Given the performance of our beloved Red and Black on the west coast this season one has to wonder if perhaps the team needs to do a little thinking outside of the box as they approach their next West Coast game if they happen to play one in the playoffs. The cold hard fact is that Dallas is 0-4-1 this year in the Pacific Time Zone. The pattern for all of the losses has been very similar. They give up the early goal, and then it goes down hill from there. Besides the fact that the two California teams are amongst the league elite, and as such they want to flex their muscles when a contender comes to their house, there also seems to be something else at work here. Perhaps during the week leading up to a West Coast game, the team should practice at night: 9:30 or 10 o’clock at night. That way they would get their bodies used to playing late at night, so that they are 100% focused by the time the game rolls around. Maybe this idea has no merit whatsoever, but then again maybe it does. La locura rojinegra
we need a designated goal scorer, like little fish $hit on L.A. and Twellman on N.E., I wish Cerritos would pick up the job or maybe Kreis would get back on his game, but nothing so far.
It's pretty much the same for everyone else. Dallas has much company. The cold hard facts are: SJ has not been beaten at home at all, and LA has only been beaten at home once. (and only three home draws total for the both of them)
Well I think it's a sound strategy you suggest, but I have another idea in addition to that one. How about playing conservative possession soccer with the back 4 staying back for the first half. Counter-attack with a fast guy like Johnson or Cerritos. Let LA/SJ have the run of play but keep a packed defense at first. This should frustrate them. Maintain that formation for the first 10 minutes of the second half. After that, attack them. With the majority of the game allowing their back line to move forward, you should see gaps appearing in the back that you can exploit. This is the strategy that a 10 man DC United played at LA and frankly they totally outplayed them, took the lead and should have beaten LA. But in the closing minutes (after playing a man down for like 60 minutes) the little fishy made one to tie it up at the end of the game. That of course forced overtime and the weary United eventually gave up another Ruiz special. But, if you watch the tapes, United really outplayed LA and if they played that same game 10 times I think United would have won 7 of the 10. You can steal points from LA by counterattacking early. -Tron
Tron, I like your strategy. It is interesting because a couple of weeks ago Jason Kreis suggested the same thing on the Inside Soccer radio show. If the players are thinking along these lines, you would think that the coaching staff would get a clue. La locura rojinegra