Big D Soccer

Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Philadelphia Union

2012-05-18T20:00:33Z

FC Dallas returns home for the first of three games in eight days. They play host to the struggling Philadelphia Union tomorrow night at FC Dallas Stadium.

The Union have lost three straight games including a 3-2 loss last week at home against New York. A game in which the Union had a 2-1 lead at the half before giving up two late goals and seeing Freddy Adu get a second yellow card for his dive in the penalty box.

Neither team has any sort of momentum coming into this game so it will be interesting to see which one takes hold of this game.

Thoughts and Questions

1. The offense that was just isn't anymore. The last two seasons you thought of a tough offense when you saw that your club was facing the Union. That was largely due to players like Sebastien Le Toux but now that he is gone, the Union are having to rely on other players stepping up and scoring.

So far this season the Union have seven goals - which is good for a spot near the bottom of the league. Lionard Pajoy and Gabirel Gomez - two new faces this season - lead the club with three goals apiece. Without Adu for this one, the offensive distribution from the midfield will be taking a hit. In the last game Adu was given a more free flowing direction in the attack and was about to set up Pajoy on his two goals against the Red Bulls.

2. What can Dallas do around this defense? The Union have had to shift in a couple different guys to their defense from last year. Sheanon Williams is now playing more centrally while rookie Raymond Gaddis is covering on the flank at full back. Carlos Valdes is still the rock in the defense, he made Danny Califf look great last year and I'm sure he and Williams will eventually be a great duo there for them. Dallas needs to concentrate on play through the wings and using their speed to break down this club. I like Gaddis and Gabriel Farfan but both are young and Dallas has the experience to expose them.

Also, this has to be a game where Blas Perez asserts his size and physicalness with Williams and Valdes. He'll probably get covered a bit by Brian Carroll or Gomez but look for him to be a big factor in this game.

3. Possession key, but smart set pieces are vital. Possession is definitely key in this one but not the main means to three points. Dallas needs to be smart on the ball through the midfield and not give away any silly mistakes in the back. Even without Ugo Ihemelu and Zach Loyd, there is still a ton of confidence in this defensive group to lock down the Union. The big key is not giving up set pieces and converting set pieces of our own. Dallas has been horrendous on set pieces this season but have been better in recent games with Jair Benitez handling more of the duties.

X-Factor for the Union

Danny Mwanga. The kid hasn't registered a goal yet this season and is lacking in shots on goal as well but I still see him as a factor. Without Adu someone has to help step up in the creative department and he could be the guy to do that.

Potential Lineup

Notes:

Mostly the same lineup as last week against New York, minus Adu. Michael Farfan is set to return from his three game suspension so he should slot into the lineup for Adu. The club is still without Roger Torres, a natural right midfielder. Newcomer Michael Lahoud could be a good choice for right mid as well but I don't see him getting a starting nod this quickly under Peter Nowak.

Final Thoughts:

It is three points or bust in this one - for both sides. Dallas has to remain intelligent in this one. I've been saying all week that the injuries are one thing but the suspensions that this team is dealing with are really becoming the bigger issue. Schellas Hyndman needs his club to be smart out there on Saturday. Clubs are starting to realize that Dallas is a team that they can frustrate real easy if the referee is calling the game a certain way. It happened in Columbus and it has happened plenty of times before that.

Emotional intelligence is a major thing for Dallas at this point. If another game passes that sees a red card or a yellow card that leads to a suspension (looking at you Benitez and Daniel Hernandez - both are getting close to that next yellow means a suspension level) you have to think Hyndman could be forces to make some moves here.

Again, its three points or bust.

David Ferreira on his return to Dallas.

2012-05-18T18:17:24Z

David Ferreira on his return to Dallas.

OptaHunt: FC Dallas' 2012 Distribution Tendencies, a Passing Concern

2012-05-18T16:13:35Z

Opta statistics are opening up many new ways to evaluate MLS, and thankfully some sharp analysts are very generous with their finding. Devin Pleuler runs a regular column on mlssoccer.com called Central Winger in which he breaks down the game empirically in new and interesting ways. The other day he ran a column on pass completion broken down by field location. When I asked for an FC Dallas breakdown, he was nice enough to generate and send me such a file that night.
Below is a visualization of 2012 MLS clubs' passing overall, followed by FC Dallas alone. The only change I made to Devin's graph was adding a grid and labels to make discussion easier. Circle size is a measure of the number of passes originating in that region, and bright green means high percentage, while dark red is low percentage. Teams attack right to left (10 to 1).

