FC Dallas 2006: The Recurring Nightmare 2007-01-27 18:53:10 | By: Jeff Bull 
Had the Major League Soccer (MLS) season ended on October 14 along with the
regular season, 2006 would have gone down as a decent year for FC Dallas.
After all, they had just racked up the most points in team history (52 over
32 games) on top of winning Western Conference title for the first time.
But there was something about that final, regular season game - a 5-2
pummeling by a Los Angeles Galaxy team hungry to take out their frustration
at missing their first-ever post-season - that pointed to some issues with
this Dallas team that belied their solid league record. No matter how
bitter and angry FC Dallas’ first-round, post-season collapse may have left
Dallas fans, it’s unlikely that collapse shocked any of them. After all,
they had endured the same hell just one year earlier and against the same
team. Moreover, signs of imminent collapse were far from absent.
New Men Maybe it’s a Texas thing, but FC Dallas doesn’t just tinker with their roster. The 2005 off-season saw the team trade away Eddie Johnson, a forward believed to have a shot at soccer stardom. Carey Talley, a veteran in their defense, was sent to Real Salt Lake - and for a cut price considering what he meant to that team in 2006. And, Oscar Pareja, a long-time force in the Dallas midfield, gave into his years went from player to assistant coach. A few as yet low-profile draftees came to FC Dallas prior to the 2006 season - midfielders Dax McCArty and Justin Moore, as well as quick forward Dominic Oduro - but they made the sleeper acquisition of the year when they brought Dallas native Kenny Cooper back from Manchester United’s reserve system. No one knew what to expect from Cooper, but when he ended 2006 as FC Dallas’ MVP after contributing 11 goals and 5 assists, the general thought was “Eddie Johnson who?” A new figure filled the goal as well when the club signed Argentine ‘keeper, Dario Sala, whose performances ran from brilliant to erratic; there was enough brilliance, however, to keep mid-summer signing, Shaka Hislop, from taking his starting role when the latter arrived after a solid World Cup campaign for Trinidad & Tobago. Finally, to push the definition of “new player” a bit, midfielder Richard Mulrooney, who actually joined FC Dallas in 2005 only to miss the entire season through injury, roughly amounted to a new signing. The Bad As DC United spent the season on top of the MLS’s Eastern Conference, FC Dallas, a week or two excepted, did the same in the West. That sounds like an accomplishment, but when DC won the Supporters’ Shield and Chicago won the U.S. Open Cup, that left MLS Cup as FC Dallas’ only shot at silverware. And with home-field advantage throughout the post-season and MLS Cup being played in their stadium, FC Dallas looked to have as good a shot as any team. But that season-long lead came courtesy of a strong start; FC Dallas sputtered into the post-season, going 4-6-2 after the All-Star break. Unfortunate as entering the post-season in a state of inertia was, nothing stamped the word “failure” on Dallas’ 2006 like losing to the Colorado Rapids in the playoffs’ first round for the second, consecutive year. That recurring nightmare only grew darker when a post-game fracas involving players and fans resulted in suspensions for several Dallas players. It was an inexperienced defense, cursed by unfortunate decisions here and plain rotten luck there, that sowed the seeds of the collapse. With Talley departed to Salt Lake City, Greg Vanney stood as the only “wise-old head” in Dallas’ back-line. Inexperience played a major role: of the eight defenders FC Dallas fielded last year, five are still under 25, while another, Bobby Rhine, played as a forward until 2006, when Dallas converted him into a right back. Where youth didn’t bite them, rash decisions certainly did - as when Dallas’ defender of the year, Chris Gbandi, was sent off in the 29th minute of the deciding post-season game against Colorado; with extra time added, Dallas played a man down for 91 minutes. Though the decisive factor varied from game to game, Dallas allowed 44 goals in 32 regular season games, the fourth-highest record in the league. The Good Dallas’ dodgy defense makes them all the more fortunate to have one of the strongest, and most varied attacks in MLS. It starts with Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz, one of the most dangerous and dogged forwards in league history; he