Hernandez of FC Dallas and De Rosario of DC fight for the ball (Getty Images)
DC United and FC Dallas got together at RFK stadium and played a cracker of a match last night, at least if you're a neutral or a DC United fan. They played some pretty sweet football. FC Dallas on the other hand, well they look to be in some trouble. DC absolutely tore them apart in the second half.
Of course, Dallas didn't look all that great in the first half either. DC obviously came out to play well and put on a show for their fans. No more Charlie Davies? No problem. They still have reigning MLS MVP Dwayne De Rosario, and he was on fire in this one. He nearly scored what might have been the goal of the year in the 13th minute. Somehow he took a half volley from outside the box and hit the far corner of the woodwork. Kevin Hartman looked on in disbelief and in the end was just glad to see it bound away from the goal.
However, DC continued to dominate in attack. Dallas looked like they were having a hard time keeping up with DC all night, and the team in black began to exploit the space in the Dallas defense. In the 28th minute, former Dallas man Maicon Santos took a ball from DeRo and took a bullet shot toward the same corner his teammate had missed minutes earlier, only this one went in, and DC took the 1-0 lead.
Dallas did deserve some credit for hanging in for the rest of the first half though. They caught a break late in the half that let them equalize. Daniel Hernandez chested a clearance down and fed the ball back forward. DC defender Emiliano Dudar tried to play it but mistouched it and it went through to Dallas forward Blas Perez who slotted the ball under the DC 'keeper to make it 1-1. Perez was in an offside position at first, but MLS ruled that the goal should stand because a DC player touched the ball, initializing a new phase of play. Controversial, yes, but the half ended at 1-1.
Luckily for DC, the controversial goal didn't really matter in the end, as they totally tore Dallas apart in the second half. I'm sorry, but it didn't look like Dallas even belonged on the same pitch with DeRo and DC. They took the lead in the 59th minute when Nick DeLeon took a ball from Santos and blasted it by Hartman into the top of the goal to make it 2-1.
DC United was nowhere near done though. In the 65th minute, DeLeon made his presence known again, this time getting the ball to Danny Cruz in the area, who knocked in yet another goal to make it 3-1. Finally Santos finally put the final nail in the coffin of his old team. In the 73rd minute he headed a spot on cross from DeRo into the back of the net to make the final score 4-1.
It was a dominant performance by DC and a pretty pitiful performance from Dallas. The Hoops have gotten so used to running things through and for Brek Shea, but he didn't have it last night at all. Sure, he was tired from Olympic qualifying, but as others pointed out, Shea hasn't looked good for the Men's National team, the U-23 team, or FC Dallas so far this season. He might be suffering from a bit of burnout. Also, Dallas captain Daniel Hernandez received two yellow cards, and the resulting red will keep him out of Dallas's next match against New England.
No comments:
Post a Comment