acosta. I don’t want to see that dude on the pitch ever. I know there are observers around the league and locally who like him. I just don’t see it. To me he’s another Gil or Velasquez. A guy with skills and potential who just can’t do it in game competition.
Again, the last 15 of a half let down happens to this squad. We came away with a road point in Texas, so I’m not disappointed. But....WOW.
Good crowd, fun Match, I know many are thrilled to see Yura waived but if we need to depend on Silva for goals it’s going to be a long year. Plata looked good, Glad looked real good, Rimando saved our ass over and over. Rusnak looked to have had a couple chances but wouldn’t pull the trigger. Oh well I will watch this one in a couple days for now gotta be happy with a point on the road.
He does the “I’ve been shot” routine as well as anyone in the league. The problem is that the MLS officials will soon begin ignoring it just like they did with Espy.
somehow I recall seeing Yura on the bench for the better half of last season, hard to produce goals for loving fans when you never see the pitch.
To be fair, the cleat to the stomach probably did hurt pretty well. The leg kick likely not as bad as he acted. Those were the only 2 times I remember him acting pretty hurt. It looked bad as they were minutes apart. Otherwise he seemed to stay on his feet most of the game.
Sure Acosta made the first mistake that led to the goal - but there were at least 10+ other giveaways and errant long balls that led to counters. The DMids had position issues frequently and the entire D was often defending space instead of people - that’ll improve. For a first game - you kind of expect that sort of disjointedness - remember Orlando last year?
The DMids looked like they had more position issues after Damir was subbed out. I understood all the substitutions. Unfortunately, I'm not sure any of them had a positive influence on the outcome.
I'm not a fan of Luis Silva. For the 2 minutes a game he plays well there are 88 minutes of doing nothing. I was happy for the most part with the referee which was nice! Here's to returning to the Riot to destroy LAFC!
I think the value of L. Silva last year was underrated. He's not very mobile, but he was highly effective. The stats showed such (consistent numbers w/Savarino): Player Minutes Goals Assists Plata 2318 7 5 Silva 1775 7 3 Savarino 1673 6 5 However, he also does a lot off of the ball with positioning, screening defenders, etc. to setup his teammates. He has a ton of soccer savvy and is more of a technical player than I think most fans recognize. Not saying he's a world beater, but he deserved his spot on the field last year. He did not have a good match in Dallas, but RSL had precious little possession in the Dallas end. The best chances came from a quick counter, which isn't necessarily his game. I'll be surprised if one way or another we don't see Ortuno at home. However, I'm guessing Silva will still get the start.
Great post! Chemistry is one of those team factors that can be difficult to measure, but you know it when you see it. Last year he and Savarino had it. He and Plata had it to a lesser extent.
The first one of the season. I've been told this has to be good, so here goes... I was as shocked as any of you that Kreilach was starting. The other new piece (Demar and Barry) had their reasons, but this one felt possibly forced. It wasn't. He didn't have a perfect game, but god damn was he so much better than Luke or Sunny. In the first 10 minutes he had already hit like 3 or 4 passes Luke and Sunny don't have in their game. I have seen some people say that MSilva might be a weak link in our back four. This is not true. Marcelo is a beast and his partnership with Glad is really growing into something special. Matt Doyle and other MLS "expert" writers said that Rimando wasn't even a top 10 GK in this league this year. Yeah. Ok I didn't love the tactical approach in this game but understood it. We better not sit that deep in all games. Against a more fit FCD team with their scary speed? Sure. But next week we better see RSL pushing the issue and not sitting in so damn deep. Rusnak is a special player. I don't know if you guys knew this. The pass he made to Plata on the goal was truly amazing. However, the part of that goal that doesn't get enough love is the movement Rusnak makes to receive the ball (as well as the perfectly weighted pass from Kreilach). That little movement beat 3 FCD players and put Plata in a 1v1 situation. How we didn't give up a goal in the first half is beyond me. Especially after we scored. It felt like every time FCD had the ball it eventually lead to a dangerous opportunity that we somehow cleared away at the last second. A better team puts at least one away on us in the first half. Demar got thrown to the wolves with how the team setup. We were deep, yes, but Plata and Silva were the players that pushed the furthest up the pitch. FCD loved to run down the right side (our left) and it constantly put Phillips in tough situations. This changed a bit in the second half, but it was a large reason why Phillips looked as