Not sure this is the coach to do that. If not FCD FO needs to ask themselves why they have built that academy and hired a coach who won't play players from it. We'll see.
Who knows how the heck this tournament works in the non-Championship brackets. The U15s beat Vancouver 2-1, and then the U17s played a game against Orlando City that they drew before winning in PKs. The next day, the U15s played SJE and the U17s played Montreal, but the website hasn't posted those results yet (will never?).
Any idea what is going on with Pondeca? He gets a first team contract and I think how he is back with NTXSC but don't see him playing with them or on the bench for the first team?
I believe Nolan Norris is the only one else there. It is odd how much he likes Sealy as he's been OK but certainly not good enough to change the formation for as it vaguely seems he did (one of the reasons and not many good ones).
little tough to read, but this is the roster for the April YNT ID for TX 2010s. From FCD: GK Salas, CBs Awad and Arne, FB Jones, CMs Soria and Guevara, and attackers Hallie, Gallardo, and Gomez. FCD again the most represented club with 9 invitees. 4 other Dallas kids got an invite (including Alhaji Njie, former FCD kid).
The first team just seems lifeless. Sealy, Farrington, and Kamungo all played last night against Seattle. So three thread-eligible players. ............but......................the whole thing is just kinda "meh." They had 2 shots on goal. They've scored only 6 goals this whole season. Right now, you'd say Dallas is only better than San Jose in the West. [San Jose lost 3-0 at home to Colorado yesterday. Yuck! Luchi...........................] Dallas has become more solid defensively. I guess Nico wanted to fix that first and build from there. But...........................blech.
coach is mad Nico Estévez (who's usually very calm/stoic in pressers) gave this impassioned answer to @nathanjhill's question about what he'd like to say to fans who are disappointed with the team's results."They're mad and disappointed that we didn't win. And that's good, I'm mad too." pic.twitter.com/26UMchXuhV— Garrett Melcer (@GarrettMelcer) April 14, 2024 Boy the coaches connected to Berhalter are not doing so great, Josh Wolff, Luchi Gonzalez, Nico Estevez, Anthony Hudson... I'm sure that's fine and Gregg will have the team punching above their weight for the first time at Copa America and the home World Cup...
Nolan Norris ('05) has been the most improved player I've seen so far in MLS Next Pro this season. The key is seeing him as more than a LB. Starting to branch out to CB and DM. Both fit his game better than LB. FC Dallas should've tried this sooner. Some clips from last week.— USMNTProspects (@ProspectsUsmnt) April 14, 2024 ussoccer97531 tha GOAT
You get a Spanish coach hoping he's going to institute gorgeous, free-flowing total football a la Barca 2010, and then you eventually realize that, like, 3/4ths of the spanish top flight plays tactically rococo defensive sufferball as an adaptation to survive the Barcas and Reals of the world.
All touches would’ve taken too long, but definitely deserved a few of his plays to be highlighted further. Baran impressed me too. FC Dallas has started doing a pretty excellent job with these players who play for the U-19’s. Most clubs don’t have a U-19’s, but they are putting it to good use. They have also been getting good at bringing in some players from Illinois and Michigan.
FCD U19s v Sao Paulo Dallas Cup Supergroup Final 3/31/24, L 2-3 Lineup (L-R if applicable): Gomez; Anguiano, Bazzell, Shreiner, Gallo; Ramirez, Marquez; Baran, Lacy, Salazar, Nieves Subs: 59th Medrano comes on for Marquez – Lacy drops to the double pivot with Ramirez and it’s much more of a 4231. 79th Romero comes on for an injured Gallo – Lacy goes to RW and Nieves drops back to play RB. 84th Waugh comes on for Anguiano to chase an equalizer. 89th Molina comes on for Salazar. Goals: · 13:51 – One of a several times early on that an FCD player hits a big diagonal directly into a SP player in the middle. Ramirez gets the ball in his own six off of a goalkick and whaps the ball off a defender at the top of the box. SP collects, scans, and finds an open player arriving at the left side of the box. Powerful finish goes right over Gomez and in. · 33:05 – FCD’s counterpress wins the ball near midfield. Marquez dwells on the ball a second, lets the defense open some passing lanes, and then passes forward to Baran behind the SP midfield. Baran turns, takes a touch, and then shoots from about 40 yards. The GK spills it to his left, reacts slowly to Lacy charging in to win the rebound, and fouls Lacy after losing the race to the ball. PK. Salazar scores it to the GK’s left. · 42:25 – Anguiano manages to poke a pass back across halfway into space for Lacy to run onto. Lacy carries to the corner of the box, bumps it sideways to Baran on the edge of the PK arc, and Baran takes a little touch to open a window and shoots with awkward little no-backswing motion, rolling the ball just inside the far post. · 65:59 – SP CK to the back post where there’s a free SP player (a recurring issue in this team’s CK defense if you go back to my notes from the past couple of games) to head it back across the face of goal. Baran lets it go past him, thinking it’s going out, but there’s a SP player there to save it back in front of goal, where it’s finished from close range. · 78:50 – After some nice hold up play from Salazar, Ramirez has it in tons of space in SP’s half, but takes a bad touches and stumbles challenging for the ball. SP collects the ball and plays directly to where Ramirez would otherwise be in the midfield circle, and their CAM turns and plays a quick ball through the backline. The ST and LW, who it looks like were the intended recipients of the pass, are both offsides, but the ball rolls through to the RB who’s made a huge run up the RW around Anguiano and in on goal. He finishes near post over Gomez’s protesting foot. Other Key Chances: · 0:25 – FCD goes long soon after the kickoff and Ramirez collects the second ball near midfield. He moves left and hits a sweet disguised throughball across his body and behind for Baran, who cuts back right onto his