No Riley, No Sturgis, No Ljungberg, No Eylander

by Dave Clark on May 16, 2009 9:58 AM PDT in Sounders: MLS Regular Season

Sometimes all the best data you can get is rendered irrelevant. Guessing at the starting 18 and 11 is now purely guessing. Three starters are out, the back up keeper is on the IR and there is still the Montero/Seba situation. The DP has a significant migraine and did not travel.

Sigi gets a chance to get truly creative.

Evans almost certainly will be back in his role as the box-to-box CM. Zach Scott is almost certainly at LB.

But the RB and RM will be up in the air, and who knows what direction Sigi goes for the Withdrawn forward.

This is major shakeup time, at least it is for a road game against Dallas. I emailed Buzz Carrick to ask him about the state of FC Dallas, and here are his responses. Buzz is the head of 3rdDegree.net and their preview can be read here.

Dave Clark: I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on two or three key matchups that are likely to result in one team or the other picking up points this weekend.

Buzz Carrick: I'm not sure if there is a specific match up that needs mentioning from a FCD perspective. Their problems are much more fundamental than that. Until they get the defense to stop giving up soft goals, until they stop the second half bleeding, and until they can maintain better possession...simple things like tactical match ups don't matter.

Obviously the return, or not, of Pablo Ricchetti to midfield will be a large part of how well FCD might play.

DC: Also, you have raved on your blog about the Sounders marketing engine, and recently FC Dallas has made a few changes. Is the front office down there learning or still stumbling?

Buzz: As for the franchise, I do like the things that are starting to happen herewith the new head of Marketing and PR. But there are still too many things going wrong on a ownership and management level for me to be really excited about the state of the business side.

It is notable that today Dallas is promoting Seattle's minority owner with a giveaway, and that they may not need their 10,000 thick rimmed glasses. Buzz just did a review of Hunt Sports Group's performance as owners of FC Dallas.

~~I will be doing the Player Reviews for Prost Amerika this week.~~

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Dave, there is a lot of people on other blogs that have continually written that the Sounders will come back down to earth because they have no depth. Well, this is a good chance to prove that we are not the usual expansion side and that we do have depth.

by Coug1990 on May 16, 2009 3:21 PM PDT reply actions

So much for proving we have depth. Ianni, Wahl, and King didn’t do much for us. Of course, in the second half, no one did much for us.I feel like I haven’t seen that Sigi’s Game type of play for several games. For most of the second half we had no momentum; clear it out (usually to a Dallas player), wait for FCD to come back, clear it out again, wait again, clear, wait, clear, wait. I think it was the ugliest looking football we’ve played all year.Evans seems to have temporarily solved our midfield congestion issues, but I hope not for too long.Five points from four road games is not bad. But a second place team should beat a last place team. The draw was an unsatisfying result, but also a lucky result after how we played in the second half.Zakuani was great in the first half, but showed some immaturity, starting with his yellow for dissent, and was mostly ineffective in the second half.This was the first game that I felt like we were out-coached in the locker room at halftime. FCD came out with a much stronger strategy, while we seemed to crumble.What do you think, Dave? Will your ratings be as harsh as Chicago, or worse? At least the Fire are a good team.

by Cornchops on May 16, 2009 11:07 PM PDT reply actions