All of MLS in 2012:

FC Dallas in 2012:

Analysis after the jump:

So, what do we make of this? As Devin pointed out after tweeting the FC Dallas image: "@OptaHunt Certainly not the prettiest of the graphs, but it's balanced. They very much look like a counter-attacking team." At this point of the season, data gets to be a very honest reflection of a team's tactics. Through 12 games this club routinely launches low percentage passes from the back and has far below MLS average in passes in their offensive half. This isn't an inherent problem, it's just the tactic Hyndman has been more or less forced into by injuries to his playmakers. Please note that injuries, suspensions, callups, and positional flexibility make it difficult to attribute a zone's passing to performance to any one player. If you want to attempt to do so in the comments section, at least check the number of minutes played by FC Dallas players this year.

The differences come mainly in the midfield, as columns 1,2, 9, and 10 are pretty much identical between FCD and MLS average. We've all been quick to key on Hernandez and Jacobsen's struggles this season, but everyone has been passing pretty well out of defensive midfield positions. Dallas' passing in columns 7 and 8 are pretty well on par with the general MLS pace, which is nice because it seems we don't have to worry too much about badly placed turnovers. Looking at this visualization, it becomes clear that for the most part Dallas bypasses the center of the pitch, though. Almost every sector in columns 3, 4, 5, and 6 shows less passing attempts, and most of them are completed at a lower percentage. In particular, look at the pocket (B3:D4), which Daniel investigated in one match during Scratching The Chalkboard: FC Dallas vs Real Salt Lake. The section of the field which should be occupied by a #10 is a wasteland of scarcely attempted passes that connect with teammates at a lower rate than the league average.

On a level, Hyndman is smart to concede areas where his available players probably couldn't (and don't) win passing battles anyway. Counterattacking certainly seems to be the most appropriate strategy for the motley crew that's been available most weeks in Frisco. Unfortunately, that approach rarely leads to consistent production, leading to a talented Dallas team sitting 13th and 14th in goals per game and shots per game, respectively. This team should be interesting to watch as Villar and Ferreira get healthy again. If either or both of those players return healthy and in-form, offensive strategy and execution could change dramatically.

See any relevant differences or similarities that I missed? Any alternate interpretations? Please chime in below. Oh, and if you enjoy this type of analysis, you should be following Devin Pleuler on twitter and reading his column regularly.

Brek Shea Suspended 3 Games by MLS Disciplinary Committee

2012-05-17T22:31:28Z

Brek Shea will not play in any of the three FC Dallas games coming up next week as he has been suspended by the MLS Disciplinary Committee for deliberately kicking the ball at the linesman in the first half of FC Dallas' match at Columbus this weekend.

The big question now becomes whether or not the suspension will be able to count towards these three upcoming games given the possibility of a national team callup. I believe that games you are suspended for cannot be served while on national team duty, though it's unclear what date the national team duty would come into effect. I would think Dallas will find a way to work something with the federation where the three upcoming games next week count for his suspension.

This is the third time FC Dallas has been retroactively suspended by the MLS disciplinary committee with Jair Benitez and Blas Perez suffering the other two ban hammers. The one silver lining to all of this is that some down time for Brek is seriously needed with his nagging turf toe injury and at this point you almost hope that he is left off the national team roster for the upcoming games so he can get 100% healthy.

MLS story on the suspension with video of the incident.

Scratching the Chalkboard: FC Dallas at Columbus Crew

2012-05-17T20:54:17Z

Scratching the chalkboard is a new feature where we look at a few different interesting notes from the OPTA chalkboard following the game. If you're not familiar, the OPTA stats are advanced numbers that track every pass, shot, etc...and you can find them by going to the MLS Matchcenter for the particular game and clicking on chalkboard.

