Dallas Postmatch

[SoupInNYC]

But honestly it's irrelevant if Sean Johnson doesn't play his match of the season. T-Mac was arguably the worst player on the pitch for most of the game. Right place, right time, and he deserves credit for that.

Exactly. He was awful all game. But that was one hell of a play that he made on that goal.

It's possible to love and cheer on a guy on your team and also have an opinion that his play in general isn't good.

Notre Dame fans and players seemed to love all the hustle and hard work of Rudy, but nobody wanted him starting the Rose Bowl

 

[Fantazma]

lucky to have point but you take it.....still dont think tmac is starter....Chanot. ring, johnson kept that at 1.

question is how many changes will exist for midweek game.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Sweat - 5. Going with a 5 here as well. Was decent defensively. Surprisingly to me, he's been good going forward. Has a decent left foot which has surprised me

I'm not certain I agree with all of your assessments (though I do think they provide great context and whatnot), but I really think Sweat was worse than this, and think he was far from "decent defensively".

He was constantly beaten down the left side which caused Callens to have to play much wider than we usually see him. There were many plays as well where FCD were bombing down the left, and Sweat wasn't even in the picture. He was completely gassed and not able to hold his own.

I do think he provided some nice crosses into the box, but overall, I thought he was one of the worst on the field for us.

 

[Ulrich]

lucky to have point but you take it.....still dont think tmac is starter....Chanot. ring, johnson kept that at 1.

question is how many changes will exist for midweek game.

If not for Johnson, and we were still living game to game via Slosh, that'd have been at best a 3-1 game but more likely a total blitzing of 5-0.... we'd have been so demoralized that we'd never have gotten the free kick goal.

 

[Seven]

Would love to play them again, with Herrera in place of TMac, just to see how we match up. Oh well. Guess we just have to wait til MLS Cup for that

 

[Ulrich]

I'm not certain I agree with all of your assessments (though I do think they provide great context and whatnot), but I really think Sweat was worse than this, and think he was far from "decent defensively".

He was constantly beaten down the left side which caused Callens to have to play much wider than we usually see him. There were many plays as well where FCD were bombing down the left, and Sweat wasn't even in the picture. He was completely gassed and not able to hold his own.

I do think he provided some nice crosses into the box, but overall, I thought he was one of the worst on the field for us.

I think that Sweat was hurt by not having Herrera out there. Last two games, either Ring or Hererra would shade over to provide help with the other filling the middle. Ring tried to do that but was often left without TMac in position because he's slow or sauntering back. Seemed like that left Ring second guessing whether he should slide out to help or stay central, sometimes failing to do either well. Both Sweat's and Ring's play changed when Maxi started dropping to take on that dual-6 defensive responsibility. Its why we actually started controlling the game the last 20+ minutes.

 

[roxfontaine]

I see a lot of "if" and "but." Judging only what happened: Any number of people that we generally laud could have stepped up at any point in the game to affect the only thing that really matters; the final score. Again, Mac took his opportunity and INSTRUCTIONS and did something meaningful with it.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Would love to play them again, with Herrera in place of TMac, just to see how we match up. Oh well. Guess we just have to wait til MLS Cup for that

Why not US Open Cup?

 

[SoupInNYC]

I see a lot of "if" and "but." Judging only what happened: Any number of people that we generally laud could have stepped up at any point in the game to affect the only thing that really matters; the final score. Again, Mac took his opportunity and INSTRUCTIONS and did something meaningful with it.

Rox, I don't think anyone is saying "if"s or "but"s.

Nobody here is taking away what TMac did on that play. In fact, I think he is the only guy on our team that scores that goal, I don't think anyone else would have. Going back through our history, the only other player that may have scored that would have been Lampard.

But that said, almost every other minute he was on the field he wasn't good. These things are not mutually exclusive.

Also, I really, really disagree that nobody else, or any number of people, on the field didn't influence the final score of the match.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

I see a lot of "if" and "but." Judging only what happened: Any number of people that we generally laud could have stepped up at any point in the game to affect the only thing that really matters; the final score. Again, Mac took his opportunity and INSTRUCTIONS and did something meaningful with it.

He seemed to have completed ten passes in a row to dallas players at one point.

 

[canchon]

Remember when Lampard was scoring a ton of ugly goals (off every single body part except his foot), especially to get results on the road?

Tommy Mac exists for just this purpose...seems like he either scores beautiful goals from outside the box or downright ugly goals falling down. Nothing in between.

He's a guy that you put in to create an ugly goal when you need to grab an ugly point (think DCU and Bennyball). However, he is an awful fit with the rest of the team, watching him in possession was cringeworthy. I remember once where he had the ball and could have quickly passed upfield to break the lines and instead stopped, dribbled left, dribbled right, looked confused and passed it back to the CB. Yikes.

 

[Marito]

Rox, I don't think anyone is saying "if"s or "but"s.

