Last night’s US Open Cup semi-final game between FC Dallas and the Philadelphia Union took place at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. Going int ot he match, it was a perfect night for Dallas to go out a claim a victory after going undefeated 8 straight games. The last time these two teams met was in a regular season match in which the Hoops claimed all three points. The game ended up tied, 1-1, and was to be decided with the dreaded kick from 12 yards out. FC Dallas and the Philadelphia Union were tied after two kicks until Panamanian, Blas Perez, shot it weakly towards MacMath’s right side where he dove and saved it. The Union made all their kicks and that meant that Victor Ulloa, the fifth penalty taker on the team sheet, had to make the kick or it was game over in Frisco. Ulloa stepped up, shot it confidently to his right, and as MacMath did for most of the match, saved the ball from going in. So what did FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja learn from this very emotional Open Cup match vs the Union?
1. Injuries are starting to take a toll on FC Dallas, again.
Oscar Pareja is a coach who know how to deal with injured players. He has done it all season long with players like Mauro Diaz, Jair Benitez, Fabinho, etc. Against the Union he had to deal with injuries again, and this time it took a toll on his players. Especially after having to go to extra time and penalties to decide the game. 37 minutes into the game Walker Zimmerman was taken off with an apparent groin injury and his replacement was Je-Vaughn Watson. That meant that Zach Loyd had to go to centre back now that Zimmerman was out. At halftime Pareja had to make the decision to use his other two substitutions. One for injury prone Diaz and the other for Adam Moffat, with the latter being replaced by Stephen Keel and Diaz by Ryan Hollingshead. With Keel coming into the game for Moffat that allowed him to go to centre back, push Loyd to left back and switch Michel to the midfield. After the game I spoke with Pareja and asked him why he did not just make a straight swap for Keel and Zimmerman and he could have saved himself a substitution for later. His response: “Watson, he play great in the right. Zach(Loyd) has done a tremendous job. We wanted to have Watson for sure on that side and give us penetration, and immediately he clicked. He(Watson) was making runs and that let Fabian(Castillo) move to the middle more or send him to the left, and we went that way so we have more attacking from the flanks. And that’s really a fullback, he(Watson) was not really a fullback he was someone like a winger and could come back anytime.”
So with that he explains why he did not just do a straight swap. Although it did force him to use all his subs in the first half, it worked. Castillo did in fact go more towards the middle and the left side. Furthermore, Castillo’s goal came from the left side.
2. FC Dallas are getting quality possession, but need to work on finishing.
The Frisco-based team was especially forgiving last night. They only managed to convert one of their 14 shots all game. And they got punished for that with Philadelphia’s coming from a counter-attack led by the frenchman, Sebastien Le Toux . And Pareja knew that. After the game he admittedly said, “They(Philadelphia Union) were waiting, they were just waiting for us to make a mistake, I have to respect that. We controlled the game, we had the chances, we wanted to have the initiative to win at home, but that’s the way. Sometimes the way, the plan, for our team and they sit back and wait and we made a mistake and allowed one goal and a couple of plays that could probably just lead to another one. But that’s it their team, we knew, didn’t change much(from their previous encounter).”
Pareja knew this but after making the half-time substitutions they were punished. They managed to retain over 54% possession throughout the rest of the match but just could not finish their plays. Zac MacMath had a wonderful game, some people may have even thought it was world renowned sweeper-keeper Manuel Neur. MacMath saved the Union plenty of times from Castillo and Co. until he was finally caught out and allowed Castillo to tie the game. With the hoops maintaining the ball and making plays all they need is that final step called scoring and they will be golden.
3. Pareja will be coaching at Toyota Stadium for the foreseeable future
Pareja has been at FC Dallas as a coach since January and so far in his spell as coach he has led FC Dallas to the USOC semi-final and to fourth place in the league half-way through the season. After the loss to the Union he spoke about his desire to stay on as head coach, “This is the group that I want to coach and the group that I dreamed to coach one day, tonight I was very pleased and the game gave me the opportunity to coach this group of players and my dream came true. This is the heart that I want to see in the organization in games. I love it.”
If Pareja can keep up this good streak of form then he will be in Frisco until something happens that forces him out.
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