FC Dallas Team Struggles to Link Together Passes

Seeing as how FCD has morphed into a counterattacking team, it's not surprising to see Dallas lose the passing battle on a weekly basis, win or lose. Dallas generally does not complete that many passes, but Saturday was surprisingly the fewest amount of total successful passes for a full game this season. Their 177 completed passes is significantly lower than the next lowest total of 197 which came un-surprisingly in the Sporting Kansas City game.

Players like Jair Benitez who had been so active in previous games(63 passes attempted in the Seattle game) were fairly silent with just 40 attempted passes vs Columbus and he led the team in that category!

Keep reading

Attacking players totally absent

On Saturday night, despite the goal, players like Fabian Castillo and Jackson may as well have just taken the night off, from their OPTA stats they certainly did. When Daniel Hernandez talked about young guys making a lot of money that need to step up, I imagine he's looking squarely at these two guys.

I was frustrated on Twitter when Castillo was calling for a sub early in the game after rolling his ankle, as he seemed to be walking OK and eventually scored the goal, but when you look at his chalkboard, he pretty much did nothing the entire game. In 60 minutes of play, Castillo amassed a heat score of 18...Matt Hedges, a center back, had a score of 20 in just 17 minutes of play. Here is Castillo's passing chart on Saturday.

Seriously. That's his passing in 60 minutes of play(and the pass in the middle of the pitch was from kickoff). That is the definition of non-existent in a soccer game. However, there can be somewhat of a small pass given to him since he picked up the injury early in the game. Let's look at Jackson's 90 minutes of apathy.

That is 90 minutes. Not.good.e.nough. For a team like Dallas that must attack down the wings without the presence of a central attacking midfielder, these efforts from Castillo and Jackson will lose you a game.

Here is Columbus' right midfielder, Toni Tchani's passing night

Were they the only scapegoats from Saturday? Hardly, the passing numbers were down from every single player on the pitch, but these kinds of apathetic performances are just not acceptable for a team that needs to fight and claw for every point to get themselves back into the playoff race.

Agudelo to Chivas USA for Heath Pearce, Danny Califf to CUSA also

2012-05-17T19:58:04Z

Agudelo to Chivas USA for Heath Pearce, Danny Califf to CUSA also

A western conference team got stronger today, in my opinion, turning Michael Lahoud and Heath Pearce into Danny Califf and Juan Agudelo. Not bad wheeling and dealing.

Practice Live 5/16

2012-05-17T04:30:04Z

Practices on Wednesdays for FC Dallas have been rare this month...normally they'd be just starting to ramp up for a game that evening, but for once FCD has a whole week between games. Today's practice was a busy one with lots of guys out there and some full-sided drills on shortened fields. Not a whole lot to actually glean from training today as there wasn't really a huge focus, more just attacking cohesion.At the end of practice, the guys were put through Schellas' dreaded "Tunnel of Love." I won't call it punishment for last week, but then you don't generally see the TOL during unbeaten runs. Most of the goodness from this report will come in the quotes, as it normally does, but there are some notes as well.

Notes

On the side Wiedeman and Villar still rehabbing on the side, though Ricardo went through the TOL at the end which I thought was pretty telling of just how much he wants to get back on the pitch. I think this coming up week is just too optimistic, but with more than two weeks off between MLS games after that, I think the Houston game is a realistic goal for him. Fabian Castillo also trained on the side today with a bit of an ankle sprain, though I'd be a bit surprised if he doesn't start on Saturday. Ugo sat out training again today and it just doesn't feel like he plays next week either.

College week There were a lot of unfamiliar faces out there with 4 or 5 college guys out at practice today. I didn't get names but was told some were from West Virginia(What's up Drew?). I went to their website and identified two, Travis Pittman and Eric Schoenle.

Nice to see While the high profile injuries of Villar, Ugo, Warshaw and Ferreira are still there, this team is starting to at least get some guys back in from their niggling injuries. Bryan Leyva is beginning to round back into form, Carlos Rodriguez isn't showing any ill effects from his elbow injury and the bench is beginning to round back into a squad that can give Schellas some options, very important with USOC coming up in a few weeks.

Keep reading for Schellas on many topics and Daniel Hernandez on what needs to change

Schellas

You’ve got three games coming up next week, how important are those three games?

