by Ethan Johnson
June 1, 2008
It's game 3 of the Marco Ferruzzi era. Since this was a road game, no investigative bullet points or photos:
Colorado head coach Fernando Clavijo has, depending on one's perspective, an either good or bad habit of changing the staring lineup for each game. English Premier League teams do this too, but to a lesser extent. As in, certain players start against certain teams due to advice from astrologers, physics and math, race-day odds at Ascot, and manager's discretion. Skill and prior matches probably factor in as well. Anyway, Clavijo behaved as advertised and fielded Yet Another Lineup (YAL).
FCD did the same, but for different reasons. Andre Rocha was out with a red card, Dario Sala and Dax McCarty were out with injuries, and Adrian Serioux was off playing with Team Canada. Ray Burse Jr was brought in to tend goal. He's been off on loan with the USL-1 Portland Timbers. Considering how much action he had seen in the last 72 hours, I was wondering how he'd hold up in goal.
Come back, FCD home attendance figures, all is forgiven. Not sure what the deal was in Colorado today, but man, they're staying away in droves. No need to put "Colorado" on the jerseys; the barren grandstand had that covered. Ouch.
Worth mentioning: I watched the WNBA yesterday. LA Sparks vs the Washington Mystics. Candace Parker for rookie of the year. Attendance (in Washington DC): 11,517. I bet the FCD/Colorado attendance is half that.
7th minute: Conor Casey gets Colorado on the board. 0-1. Ray Burse was stuck defending 1-on-1, and Casey shot it past him. Which as always, leads me to wonder where in God's green Earth the FCD defense went.
FCD didn't have (m)any answers for the Colorado midfield. This would have been a write-up that boiled down to "plenty of first half action, signifying nothing," except...
44th minute: Dominic Oduro capitalizes on a Saragosa goal try and evens things up. 1-1, and I'm feeling reasonably optimistic.
Halftime: Houston beat New York last night, which put them in a three-way tie for 1st place in the Western Conference. But the West is so piss-poor compared to the East, that if either team won outright today, they'd take sole possession of 1st place in the West, which would equate to 5th in the East. Not good. Neither is playing to a 1-1 draw, but it beats losing.
This week has been full of coaching rumors. What is clear, in the short term, is that not only did the FCD front office screw the team with this Wednesday night scheduling debacle (this is their 3rd game in 8 days), but Marco Ferruzzi pretty much seems to be content with continuing the Steve Morrow legacy until announcements are made to the contrary. The 3-5-2 thing isn't working (for me), and considering the Dallas Morning News had a write-up about how FCD got the memo about being too defense minded (compared to "putting numbers forward" and attacking the goal) and working to fix it. I guess we'll see the "fix" next Friday, as things were probably too gummy this week to make radical adjustments.
In the meantime, the second half kicked off. What adjustments would FCD make to solve the Colorado midfield mystery?
FCD tried to be a bit more offense-minded in the 66th and 68th minute, with Bobby Rhine missing a golden scoring opportunity (OK, maybe a silver one), and Dominic Oduro getting burned on an offside call (he seemed to be onside). Oduro was subbed off in the 71st minute for Arturo Alvarez, who seemed to vanish shortly thereafter. Pablo Ricchetti had an OK game, becoming more visible as the game wore on, whereas Juan Toja might has well have been on the bench.
72nd minute: McManus puts it in the net to make it 1-2. The ball snuck past Burse's left side and the post. Aaron Pitchkolan missed heading away the long ball in, and Diulio Davino didn't make any friends by getting torched for the goal.
77th minute: Interesting: Brek Shea on for Blake Wagner. Why both couldn't be on the same pitch at the same time remains a mystery. Kinda like that Colorado midfield.
84th minute: Ricardinho on for Toja.
90+ minute: This is why I get on players like Dario Sala to play until the whistle sounds. Colorado with a goal strike, but loudly whistled offside before the ball went in. Burse played it soft once he heard the whistle. I would have expected him to play the goal strike like any other had the whistle been late. Please make a note of it.
Ballgame. Colorado, for richer or for poorer, rises to the top of the Western Conference standings. FCD gets a few extra days to prepare for their next game, for a change.
I'm not feeling the love for Davino, but he's just one guy. Yes, the FCD brass apparently paid way too much salary for too little payoff (on the field and in the stands), but I read somewhere that MLS probably shouldn't be signing big-name defenders, as too much will be expected from someone who can't single-handedly defend the pitch. Goal, maybe. But FCD went through those angsty pains with Shaka Hislop, so yeah, might want to concentrate on big-time forwards.
Next up: FCD faces New England on the road. Let's see what the week brings. <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.)
