by Ethan Johnson
May 5, 2008
No fanfare or investigative bullet points for this one:
In short, FCD shouldn't be playing to scoreless draws (!!!) against teams like San Jose. Yes, some key players were unavailable for this past Saturday's game, but FCD has enough meat and potatoes on their roster to ostensibly grab three standings points and get back on the team bus. Instead, the first half was an utter train wreck, which was saved solely by San Jose not being able to find the goal with a map. However, the 'Quakes could find the "attacking third" regularly, and set up some primo scoring chances that kept going way wide, not that I'm complaining. I am complaining that San Jose kept the ball in the attacking third so often, and as Dave Dir said in the broadcast booth, FCD kept running out of ideas after the third or fourth pass. This is not a team that has a snowball's chance of being on the card for the MLS Cup this year. Prove me wrong.
The second half was much better offensively, but FCD was stingy on the subs and made strange decisions when they did. Giving Abe Thompson 10 minutes of playing time wasn't worth the plane ride. And why sub out Juan Toja in the 89th minute? Whooo, lots of resting up during those 3+ minutes that followed. Wooo.
On the up side, Houston sucks complete and total ass this year (still winless), and Anthony Wallace managed to not be the goat of the game while standing in for Adrian Serioux. See "meat and potatoes on the roster" above.
Anyway, I am completely ready and willing to forget this game ever happened if FCD can put points on the board and come away with a road win next weekend. If not, well, I can use my season tickets to get a closer look at the visiting teams who are having a better season. Gotta get that entertainment value where one can.
Onward to Salt Lake, Saturday May 10. Here's to a much, much, much, much better result. <EM>
(Much, much more virtual ink has been spilled by me about Major League Soccer. The fledgling but growing MLS article archive may be found here.)