weaker foot and shoot into the GK’s belly from <10 yards out. · 7:35 – Gorgeous punt from the SP GK finds his FW in space down the LW, who takes it down and hits a big switch on his second touch. Now Bazzell’s defending in space against SP’s best player dribbling toward the box. He gets cut around and the SP CAM can’t quite get his foot around the ball, just missing the low near post. · 8:39 – SP FB gets around the edge of FCD’s midfield and drives at the CBs. Sucks the defense to himself at the top of the box before flipping it in behind for his teammate. Free shot 1v1 from about 12 yards and Gomez makes a brilliant kick save. · 19:22 – Nieves deflects a ball in midfield, but the SP player gets it and drives powerfully around Nieves, playing 1:2 with a FW around Gallo and then slipping the FW in behind Shreiner with a perfectly measured ball. The FW touches the ball through Gomez, but his backheel attempt into an empty net is blocked by Bazzell with some last ditch defending. · 21:55 – One of several bad giveaways from Shreiner (great Semi, poor Final), here he hits a FK from his defending corner directly to a SP defender nearby, who quickly gets the ball inside to the top of the box, where the SP midfielder’s shot goes wide of the near post. · 22:45 – SP gets the ball wide right, and the RW pushes the ball past Anguiano to an overlapping RB, who finds the opposite side W with a cross to the PK spot. His first time shot zings over the bar. · 48:50 – Anguiano throw in just inside SP’s half that he finds Ramirez in the middle with. Ramirez lets it run across his body and pops the bouncing ball over the SP LB into Gallo’s path into the box. Gallo cuts it back to Lacy in a ton of space, and his quickly closed down shot from about 12 yards smacks off the GK and out to the right wing. · 56:45 – SP moving the ball around on the LW. Shreiner gets sucked out to the edge of the box, the SP LB cuts back and swings in a cross to the middle, and suddenly there’s two FCD players marking four SP attackers. Free header from about 10 yards goes directly to Gomez. · 60:24 – SP FK on the LW. Inswinger at the back post where an SP player has come completely free (camera work is unhelpful in finding out how – Shreiner dozing?), but his header is down and wide of the post. Golden chance. Notes · Time stamps refer to game time, not video time. · GA Cup and the second team and the general shift away from U19 teams by MLS clubs has lessened the focus on the DC Supergroup somewhat for FCD in the past half decade. That said, as best I can tell, there’s no reason to believe that there’s been some receding tide affecting the quality of the international teams that come to Dallas for this competition over the years. There have been some “stacked” FCD U19 squads that didn’t get (even close to) this far in the supergroup. Kudos to this team, which I think is not as talented in depth as some of those other teams, but (a) has an awesome coach in Chuy Vera and (b) has a long history (in the ’05 and ’06 age groups) of going deep in knockout style competitions against both US and international competition. Having been there matters. · Speaking of great coaching: see 9:23 and a million other examples. This team plays beautifully. Like, 73:57. Wow. · Couple of Lacy skill checks at 0:41 and 18:05. · Salazar doing uncharacteristically bad stuff timestamps: 4:14, 4:24, 7:08, 8:18, 40:33, 86:00. It’s not all bad stuff from him, but so much of his value is consistently getting his decisions and technique right. He’s not a “flashes of genius a couple times a game and the rest of the time he’s not helpful” player, so you feel it if, like in the early going here, he’s unreliable. · Fun Ramirez moment at 6:55. Obviously he's at fault in part for the first and third SP goals, but he's usually a classy, smart option every game. · Ramirez and Marquez are such matadors. See 8:07. If you’re not smart about pressuring them they will make you look silly. · Anguiano really struggling to deny service and runners from his side in the 1H. · Side note: normally Steve Davis is great, but he called FCD’s semifinal and should know that Baran’s a lefty. Spends chunks of the first half waxing on Baran’s tendency to cut onto his “stronger” right foot after having watched him successfully go left again and again in the semi. Also says Baran is a local kid, when he just moved to DFW from Chicago. · That’s kind of a fun thing to think about: of the starters, six are from the greater DFW area, Baran’s from Chicago, Lacy’s from NY/NJ, Nieves is from GA, Marquez is from Houston, and Gallo’s from Miami. A different lineup might include Medrano and Backus from MI, Garcia from CO/NM, Molina and Waugh from Miami, Lopez from Chicago, or Darub from Omaha/Brazil. · Clever little pump fake from Nieves to pull the defender out of a lane, re-angle his body, and put Lacy through down the right channel. · Wild, disorienting tackle from Anguiano at 53:04 to dispossess a SP player from behind and stop a 2v1. Not sure exactly what he did or how he did it. · FCD using the offside line beautifully in the 2H to stop SP attacks. They’re playing with fire though – SP finds even numbers situations again and again as they get more aggressive while behind – and it bites them for the third goal. · How, defending a lead in the 63rd minute of a final, do you let a 2v1 happen directly off of you own corner kick? Just put an extra guy back there!!! · Similar theme: count the number of players near the ball for each team at 65:07 and then at 65:12. FCD playing some shockingly low energy kamikaze defense for some reason while defending a lead. · The broadcast mentions that SP’s #2, a RB, is the only ’07 on either squad. Stonewalls Baran a few times in 1v1 defense (though he does get big-brothered at 67:30 before getting the ball kicked into his head), and does some really clever off-ball running to make crossing chances on the other end. Really good player. Also, the broadcast raved about #7, but I thought it was the #10 Ferreira who was giving FCD the most issues. · Ish Nieves was a CB for Tormenta before coming to FCD and bouncing between the Academy and ECNL teams for a few years. Can literally play every outfield position. Super useful.