I think these are extremely important. All teams start off with expectations, you look at Toronto right now and they’re going man this isn’t what we planned, you look at LA, this isn’t what we planned. But they’re both playing good soccer but just not getting results and we’ve kind of dropped into that the last three games we played were difference makers to step us up or keep us stagnant.

Well you don’t really stay stagnant because other teams are stepping up so you either get better or you get worse. We’re dropping in the standings so these three games coming up are going to be very important for us to get things right. We’ve established our season into thirds. The 12 games was the first third and now were going into the second third and this is an area we need to improve in.

With injuries to Villar and Ferreira, maybe it’s not a huge surprise that the offense is struggling, but are you surprised that the defense has given up 18 goals, tied for most in the league…

I think, and this is just me talking, is it only 18? I’ll give you another stat to look at, because this would be an interesting stat, how many goals have we given up in the second half? Because that’s where our problem has been.

We have a lead, we lose a lead, they score a goal. We fight hard in the first half and follow our tactics but in the second half, what happens? Are they just getting better, are they making changes, are we adjusting, are we not fit? Those are a lot of things that enter into my mind but I think you’ll be surprised how many goals we’re giving up in the second half. I’m surprised.

Is it down to not being able to play the same back four?

I don’t know if it’s down to something that simple. Maybe it’s a combination of the back four, maybe it’s a combination of people not focused and in shape, maybe, this is a scary thought, it’s always finding ways to play down a man. It wears us down at that point in time. Maybe when we lose players they can’t play the next game so someone else has got to go. When have we ever gone with the same starting lineup?

Who are the college guys out there?

Those are college players that we invite into our training, a lot of MLS teams do it, because that gives you a firsthand view at maybe somebody that you might want to draft. We get a lot of requests and what we decided to do was open our training up maybe for a week and let other people in to get a look at it.

Do you like having a lot of players out there for training?

I think it’s a combination of two things. It’s better than the 8 or 9 we’ve been going with for the last month but there is a point there where the level of play starts to suffer and you’ve got to keep your pulse on it because you don’t ever want mediocrity to set in.

You talked about those three games, what are the keys to beating Philadelphia?

The keys to beating Philadelphia is to have the mindset of winning. It’s something coaches don’t ever want to talk about because it always seems like when we talk about it something goofy happens. We’ve got to start with eleven players and finish with eleven players. I think a lot of it is guys are giving their best, they’re working so hard and focusing to win and sometimes when things aren’t going their way, they respond differently.

Whether it’s a dissent statement to a referee, whether it’s a tackle on an opponent, they just feel like they’re getting frustrated. I think for us to beat Philadelphia we’ve got to come out, knowing we’re at home, knowing we’re desperate to get a result and keeping eleven players in the match no matter what occurs.

With all the red cards, have you sat down with the team and said, look guys what’s going on why are we losing these leads what’s going on with all this?

I’m going to have Fernando Clavijo meet with the team this afternoon and we’re going to address all that. We really have been so busy, it’s been hard outside of sitting down before a game or talking to an individual player. We have our sports psychologist coming in this week, he’s going to be meeting with the team today at 1 and that meeting will go from about 1 to 230 and then tomorrow, he’ll have the second phase of meeting with the team.

If I had a crystal ball when I set this up last year for him to come in from England, I couldn’t have picked a better time. Because this is the point in time where you really need an expert to come in and say “Hey I’ve been down this road before, this is not unusual, here’s some of the things I’ve seen in practice, you guys are having great practices” Whatever he’s going to say, but it’s going to come to a point of discipline, and this is where we’ve kind of lost our discipline a little bit which is so frustrating for me, but discipline is a choice.

Players make decisions, they make choices. Sometimes what’s been getting us in trouble is they’re making bad choices, wrong choices. So I think to answer our question, this is a perfect time to be meeting with the team which we will in the next two days.

What’s the problem with Ugo? He just kind of popped up on the injury list again with the concussion symptoms…

The concussion, when you look at all the injuries out there, is probably the one that you’ve got to be the most cautious with because there’s signs, but there’s not signs. When a player comes to you and says “I’ve got a headache” you say “Yeah, I wake up with a headache, what’s your problem? Get out there and play” but when a guy comes to you and says “my ankle is sore” and it’s swollen or black and blue, the visual view tells you he’s injured and can’t go.