and new arrival Cooper combined for a total of 24 goals and 9 assists on the season, accounting for exactly half of Dallas’ goal production. An array of midfield players supported the forward tandem: Irishman Ronnie O’Brien, arguably the league’s best right-sided player, and Mulrooney provided the lion’s share of assists, while skillful, speedy dribblers like Ramon Nunez and Arturo Alvarez added a handful of goals and assists. The number of ways in which Dallas could score - by mid-July, 13 different players had scored a goal - did enough to keep the opposition guessing on Dallas’ road to the second-best goal scoring record in MLS. Another bright spot comes with the fact that few teams managed to bring in players who made an impact equal to those signed by FC Dallas. Cooper, for instance, went from being an unknown quantity to player on his way up on the U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT); blessed with ball control unusual for a player of his size and strength, his versatility and ability as a forward will only grow as ages past his 22 years. While he was far from flawless, Sala rescued Dallas’ defense on numerous occasions with acrobatic saves that should be beyond a player of his years. And it’s not insignificant that he stood at the center of the season-ending melee, sticking up for his teammates in their gloomiest hour. Wrap-Up Nice as solid, new players, one of them part of a pair of great goal-scorers, and a conference title, those happy realities populate FC Dallas’ dark dreamscape of continued post-season failure. That they came up short against a lower-seeded Colorado team for the second year running can only have Dallas’ fans wondering whether they’ll ever snap out of the nightmare. This is about more than 2006: apart from a terrible few years when they missed the post-season altogether, FC Dallas’ historical habit of flattering to deceive now seems part of their identity as a team. Worse than being also-rans, they’re perilously close to a state of never having started. If it weren’t for the U.S. Open Cup trophy their team won in 1997 Dallas fans would likely be suicidal by now. The Future Days after their 2006 ended, FC Dallas geared up for 2007 with a house-cleaning: the front office showed to the door to Head Coach Colin Clarke; assistant coach Steve Morrow replaced him some months later. Morrow and the front office, seemingly recognizing the problems in defense, arranged a multi-step trade that sent three-time MLS All-Star Ronnie O’Brien to next year’s expansion team, Toronto FC, in exchange for Canadian international, Adrian Serioux, who played defense for last year’s champion Houston Dynamo. Against that, however, the team then traded Vanney to the Rapids, the two-year thorn in Dallas’ side; also gone are defensive midfielder Simo Valakari and experimental right-back Bobby Rhine. The math from all this player-swapping leaves some serious questions about how much was gained and how much lost: will Serioux have any more luck organizing a still-green and rash defense than did Vanney? Who will replace Ronnie O’Brien, who, even in an off-season, contributed one goal and 11 assists? There are rumors that Dallas has entered negotiations with Dutch international Edgar Davids, but, as much as he would add to the team, O’Brien is a proven, rock-solid contributor at a fraction of Davids’ cost. One thing is certain: there won’t be a lot of believers in Dallas or beyond till FC Dallas manages to a successful end to one of their typical flying starts. Editor's Note: This is part of a series wrapping up the 2006 season for each of Major League Soccer's 12 teams. Readers can find other entries in the series by clicking on the author's byline.
Comments
Post a commentPlease keep your comments relevant to this article; inappropriate or purely promotional comments may be removed. This comment board is provided to further the discussion of the thoughts provided in the above article. Please respect the writer's contribution and only provide well thought out responses. Thanks. |
|
Write On Sports is not affiliated with any amateur or professional sports organization.
About WriteOnSports.com | Terms of Use | Advertise on WriteOnSports.com | Contributors | Submit Content | Contact
Copyright © 2006 Write On Sports LLC. All rights reserved.
About WriteOnSports.com | Terms of Use | Advertise on WriteOnSports.com | Contributors | Submit Content | Contact
Copyright © 2006 Write On Sports LLC. All rights reserved.