Dallas Drawl

Sunday, Dallas got their first point in Houston. The 3-3 draw came as blessed relief for the Dynamo faithful, because we were looking at no points until the rookie Geoff Cameron hamered home the equalizer in the 90+ minute. Relief aside, the result is actually a poor reflection of how dominant the Dynamo were, except for some overly lax defending and an inability to handle the fast break.

Fact is, Dynamo had solid possession, controlling both the ball and real estate for a majority of the match. FCD relied on a Route 101 philosophy that hoped for some luck on the fast breaks. They got that luck in spades when they took out Onstad and forced our backup keeper, Tony Caig, into an MLS baptism by fire. In retrospect, only one of Caig's goals looked like a complete flub by the keeper, but I'd wager that Onstad would likely have also stopped at least one of the other two goals conceded to Dallas.

I'm pretty disappointed in Dallas' play because I thought with all those South Americans they'd have a strong and creative midfield. In fact, they seemed to by-pass the midfield completely and go straight from defense to blitzkrieg. Maybe it was the heat or maybe it was a desperate road strategy. If they stick with that style of play, it'll be an ugly year for the Frisco crowd.

And the ugly play turned downright criminal with the on-field mugging the Hoops players repeatedly inflicted on the Men In Orange. They took out Onstad and Robinson, who are both tough as nails, and were probably encouraged by the blind eye given by Abbey-O, who continues his tradition of poor and inconsistent officiating. If Dallas knocked Onstad and Robinson out of the Saprissa match this Wednesday, then they are as moronic as they are barbaric, hurting an MLS side's ability to carry the MLS banner internationally.

There was ugly on the Dynamo side as well. The Dynamo defense bears little resemblance to the defense of the 2007 campaign. They're not helping their GK (whoever he may be) very much. They had better find their chemistry quickly in this campaign or the forwards will require superhuman finishing if they wish to offset the GAA. Only 1/15th of the way into the season, they've let in over 1/4th the total number of goals we conceded last year.

Here's what some of the media outlets have to say:
Here's B-Fall's blog in the Chronicle. It has his player grades and links to his game article and game notes. I do disagree in his assessment of the first goal being Caig's fault. While the goal looked ludicrous, Caig was positioned to block the more likely direct shot on goal.

The league's official recap is here.

The US Soccer Players' recap is here. "Gift Houston an own-goal"? Uh, that was no gift. Ching was knocking that ball in whether Moor was there or not, and Moor wouldn't have knocked it in had Ching not struck when and where he did. How about that quote from FC coach Steve Morrow? I think it's great that he continues his blind assessment of his own team's quality: "We're very disappointed. It feels like a loss. I think we should have had the game won by then. We had two or three chances to go up 4-2. We should've finished off the game." Yes, his team managed to score three goals (but were lucky to have two of the three they did get), and yes one or two of his team's misses could have feasibly gone into goal, but those were the exceptions to the Dynamo's dominance. Dallas did not at all carry the play and were more than lucky that the Dynamo did not put away one or two more of their own. Quotes like Morrow's are good news for Dynamo fans: Morrow's continued myopia in terms of his team's failings means he'll be less able to fix the problems. And his reliance on fast breaks will ensure they remain the second best MLS team in Texas.

Having said that, they ARE in a better position to win El Capitan this year than they have been in past years. But, in addition to playing them once in Frisco (Wed, May 28), we get them one more time in Robertson (Thur, June 26). If we can tie them away and beat them in Robertson (reasserting our natural superiority, natch), we'll keep the cannon.

The neutral folks at Soccer by Ives have a less favorable review of Dallas' performance than the biased Steve Morrow does. "FCD shouldn't be in this game much less winning it. They're proving so far they can defend and score against the run of play." "Nice to see Dallas switch to the 9-0-1 formation."

Now we need to switch our gaze from the second best team in Texas to the best team in Costa Rica. It looks like we'll be without ERob (gulp!). Let's pray that we'll have a healthy Onstad, not to mention a magical DeRo and prolific Ching/Caraccio.