Much has been made of the Burn's inability to score and most of the focus has fallen on the lack of forward productivity and poor Brad. Dallas gets basically nothing (zero) from their backline to support the attack while the other teams do. The outside backs rarely get forward and cross balls into the box and the CB's are not dangerous on set pieces (okay, Jolley has been dangerous TO the Burn). I took a quick look around the league and found the Burn is the only team without a point from the backline. Obviously a guy like Reyes has to get more time back there, Wag's has some offensive skills and Goodson has some promise as well. I think an immediate way to help the scoring woes is the look at a more attack oriented backline, just thought. Here's a quick view around the league to date focusing on defenders scoring: Team.......G....A.....PTS.....SH 1. KC.....5......4......14........52 2. SJ.....4.......4......12........48 3. LA......1......9......11........18 4. Colo...1......8.......10........49 5. NE......2......4.......8.........41 6. NY......2.....3........7.........39 6. Colu....2.....3........7.........39 8. DC......2.....1........5.........16 9. Chic....0.....1........1.........23 10. Dal....0.....0........0.........26 Disclaimer, this was a quick review and the accuracy could be off slightly as some players play two positions, I tried to foucus on primary defenders. I think it says the Burn currently have defenders only and not two way players in the back, having only scored 17 goals the team needs all the field players supporting the attack.
Not to make light of your effort and research. But Tobias Lopez of the Star-Telegram wrote a story about this very topic about 3 weeks ago. It is still a very valid point that you make.
One reason those stats are so poor for the Burn is our lack of success off of corners and other set plays. Have any Burn players -- defenders or not -- scored from a header this year?
Just Johnson, at least once off a corner. Early in the season Jolley was pretty dangerous on corners, but now it doesn't seem like we even get a head on the ball.
Thanks for refreshing my memory. I checked mlsnet.com, and it turns out that Eddie scored two of his four goals from the air, and as you say, one of them was a picture-perfect header off a Brad Davis corner. But that's the only goal we've scored this season directly from a set piece (our other 2 goals from corner kicks came after a series of passes)
You can't fault our defenders too much here IMHO. The ones delivering the corners and free kicks have not been getting them near our guys. Balloon corners in particular are so bad some of us wonder whether it would be safer to kick it across the end line on purpose so as not to give the other team the seemingly automatic fast break. Driven corners are so much more dangerous, how come we are incapable?
Good point. Between O'Brien's excellent right foot and Davis' fine left foot you'd think we'd be able to create more dangerous opportunities from corner kicks. Perhaps the Burn are praticing their set pieces enough?
....and we lost that same goal scoring defender because of his inability to execute a backflip after scoring a goal
Okay, I'm glad the boys read this stuff...with a goal and an assist from the backline last night my work is done here, for now.