Tonight's 1⃣1⃣Kickoffs in an hour at Choctaw. 📺 https://t.co/ZvliHNhKBC pic.twitter.com/8WAsKjCv4i— North Texas SC (@northtexasSC) April 15, 2024 First win of the season for NTX, 2-1 over Tacoma. Pretty FCD-heavy lineup with 8/11 starters on first-team deals (or 9 depending on Ramirez's status). MOTM was any of Sainte or Humphrey or Collodi for me. Thread-eligibles that played: '01 Michael Collodi. Collodi's awesome. Another one of these Tyshawn Rose kinda guys that come to NTSC after not getting drafted and prove they could have a long pro career if they want it. Wouldn't be surprised if Collodi ends up holding down the third-string FCD GK job for a while. '02 Isaiah Parker. Played the first half. Getting phased back from injury? '05 Nolan Norris. Mostly a CM, but played LCB for a bit of the 2H. Good, not great performance. '05 Anthony Ramirez. Calming presence in the middle. Lots of B-grade or better actions. Dealing with pro physicality in the middle better than I would have guessed. Good awareness, balance, and burst on the assist. '01 Herb Endeley. Looked dangerous in the 1H combining with Scott and Norris. Subbed early in the 2H. '01 Malik Henry-Scott. Glad he's passed up Taboada (who I don't rate at all), but he's not showing much cutting edge as an attacker. Coach seems to trust him to play all over though. '05 Tarik Scott. Continued flashes of freaky movement skills and top speed while his field vision/decisions and close control are sharpening. Reminded myself that he still hasn't played 10 competitive pro games yet. Matched up against Travian Sousa in the 1H and gave about as good as he got - found a small handful of good shooting opportunities and the goal. Swapped to LW at halftime then LWB once Baran struggled there then LCB for the last few minutes. '06 Daniel Baran. Came on at half at LWB and got scorched a few times, so he moved to LW quickly. Did very little thereafter. '05 Adrian Anguiano. Debut. Color me surprised that he's getting this opportunity. Admittedly, RCB in a 3 is probably his only narrow path to playing pro, but it's not a huge thing. '07 Leo Orejarena. Debut. Cameo right at the end. '04 Diego Pepi. Lots of running over the last 15min or so. Not much danger.
Contentious season opener for FCD UPSL against Foro SC, won by Foro in the dying second with a quasi-olimpico free kick.
Wander and van Tonder are both ‘07s. Congrats to the local lads on the selections! Texans' Chance Anderson, Jonah Ramsey, & Hunter SauserDKSC's Jareth MejiaBVB's RJ RodriguezSolar's Devon Garza & Trenton KutchFC Dallas White's Antonie van TonderFC Dallas Red's Noah Wanzer https://t.co/pz3P8nHsms— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) April 18, 2024
Two Goals from The Kid ✌️ And we're off to the @opencup Round of 32🏆 #USOC2024 // #DefendMemphis pic.twitter.com/UJmZM6UBB0— Memphis 901 FC (@Memphis901FC) April 18, 2024
I think FCD drew Memphis as one of the teams in their US Open Cup group. If we end up playing then sure as the sun comes up every morning the kid will score on us and maybe be the reason we lose. EX-FC Dallas Burn players always do this.
Truly an ugly game of soccer. NTX wins 2-0 after getting a late, questionable PK and Tarik Scott scoring in an empty net in the dying seconds. Minimal quality, maximal hard tackles and cheap shots.
'08 AM Ougir Velazquez and '09 FW Diego Echevarria were just called into Puerto Rico U16 camp - the age group that will compete in the U17 CONCACAF Championship next year.
Don't have a full roster, but the '09s also had an ID camp. From FCD, defenders Wygant, Vejrostek, and Odom, midfielders Cook, Velazquez, and Dias, and FW Eason attended. Solar sent FW Glosson and CM Hernandez (who played with Austin at the GA Cup). AM Carlos Pacheco was there from OKC too.