by Ethan Johnson
June 6, 2008
It's game 4 of the Marco Ferruzzi era, and depending on the veracity of the rumor mill, that era may be coming to a close fairly soon. Or not. Since this was a road game and I have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, let's get to the bullet points-free recap:
FC Dallas was 3-4-4 (wins-losses-draws) going into this game. New England was 6-3-2. No Taylor Twellman for this game, which FCD might exploit to their advantage. However, NER is a deep, and winning team. Plus they have Matt Reis in goal. Attention must be paid.
It always makes me happy to see Ray Burse. He's on loan to the USL-1 Portland Timbers, which has been good for RayJay in that he's playing regularly, but on the down side, it's at the USL-1 level. Dario Sala was out with a hip injury.
Attendance was fairly thin-looking at the outset, but that's because the NER front office had a brilliant idea and scheduled this game as the opening act for Brazil/Venezuela. As a result, fans were scattered throughout Gillette Stadium, which gave the illusion of oceans of no-shows. Oh, people showed. Gradually. Mostly wearing yellow and green.
Adam Cristman, who I love to pick on, scored at the 5th minute. Ball came in, Drew Moor missed the header (can't blame Davino for that one) and Burse was slow to react. Uh oh. 0-1 NER.
FCD made an exciting attempt at the equalizer in the 8th minute but was offside.
16th minute: I agree with Dave Dir: NO pressure from FCD and a blown scoring opportunity. More on that story later.
20th minute: Drew Moor gets yellow card on a questionable call (elbow to the face). He was looking away when it happened, so I'd chalk that up to incidental contact. I'm not happy that the ref opted to card Moor as something of an afterthought. Which means...
22nd minute (after further ado): Penalty kick sent in by NER. Burse majorly blew the save, and the PK wasn't particularly convincing. It still counted. 0-2 NER.
Halftime. Okay, I'm in the middle of a fantastic soccer-themed book (I'll elaborate at another time), and the coach questions the team's heart. How can the coach be sure that each player will give everything they have for the full 90+ minutes? Well, as much as this may not endear me to the FCD faithful, I'm asking the same questions. I'm not seeing enough out of the full roster that says that anyone and everyone is prepared to lay it all on the line.
Sure, it can be argued that this game didn't rise to the level of "no tomorrow" tactics, but I contend that FCDs ills are to some extent habitual, and I am unsure who is going to break them of those habits. The next coach? The as yet unnamed Technical Director? Perhaps so. But watching the ball into the net, failing to apply pressure offensively and defensively, lacking downfield vision and anticipation... well, that's a lot to cure in a short time.
As of halftime, I wasn't confident in FCDs prospects for reaching the playoffs, let alone the final.
47th minute: Burse with another "save", but it's more like the ball hit him like a baseball hits the batter and thus gets the walk. It was cool last year when Burse would punch the ball away, but that's just it: Away. If that ain't happening, then catch the ball. I saw more than a few "saves" that should have and could have been clean catches.
52nd minute: Bobby Rhine gets a yellow card... for being fouled. I don't get that one. Neither does Rhine. OK, now FCD had to win to avenge this injustice.
FCD took more scoring chances in the second half, to their credit. Reis stopped nearly all of them, to his.
86th minute: Juan Toja takes a wild shot on goal. Is Toja coming back?
90+ minutes: Hooray, no shutout. Arturo Alvarez gets a ball right at his feet in front of the net and POW, 1-2 NER. Way to go Arturo!
Ballgame. I'm not sure how many converts NER won over with tonight's performance (arguably more than FCD did), but with Brazil on the dance card, I'm suspect the crowd was sufficiently warmed up. FCD sinks further into sub .500 territory, and there was much moaning and gnashing of teeth. But enough about me.
My Man of the Match (for FCD) was Pablo Ricchetti. I don't know if FCD will incorporate him into future marketing materials, but he's one of those bright lights. I wanted to say that he's this year's Juan Toja, except he didn't score and isn't as flashy. But Ricchetti is bringing it. Too bad that didn't translate into mucho goles. The rest of the team has to play too.
Next up: FCD gets a long rest before taking on the Chicago Fire at home. I'll be there, camera in hand. No Blanco jersey on my person, however. <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.)
