As an FC Dallas fan I'm not sure how to feel about the performance of my team. The second half of this game couldn't have been more boring. The lack of any real attacking presence by FCD was troublesome to say the least. The only saving grace (or excuse) is that FC was missing 4 starters at the beginning of the game and ended up being down one more by the end of it. The absence of Blas Perez was the most glaring I thought. The Panamanian has been the run away team MVP this year and with him gone it only highlighted how big of a difference he has made in making up for the absence of David Ferreira. What I as a fan didn't count on was how much Dallas is missing Andrew Jacobson and Ricardo Villar in the midfield. Real Salt Lake dominated FC Dallas through the midfield all night and Kyle Beckerman showed why Jurgen Klinsmann should be picking him on a regular basis for the USMNT. FCD couldn't put a series of passes together all night. I do think that Schellas Hyndman has done a great job of coaching up a mismatched starting XI in the absence of his starters and really taking some risks to see what works. Scott Sealy showed that he was not the answer that Dallas was looking for up top. In fact I don't know if Dallas had played with 10 men without Sealy that the game would have been any different. We saw more out of Johnathan Top, Sealy's replacement, than Scott showed in 70 minutes of play. For me though the biggest disappointment this year, other than no David Ferriera, has been Fabian Castillo. I know he's young but he hasn't showed even a glimmer of what FC Dallas thought they were getting with a young DP. I found myself just hoping that no one passed him the ball in the final third because it was either going to be a half assed effort on goal or he was just going to give the ball away. It's time for him to step up and live up to at least SOME of the hype. Chris Seitz had another solid performance in goal for the Hoops. In fact I think he had probably the best performance of any of the FCD players. He's made a case that he deserves to be the heir apparent to Kevin Hartman.
One of the big questions now is going to be how much time Carlos Rodriguez is going to miss after a nasty dislocated elbow. Rodriguez has played so well this year and was the top outfield performer for FC Dallas. Dallas will without a doubt miss his versatility and all over the field presence. The one bright spot that came out of this game was the return of Jackson to the FCD lineup. I had forgotten how much of the field he takes up. It always seemed where ever the ball was so to was Jackson. His much need injection of speed and versatility in this lineup can no doubt be a positive to a midfield that is wracked with injuries. Now let's just hope he's matured from last year and doesn't draw stupid red cards. It's going to be interesting to see what lineup Schellas puts on the field tomorrow against a hot LA Galaxy team.
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Jay N
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