The never-out-of-it (on the road at least) attitude of this version of FC Dallas is simply amazing. Los Toros had no business coming back on the road against the 2nd place team in the East. The Cincy fans are, quite rightly, pissed about this tie.
“The mentality of not giving up. I think we kept trying until the last minute. They scored two goals in the first half, which were very easy. We said in the second half that we had to come out differently, with more intensity. We did it, we were able to get a point here at their place, which is very difficult, and we are very happy.”
FCD’s Lucho Acosta
FC Dallas holds on to the 11th spot in the West.
Lineups and Tactics
FC Dallas, with no Coach Eric Quill on the sideline, went back to the 4-2-3-1 despite its underperformance compared to the diamond 4. Bernard Kamungo came back in as did Lucho Acosta, Petar Musa, Shaq Moore, and Kaick.
Marco Farfan started his 2nd straight and seems to have rapidly taken his left spot back from Nolan Norris.
36th minute, Lalas Abubakar came on for Osaze Urhoghide due to a hammy issue. Hopefully he’s ok.
At halftime, Pedrinho came on for Bernard Kamungo, shifting the shape to the 4-3-1-2 diamond’ish thing. More on this down below.
65th minute, Patrickson Delgado came on for Kaick.
83rd minute, Logan Farrington replaced Anderson Julio.
64th minute, Kai Kamara came on for Sérgio Santos.
73rd minute, a triple sub: Gerardo Valenzuela, Lukas Engel, and Teenage Hadebe were brought in for Pavel Bucha, Luca Orellano, and Alvas Powell.
83rd minute, Corey Baird replaced DeAndre Yedlin.
Goals
0-1 FC Cincinnati goal. 30th minute. FCC’s Luca Orellano beats Shaq Moore to get the cross in. Kaick gets dragged wide chasing DeAndre Yedlin, leaving Marco Farfan inside. Pavel Bucha drifts away from Farfan and is wide open for the easy goal.
0-2 FC Cincinnati goal. 42nd minute. Kevin Denkey converts at PK. Maartin Paes took down Denkey in the box. The TV angle is tough, but it looks like there is contact.
1-2 FC Dallas goal. 50th minute. The ball gets deflected wide to Shaq Moore on an overlap, he crosses to Petar Musa. Musa takes a touch and scores a classic-9 goal.
2-2 FC Dallas goal. 68th minute. After receiving from Lucho Acosta, Pedrinho plays a terrific lead pass to the breaking Anderson Julio. Julio, who excels in breakaways, scores.
2-3 FC Cincinnati goal. 86th minute. After Maarten Paes punches the initial cross out, the ball falls to a poorly tracked Dado Valenzuela, who scores.
3-3 FC Dallas goal. 92nd minute. And FCD steals the point. Patrickson Delgado with the cross and Sebastien Ibeagha with the header for goal.
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Pedrinho. I don’t usually pick a guy who only plays half the game, but he was terrific overall and the catalyst for the 2nd half. 1 assist, 3-shot creating actions, 3 progressive dribbles, and 2 key passes. But mostly it was about being the 3rd guy in midfield and with his 82% passing for the half, being able to link play and help the team get through the middle.
The tactics change to the 4-3-1-2 saved the game for Dallas and should have been the choice from the start. Is it ideal? No. But given the roster Quill has at his disposal, this needs to be the way forward. FCD created 8 shots in the 2nd half after just 2 in the first.
“We talked at half time that we were not that far, that the game shouldn’t be 2-0 and that we needed to step up with the ball, and we could not lose concentration. That’s what we did in the second half. We won the half 3-1.”
FCD Assistant Coach Rodrigo Rios
Patrickson Delgado, I thought, had a good run out, maybe his best in some time. 92% passing (his 3rd highest of the season), 2 shot-creating actions, and 1 goal-creating action in just 26 minutes.
FCD was so much better at getting wide and getting crosses. 2 of the 3 goals came on crosses into the box, and the 3rd game off a big switch. Spreading out the defense to create space in the middle matters, actually finding a player in the box and not crossing to no one matters.
Anderson Julio was quietly good. Just 30 touches – perhaps cause the team was so 1st half bad – but 4 shot-creating actions, 5 progressive carries, 1 goal, 2/3 on take-ons in those 30 touches is pretty dang good.
Even though he got beaten on the 1st goal, Shaq Moore had one of his better days, notably on defense. 4/5 on tackles, 4/5 on challenges won, 2 blocks, 3 clearances, and 3 recoveries. He even had 4 progressive passes and 3 progressive carries.
Camino del Medio
This team has a real talent, at times, for rising above their play and coming back. Overall, this was a poor performance, but the team managed 3 goals on a 1.3 xG. They came through in the key moments. That’s not a recipe for success. It’s not sustainable. Yes, being mentally tough and a bunch of warriors is good. You can beat better teams that way. But at some point, this team will need to just be better to win enough games to compete in this league.
“I think the guys showed resilience and how combative the team is and how united we are behind Eric’s idea of how we play, how we defend, and we can compete against any team in the league.”
FCD Assistant Coach Rodrigo Rios
Muy Feo
The first half was particularly atrocious, both in terms of the tactics chosen and the play of the team. A paltry 2 shots, neither on target. The number of FCC players running through midfield at will. 9 Cincy shots with 3 on target, that’s more than FCD has done for a game at times this season. 1.58 xG to 0.09, brutal. Throw this half in the trash.
Outshot 19 to 10. Crosses 23 to 9. Out-fouling 2 to 1, 36 clearances… It’s a lot of scrap and boot it. Only 10 shots for an entire game. I know they don’t care about possession, but 37%? It’s all the signs of a bad team trying to scrap and fight to stay alive. That’s not the way forward.
“It just comes down to starting to play with the confidence that we play with whenever we’re down goals. When we’re down goals, we kind of take more risks. We should be able to do that even when it’s 0-0, to try to take advantage of the games. And we need to be smart in the back to close out games.”
FCD’s Marco Farfan
Instant Reaction – 3 Things
I mispoke a bit; the crosses were at 20% compared to 0% in the previous game, but that 20% got them two goals, and the raw number of crosses went way up, even if all the stat sources can’t agree on what a cross is.
ove watched the first goal.many times.and just noticed that Acosta allowed Bucha to run free.into the box. he should have followed and most likely would have prece Ted the wide open shot
Yup.
And I wonder why Ramiro is way outside on the corner of the box and not there. Or Bernie who is there never looks behind him.