by Ethan Johnson
April 13, 2008
FCD fans can technically bask in the glow of an undefeated team, however that's technical talk, as "undefeated" doesn't mean they won any games. New York came into this as a favorite, what with Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore on the roster. But Angel got injured and didn't make the trip. Might that be the game-changer? Time once more for YOUR investigative bullet points:
- Pretty awful attendance for this game. Announced attendance was in the 11,000 zone, which is slightly over half of capacity. It showed.
- I didn't get to see New York when they came through town last year, and was looking forward to at least seeing Jozy Altidore. Besides being present to cheer on FCD, it's cool to see who comes to town - especially players who have a short shelf life in MLS. Altidore, like Freddy Adu before him, is expected to get poached by some Euro team as soon as this coming summer.
- This game was "hat night". It actually fit! I also got my free FCD blanket (a fleece throw with an FCD patch stuck on) which came in handy later as the temperature dropped.
- Kickoff happened, I was trying to settle into the flow of the game, and poof, Arturo Alvarez sticks one in the goal around the minute mark. Aaaack! I didn't have the camera remotely ready for that. Worse, my batteries were dying and I forgot to bring more. 1-0 FCD. NY: Stunned.
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I spent a fair amount of time checking out FCD's "shape". For those of you who aren't familiar with the various formations that can be used, here is a crash course for the purposes of this recap. FCD claims to be using a 3-5-2 formation. Theoretically, every time the goalkeeper kicks the ball away, the teams should be defaulting to their "shape". If NY was using a 4-4-2 formation, they'd reset back to those positions while FCD went back to 3-5-2. IF FCD were running a 3-5-2, it would look like this:
However, as someone on the FCD fan forum noted days before the game, FCD is really running a 5-3-2, but 2 midfielders act as defenders, defending mids, and attacking mids depending on needs of the business, leading economic indicators, migratory patterns of bald eagles in Omaha Nebraska, and whoever happens to have the ball. FCD looks something like this at any given time:
From what little I know about soccer, 3-5-2 gets people excited because it suggests a game plan stressing high midfield possession with a 2-pronged striker attack. 5-3-2 is much more defense minded, and suggests that NY is going to constantly blow by everyone else and try to go 1-on-1 with the goalie. 5 defenders means (theoretically) lots of opportunities to double-team an opponent and/or clear the ball away. Just don't expect a goal-fest at the other end, as most of the emphasis has been placed on defending.
What bugs me about this so-called "hybrid 3-5-2" is that it's more of an ass-covering formation. 3-5-2 suggests that strong midfield play is in the cards, but when things regress into 5-3-2 it means the midfield was pretty porous. Anyway, next time you're watching a game, count the defenders during lulls in the action versus how many are around during the run of play. There's an important clue regarding the "shape" of your team.
- Altidore was a non-factor during the game. Like Freddy Adu before him. (Note: Adu played on a different team - I am referring to the hype vs how he performed at Pepperoni Park.)
- Sala came through with some decent saves.
- Somewhere in the second half, I was thinking that 1-0 is nice, but 2-0 would be more convincing down the stretch that FCD might actually pull off a win. Poof, Kenny Cooper practically walks it in at my end of the field. Dammit man - I didn't have the camera ready due to low batteries and missed a sweet goal sequence. Anyway, hooray! 2-0 FCD.
- Pablo Ricchetti crumpled to the turf around the 83rd minute. FCD was out of substitutions, so he toughed it out, but I hope this is nothing serious.
- Much better ball possession by FCD, however, I kept looking for signs that they were running actual plays, and didn't find many. Dax McCarty does some hand signal when he has the ball, but I wasn't seeing anything consistent from the other players as to what this meant.
- And that's ballgame. Hooray, FCD is undefeated and #2 in the conference (behind Colorado - whaaaaat?!). Who saw that coming before the season kicked off? Not I, that's for sure. I'll take the pleasant surprise and look forward to next week.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized image. Enjoy!
Next up: FCD hits the road to face Chivas USA. <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.)