Nobody here is taking away what TMac did on that play. In fact, I think he is the only guy on our team that scores that goal, I don't think anyone else would have. Going back through our history, the only other player that may have scored that would have been Lampard.

But that said, almost every other minute he was on the field he wasn't good. These things are not mutually exclusive.

Also, I really, really disagree that nobody else, or any number of people, on the field didn't influence the final score of the match.

There's at least 2 people other than Tommy who influenced the final score equally or more than TMac: Villa, who hit the crossbar with his free kick, and Sean J who should be a candidate for Save of the Week in MLS

 

[Ulrich]

There's at least 2 people other than Tommy who influenced the final score equally or more than TMac: Villa, who hit the crossbar with his free kick, and Sean J who should be a candidate for Save of the Week in MLS

Sean Johnson should have *2* save of the week plays up for consideration.

 

[SoupInNYC]

There's at least 2 people other than Tommy who influenced the final score equally or more than TMac: Villa, who hit the crossbar with his free kick, and Sean J who should be a candidate for Save of the Week in MLS

I think looking at singular plays that resulted in a goal or save, when determining how much influence there was on the final score is a bit dangerous. For example, I think Chanot and Ring had a bigger influence for us than Villa did, though Villa's ridiculous free kick (as well as him drawing the foul) set up the goal. Whereas Chanot and Ring helped shut down many of Dallas' opportunities so that Johnson wouldn't have to make a save.

 

[Gotham Gator]

I'm not certain I agree with all of your assessments (though I do think they provide great context and whatnot), but I really think Sweat was worse than this, and think he was far from "decent defensively".

He was constantly beaten down the left side which caused Callens to have to play much wider than we usually see him. There were many plays as well where FCD were bombing down the left, and Sweat wasn't even in the picture. He was completely gassed and not able to hold his own.

I do think he provided some nice crosses into the box, but overall, I thought he was one of the worst on the field for us.

Note how many quality shots they got from the left (defensive) side of the box - right where Callens usually plays. Even on the one they scored, the ball was played right through that area because Callens was defending wide. Sweat eventually showed up, but played right behind Callens and got beaten on the cross too.

 

[Gotham Gator]

My general feeling is that Dallas is one terrific team. They are fast, confident, determined and very well coached. Their runs were perfect, their passes on target - all very smart and very well coordinated and by a team of real athletes. I think it is probably the best game a team has played against us since we started as a franchise. For us to gut out a point on the road against that team is really very good. We are close to where we want to be.

 

[Gotham Gator]

I didn't think that was much of a handball. I'd like to see the video again, but if I recall correctly, his hand was already outstretched as he fell and it was more ball to hand. I'm not even sure he saw the ball coming. Either way, I feel much less strongly about this one than the Villa shot that was blocked a couple of games ago.

It will be interesting to see the Simon Borg take on this one.

 

[SoupInNYC]

I didn't think that was much of a handball. I'd like to see the video again, but if I recall correctly, his hand was already outstretched as he fell and it was more ball to hand. I'm not even sure he saw the ball coming. Either way, I feel much less strongly about this one than the Villa shot that was blocked a couple of games ago.

It will be interesting to see the Simon Borg take on this one.

But it was his arm in an unnatural position, that interrupted a cross in the box. I don't see how that isn't a handball.

 

[mgarbowski]

https://twitter.com/x/status/863939177804685312

I think the argument for no call is (1) inadvertence, and (2) the deflection arguably didn't hurt us. The ball was too far in front of Villa and the deflection actually sent the ball more directly to Wallace. I'm not saying that's right but that's the best argument I can make. I'm not that inclined to give him a break on inadvertence. He did maybe put his arm back to break his fall/slide rather than to stop the ball, but his slide was done in an attempt to get in front of the ball that was about to cross behind the direction of his momentum. Even if he didn't mean to hit it with his hand his entire movement downward was made to stop the ball. The second point about effect should not matter but I believe refs apply it regularly. That sort of discretion will disappear with VAR and will hurt us as much as it helps.

 

[Gotham Gator]

https://twitter.com/x/status/863939177804685312

I think the argument for no call is (1) inadvertence, and (2) the deflection arguably didn't hurt us. The ball was too far in front of Villa and the deflection actually sent the ball more directly to Wallace. I'm not saying that's right but that's the best argument I can make. I'm not that inclined to give him a break on inadvertence. He did maybe put his arm back to break his fall/slide rather than to stop the ball, but his slide was done in an attempt to get in front of the ball that was about to cross behind the direction of his momentum. Even if he didn't mean to hit it with his hand his entire movement downward was made to stop the ball. The second point about effect should not matter but I believe refs apply it regularly. That sort of discretion will disappear with VAR and will hurt us as much as it helps.

Now that I've seen it again, I will change my view... that's a handball. He is sliding to block the ball and his hand does just that. And I think Villa was in position to score. He actually slows up his run a step so he will be in time with the ball. Terrible call.