bad as he did in the first 45. Around the 75th minute the fitness of the two teams really started to show. I'm not saying we're an out of shape group, but real game fitness was shown there. I was mad Danny Acosta didn't start but now I see why. It appears he's in a bit of a sohpomore slump. His casualness on the ball triggered the FCD goal (though, looking through the replay, it's far from JUST his fault). I warn fans to not turn this into a Salcedo thing. Don't throw the kid out for a bad performance. The talent is there. We needed to get the ball to Savarino more in this game. In the few instances we did, especially in the second half, good things happened. Sure, he might have messed up the chance (that he created almost entirely on his own) that would have likely sealed the 3 points, but I can't be too upset with him there. The injury bug is a bitch. How are we already on our 4th string RB? How did so many guys look like they picked up small knocks in this game?! Why do we always have this issue in the start of the season? Luis Silva isn't the guy for these tactics. Maybe he makes more sense in our home approach, but if we're going to sit deep and counter we might as well be playing a man down if he's the number 9. His hold up play was pretty much non-existent because his aerial game is weak. We had no outlet and it's why we seemed under constant pressure. While the XI was interesting given some of the changes, I thought the bench was especially interesting to look at. Sunny made the 18 despite the early preseason issues. Hell, he jumped Luke as first CM sub off the bench. I didn't see that coming. The other big shock on the bench, for me, was Bofo. He had a solid preseason from all reports, but jumping ahead of Lennon wasn't something I expected. Good on the kid. I think if injuries don't play a hand in the subs, he likely comes in instead of Danny and Ortuno instead of Horst. All things considered, a point in this game was a positive result. The way it played out (timing) might make some upset that we dropped two points, but I think you have a better argument that we stole a point, honestly. It's a good game to build on, though, for sure. It looks like we'll have a pretty solid test against LAFC next week, too.
And had he signed for LAFC I bet he'd be at or close to #1 in the league. It's funny how Rimando rarely gets any love despite putting out consistent quality performances. Acosta in this one just didn't look fit. He just seemed slower and out of it compared to the other players. The talent is there, but he just didn't look ready for this game.
So I felt like I really needed to relive the disappointment of giving up our goal. When I did, though, some things jumped out at me: The highlights of the game don't show it, but Acosta has the ball leading up to the play on the left wing. He refuses to use his right foot and gets painted into a corner because of it. I hate this about his game After losing the ball, Acosta makes two good tackles to win it back, but ultimately it falls to an FCD player. Interesting note in here: Acosta is fouled as the ball pops free but doesn't go down. If he falls over, we likely get the ball. This game had multiple instances of players fighting through fouls and not being rewarded for it. KB ball watches a ton in this sequence. I tweeted out about 3 or 4 minutes before this play that he should be subbed. His speed was dropping drastically and this play highlights it A LOT. David Horst makes the worst "attempted tackle" I've seen in a long time. He essentially runs past Urrurti without making him change direction or anything. WTF is that? When Urruti enters the box, it's a 3v2 for FCD. However, by his second touch, we have six players in the box to their three. We shouldn't give up a goal here. So why do we? Our shape is attrocious. Glad's angle on the ball isn't ideal, nobody drops down on Urruti to double team him, either. Nicky is hung out to dry because he has to cover his near post at this angle and leave the entire goal wide open. Barry completely loses his mark on the back door. Though most annoying is the spot Marcelo takes. He's way too flat with Glad. If he's just a step or two deeper, like he should be, his clearance is easy. I'm not blaming Marcelo (or really any one player), this situation is rough for him. But I hope the club looks at the film and doesn't just focus on Danny because there is a lot more that goes wrong here.
The whole game and until reading a piece on SoccerAmerica this morning, I thought Shawn Barry was actually Adam Henley in this game. Never figured it out. Only when reading that we started five USNT-eligible players and I actually counted - at first thinking they got it wrong - did I realize that Barry was, well, Barry, a guy we thought might not play much this year.
I think a lot of this is that we wanted to target that side as much as they did. I mentioned before the game that the Plata-Cannon matchup was one we might try to exploit, and that's what we did. And it worked for our goal. I agree with the consensus that Demar wasn't great, but he did have a really tough assignment in this one.