by Ethan Johnson
July 4, 2008
It's Independence Day here in these United States, which means I'm wearing a flag lapel pin, saluting the flag, whistling Yankee Doodle, and eating apple pie while writing YOUR investigative bullet points:
- KCW (4-5-4) was dead last in the East going into this game. FCD (4-6-5) was hanging around the middle of the West rankings somewhere, but needing a win to not only provide the first MLS win of the Schellas Hyndman era, but to tie Houston in the standings. There was careless optimism on the FCD fan forum about KCW being dead last, but those are the dangerous teams. This concludes my scouting report of KCW, as I find them so BORING normally that I don't follow any of their non-FCD matches.
- Of note: Every team in the East except KCW was above .500 going into this game. Tough crowd.
- Dario Sala got the start in goal again, but interesting developments went down recently where Ray Burse was called back from the Portland Timbers to be on backup duty. I dunno if this means Hyndman wants USL loans to be his idea, or if we'll be seeing more RayJay in the near future.
- Parking was a mess for this game. I wondered why a whole section of free parking was roped off, only to learn that it's where they put the fireworks stuff for the show. Lots of people trying to charge upwards of $10 for parking across the street in what could have been muddy fields if the 30% chance of rain panned out. It didn't, but I was happy to snag free cement lot parking.
- The stadium announcers made their first (to my knowledge) explicit announcement concerning PHPs streamer policy. Namely that MLS does not "approve of or prohibit" streamers so long as they're used for goal celebrations and the like. Random streamering or obstructionist throws are grounds for dismissal. I still have yet to see a Toronto home game post-edict.
- I liked Blake Wagner, at least without the benefit of TV play-by-play or similar. He seemed to be showing good hustle, but the FCD fan forum faithful and the HDNet announcers both roasted Wagner.
- In fact, KCW seemed fairly porous on defense. FCD kept putting numbers forward but couldn't quite close the deal. Credit the KC goalie for denying some close calls.
- 38th minute: KCW decided to shoot from "distance" which proved to be FCDs undoing. I figured someone blew their assignment big time and let in an easy one. 1-0 KCW. After the fact, I did review the game footage and Drew Moor seemed to get torched. The TV announcers blamed Blake Wagner at first but amended their assessment after a few replays.
- A note about Drew Moor: Officially, FCD played a 3-5-2 formation which means 3 players make up the defensive line. Moor is a Side Back, which in a 4-man defense frees him up to engage in wing play up and down the touchline. I wondered if his SB play meant that FCD effectively had 2 people in defense. Hey! They did. And considering how Lost in Space Diulio Davino seems to be at any given moment, I think that 2-man back line is Dario Sala and whoever is closest.
- Halftime: I smartly paid cash for a bottle of water before the game, so no heat-related maladies for me this time. The evening game and cloud cover helped. No halftime soccer youths on the field. It was weird not having the parade of soccer teams in the beginning and the halftime ruckus. On the 4th, it's all about the fireworks show and concerts (mostly fireworks, from what I overheard at random). In fact, I even heard someone comment that they kept coming to Pepperoni Park for non-soccer events and this was their first time for an actual game. The seats filled in steadily throughout the game, so hopefully they liked the atmosphere if not the on-field action.
- Eric Avila and Abe Thompson came in for the start of the 2nd half. Dunn dun dunnnnn! Dominic Oduro and Andre Rocha out. Not sure why, exactly. Reviewing the TV footage, I was underwhelmed with Rocha. Lots of set pieces that went nowhere.
- My friendly neighborhood ticket rep stopped by and asked how the first half went since he missed most of it. I thought 1-0 KCW said it all, but considering how porous they seemed defensively (outside of their goalie) I was thinking that FCD would score fairly early on in the 2nd half.
- After further ado, it looked like Abe Thompson scored the equalizer in about the 77th minute, but was waved off as offside. Then KCW did a lot of stupid diving (and I left the Diver Down Flag of Dooooom at home - GRRRR), which ultimately made FCD get super paranoid about foul calls. At one point, during what could have been a fast break opportunity, the FCD players flinched and were visibly fretting the offside call. Doop.
- 90th minute: I took a photo of the scoreboard for the traditional "that's Numberwang" shot.
- 90+ minutes: Avila crossed the ball to Slow Abe, who headed it in. No offside call or other un-sense. 1-1.
- Strangely, considering the head ref's stats going into the game, ZERO cards of any color. For better or worse. Must be a holiday thing?
- Ballgame. Not the win I was hoping for, but I guess the draw beats a stick in the eye. FCD has to win against MLS opponents sooner or later.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized image. Enjoy!
Next up: FCD faces Colorado at home on July 19th. They have a US Open Cup game this coming Tuesday that I got a free seat for, but otherwise, that's a lotta hiatus. Hope they make the best of it. <EM>
(The full MLS article archive may be found here.)
