Dallas Burn -- D.J. Countess, Carl Bussey, Steve Morrow, Ryan Suarez, Chris Gbandi, Ronnie O'Brien, Chad Deering, Joselito Vaca, Antonio Martinez, Jason Kreis, Bobby Rhine. BURN 0 KC 1 through 20 minutes KC - Chris Brown 1 (Preki 1) 11
Still down 0-1 First half stats: TOTAL SHOTS: 3 (Antonio Martinez 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 1 (Antonio Martinez 1); FOULS: 13 (Chad Deering 3, Antonio Martinez 3); OFFSIDES: 2 (Jason Kreis 2); CORNER KICKS: 2 (Chad Deering 2); SAVES: 4 (D.J. Countess 4)
From game report. ------------------------- The Burn was without the services of Oscar Pareja, Tenywa Bonseu and Shavar Thomas for today's match. Pareja remained in Dallas due to pain in his right knee... ----------------------------- Oh no. That's not good. That better have been precautionary...
Is Pareja even a projected starter for you guys this year? I would think you guys would be going with O'Brien, Martinez, Vaca & Deering in the midfield anyway, with Kreis & Johnson or Cerritos up top. Anyway, good luck against the Galaxy next week. James
It was pretty much the tale of the inexperienced outside backs. Bussey playing as the right back got burned for the first goal. Gbandi playing as the left back got beat time and time again including both second half goals. He got lucky that he did not have a penalty called against him as well. He almost went for the hat trick. Ah!!! the growing pains of playing the young guys.
Yeah not a good game. Hope they got it out of their system. Unfortunately, they look like this a lot without Oscar. He may miss the opener and those of you who think he is no good will find out how wrong you are if he's out for a while. Vaca and Deering are not a good mix. Broome and Bonseu were also missing and would have probably stopped the second and third goals as Gbandi and Bussey were gassed at the end. We need some speed up top, plain and simple. Eddie may be back in two weeks. I guess if you look at it as possibly 4 starters out it might be expected but depth was supposed to be a real plus this year.
LOL, good one. So, any chance that if Pareja's out on Sat., stone is in for deering since vaca will play? or am i dreaming? Can Stone even handle starting yet..?
I thought our strength this year was in the back and we had to worry about the front line (or lack thereof). Let's just hope this was a pre-season fluke and it all comes together. Soon.
Was Dallas playing 4 in the back? I thought it was 3 - Suarez, Morrow & Gbandi. Although by the end of the match it looked like it was just Suarez & Morrow. Gbandi & Bussey were trying to get forward and then were unable to recover when the Wizards countered. Seemed like DJ was hung out to dry way too often.
BS.com poster gotyourback came up with the immortal line about Gbandi at the game yester: "He's a lot quicker when he's running forward, than when he's running back." It seemed like his best defensive play was throwing his arm up in the air.
I never thought that Bussey and Gbandi would be our opening day starters....no matter how good they've looked in practice.
Give stone some playing time early in the year. I.e., yes, start him, especially if we have the back line of old in place.
It's disappointing to hear the report about Gbandi. I had hoped he'd be farther along by now. If you believe in preseason records, the Wizards and Rapids may be the teams to beat. But in the past, preseason performance hasn't had much--if any--correlation to regular season performance. My guess was that Jefferies played his cards close to the vest tactically, but wanted to see how the two fast young wingbacks performed under pressure so he played them both simultaneously. I have faith that Gbandi will become a very good MLS player, despite his apparent extremely poor showing against KC. Did Vaca play in the middle? How did he do? How dangerous were O'Brien and Martinez without Oscar on the field? It sounds like the only real dangerman from midfield was Martinez, is that correct? Watching the way Buddle is blossoming and the way Johnson is unable to get playing time, I have been wondering how much of an advantage playing in the A-League (consistently) for a year prior to MLS helped Buddle. It's very difficult to improve when all you do is practice and sit the bench. Hopefully Johnson gets healthy and gets some extended playing time to help him develop as well. -Digital
From what I saw, Vaca was a non-factor. Not much help defensively and pretty easily stripped of the ball the few times he tried to dribble into the Wizards defense. Martinez looked solid & I though O'Brien played well... at least in the 2nd half.
A lot of talk about the 'D'. But any time you post a goose egg, there must be some probs. at the other end. What was the deal w/ the O? ... And I want to see Ryan on the outside.
hard to know if it means much. Gbandi got a game, that's good to get him motivated. Broome rested, Bussey played, that means Bussey made the squad again. The much vaunted DJ gave up 3. I hope the observations were right that Gbandi hung him out to dry. Oscar being out is going to be a problem if they cannot get their act together. Pareja is great but he's not going to play 90 minutes all year. They'd be lucky to get 70 minutes out of him every week. His body is wearing out and his heart cannot carry him. Jeffries has got to get them to the point that winning without Oscar is not a twice a season event. Vaca was supposed to be the answer, and right now he's not.
I liked the drums at the game, brought back memories of dancing around them all night after the WCQ in KC a couple years ago. I was surprised at the final score of this game as well. But remember, Chris Brown always scores loads of goals in the preseason, nothing new. Suarez continues to be a pretty hot headed guy. He yelled into the Mystics more than once when we razzed him, and then the shoving match at the end of the game. I think he has good talent, but if he wants to go anywhere with the Nats, that crap has to stop. He thinks we're bad, whats he going to do in Mexico City when a bag of piss lands next to him?