With the concussion though, we’ve made so many mistakes with so many athletes in all sports. We try to get it be, "hey you’re tougher than that get on out there and play". So with Ugo, it’s probably once every four days, I say hey how are you doing just to be courteous because I don’t want to put any pressure on him to come back and play for me. I don’t want to ignore him where he thinks I’m angry and feels like he’s got to come back.

This is a very, very touchy one and I think as long as we, as coaches, think of these players like our children, we’ll always make the right decision….the fact that he hasn’t trained this week, the better idea is that he’s probably going to wait. He came out today wearing sunglasses on, he doesn’t wear sunglasses so for him to have those on, I think one of the signs of still having some problems is it’s too bright, very sensitive to light.

Daniel Hernandez

You’ve got three games coming up next week, where is everything at right now?

I think right now we’re just focused on Saturday. Obviously right now we’re not getting the results we’ve wanted, but I have all the confidence in the team. The people that are panicking or stressed out about results, it’s understandable, but us in the locker room are completely confident that we’re going to get better and get the results. It’s a long season and we can’t be non-chalant or complacent, we know that we need to get results as soon as possible and we’re confident that we’ll get three points on Saturday.

That’s the thing, it’s still very much the same team from 2010, do you remind you what you’ve done in the past as you look towards the future or is it just one game at a time?

Every game is it’s own game, every game is different. Obviously we have three games in a week but we have to make sure and stay focused on this one particular game on Saturday. Obviously us as players need to step up and try to come to work on gameday.

The club has invested a lot of money in some of the young guys that are making big money now, they need to step up and they’re getting paid big money for a reason. They need to step up and be leaders on the field, this isn’t a daycare anymore they’re not little kids and the same thing for the older veteran guys. We need to step up, help lead this team and get things back on the right track so everybody has a responsibility in that locker room to work for each other and try to win for each other but by no means are we any less confident. I feel completely confident with how the group is feeling right now.

What do you feel like needs to change with the offense because it’s just struggling a little bit right now getting goals?

We’ve always been a team that plays great soccer, that plays as a team for each other. I think as a team we need to get back to that. I think we’ve been getting opportunities, we’ve had a lot of breakouts for counter attacks. We’re just always missing that last pass. We’ve missed a ton of wide open goals so I think we just need to have a little more patience when we’re making that last pass or finishing on goal.

How was the team BBQ last night, I saw something on Twitter about it…

I don’t know anything about that man.

So the haircuts, guys went and got those on their own?

That’s the Texas cut. I think it’s the southside fade. It’s the Texas fade and I guess they’re just representing Texas playing for FC Dallas. Commitment to the team man, that’s it.

Upbeat David Ferreira Targeted for July Return

2012-05-17T03:23:33Z

The saga of David Ferreira has been a long and winding one as the 2010 MLS MVP recovers from an ankle break. He looked all set to return just before the start of the 2012 season when a foot injury was picked up in the Orlando City pre-season game that has sidelined him for another three months, but it looks like the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to get close.

With FC Dallas only having two MLS games plus a couple US Open Cup games in June, Schellas Hyndman targeted a July return for El Torito after practice this morning revealing some encouraging notes about Ferreira's attitude in his 13th month since the horrific injury.

You know, look at our schedule. We’ve been playing 6 games a month. In June, we’re only playing two games a month, that will be a lot of down time. This is a perfect time for him to get back into training and us not have to worry about let’s get him on the field this weekend.

I would hope that July would be a realistic timeline to get David back. We hope to get Villar back, today it was nice to see him jump into a training exercise, but he’s probably 2-3 weeks away.

Have you talked to Ferreira at all recently?

Oh yes, every day, I think his spirit is as high as it’s ever been. I mean gee, he’s had numerous surgeries on that, he’s had a lot of setbacks on that. He’s been pretty frustrated, it’s his first major injury so he’s had to deal with all that.

But I think right now, what he’s done is he’s come back and feels really good about himself. I think the rehab, the last surgery, they took out the hardware, the pins the wires. he feels like he’s got as much extension and flexion as his other ankle. So I mean he’s really excited about getting back in good form.