“It does not matter how many times you get knocked down. What matters is how many times you get up.”
Vince Lombardi
Sometimes playing the kids is painful. But, in a way, that’s the idea. This is how players learn. A certain amount of bad has to come. But this isn’t a title-winning team, and its best path is to develop young players. You do that by playing them. And it can be rough.
“That put us even deeper in a hole. We played some young players, and mistakes are going to happen.”
FC Dallas Head Coach Eric Quill
After this San Jose Earthquakes debacle, FC Dallas sits in 10th in the West with 21 points and a 5-7-6 record.
Lineups and Tactics
Coach Eric Quill stuck with the exact same XI from Sporting, sometimes with a big win, coaches do that. The same 4-3-1-2.
Just before halftime, Anderson Julio pulls up with a hammy issue, and Bernie Kamungo subs in.
In the 61st minute, Kaick came on for Sebastian Lletget and Logan Farrington for Pedrinho. This turned the shape into a 4-2-3-1 with Farrington at right wing and Kamungo at left wing. Kaick and Patrickson Delgado were in a double pivot.
87th minute, after the Sebastien Ibeagha red card, Lalas Abubakar came in for Marco Farfan to make the shape a 3-4-1 kind of.
San Jose in a 3-4-3.
76th minute, a double sub. Mark-Anthony Kaye and Max Floriani are in for Ian Harkes and Rodigues.
82nd minute, Preston Judd replaced Josef Martinez.
Finally, 88th minute, Ousseni Bouda on for Cristian Arango.
Goals
1-0 FC Dallas goal. 30th minute. Petar Musa from Lucho Acosta. Fantastic to see. Also, respect the Pedrinho move that helped set it up (the clip doesn’t show it). This was Musa’s first goal at home this year and Acosta’s first assist of the season.
1-1 San Jose goal. 50th minute. Chicho Arango from a Cristian Espinoza corner. No one marks Chicho, which sounds like a bad idea.
1-2 San Jose goal. 57th minutes. Josef Martinez from Cristian Espinoza. Sebas Ibeagha got spun like a top.
2-2 FC Dallas goal. 68th minute. Lucho Acosta with a terrific lead to Petar Musa. The cross back into the middle is deflected to Shaq Moore, who buries it.
2-3 San Jose goal. 76th minute. Alvaro with the gaf and gift to Beau Leroux, who makes no mistake.
2-4 San Jose goal. 90+9th minute. Mark-Anthony Kaye beats a tired Alvaro to the ball at the back post on a cross from DeJuan Jones.
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Lucho Acosta. 7 shot-creating actions, 2 goal-creating actions. 8 progressive passes, 2 progressive carries, 3 of 6 on take-ons, 3 key passes. Not just good stats, but game impact. Maybe his most direct impact game of the year. 67 touches, it all went through him.
The Delgado, Lletget, and Pedrinho midfield was working again. The ability to link play through there is such a huge change over the previous portions of the season. But this time, it was Patrickson Delgado who was the primary driving force. 49 touches (30 and 33 for the other guys) with 90% passing and 4 progressive passes. He was 3/3 on tackles with 2 blocks, 8 recoveries, and 1 interception. Just 2 miscontrols and 1 dispossession. Hopefully, this run is the birth of Delagdo as a top-line player.
Camino del Medio
Man, what a drag that Anderson Julio pulled up with the hammy, TBD on severity. The way FCD fell apart without him shows how massive he is. Julio only had 7 touches, mostly cause Acosta-Musa was cooking, but it all went sideways without him.
Muy Feo
This was Sebastien Ibeagha’s 200th MLS appearance. Too bad he didn’t play up to the occasion, cause he was awful.
Alvaro had another solid performance… up until he got gassed late and started making mistakes. Tired legs lead to tired heads. He was clearly upset by the end with his massive mistake on the game-winning goal. The Kaick red card really put the team’s shape out of sorts, and Alvaro didn’t deal with it well. He got beaten by Kaye for the 4th goal, too. Rough night, more like what we had seen at North Texas SC. Hopefully he can be a goldfish and shrug it off, cause he has to go again on Saturday.
“Football is a game of moments. The little margins of conceding goals can cost you the game. The first half, we played a little sloppy, but gave it our all. Second half, we missed some key details in our play, and then the game slipped out of our hands.”
Maarten Paes
Kaick has a hot-headed moment. Yes, he got fouled, but he got the foul. Headbutting a dude, even if you do it softly, or even miss, is a red card every time. I also predict he’s going to get a fine for not leaving the field in a timely manner. Chance to learn, I hope.
Bernie Kamungo had no idea how to play Julio’s spot. He wasn’t getting back into the defensive shape correctly. FCD had to bring on Farrington and shift tactics so that Bernie could be functional, something he can only do at left wing. Bernie for Julio was Quill’s biggest mistake on the night, one could argue it lost them the game. He should have gone with Farrington or even Leo Chu.
“My biggest frustration is the first 10 minutes of the second half.”
Coach Eric Quill
It made me chuckle that the broadcast guys talked to Quill and came away thinking FCD was going to play a 5 at the back. Did Quill sucker them? If you watch any tape over the last month or two, you would easily spot FCD playing the hybrid 4-3-1-2 shape. Here’s a shot from my TV. Anderson Julio at left back? Come on. It was just a re-do of the XI from Sporting.
Play the kids. You can argue that our coach is a kid. The remainder of this season should be about learning and developing. And when is Zanotta going to be held accountable for another train wreck of a roster…
I would be interested in seeing what Alvaro and Osaze would look like together. Two athletic dudes (at least compared to Ibby and Abubukar), and then if you put Kaick in front of them as the 6. And Osaze seems veteran enough that he can be the veteran presence Alvaro needs. Very young, probably going to have mistakes, but at least they might recover better than Ibby does when he gets beat.
Hopefully we’ll get to see it this year.