FRISCO - It’s the annual Super Clasico FC Dallas staff tournament day on the Toyota Stadium pitch and the level of play will take a major step down from Saturday night’s #FCDvPOR. Before my Team Yellow takes the title in a matter of hours, let’s dive into a few leftover questions from the weekend:
“With no Mauro to drive, why the hesitation to open with the 4-4-2?” - Darrell W
This is something that Oscar addressed in his press conference after the match, but it’s a matter of versatility. Against Sporting KC, the 4-2-3-1 worked great to start the match and Javier Morales was one of the top players in the match, especially early on. Pareja went back to the same look on Saturday looking for a similar result to start, but it didn’t work. He flat out said that.
In the 4-4-2, or 4-2-4 as Pareja calls it, Dallas plays a very vertical game moving straight up the field as opposed to more of the finesse game and ball movement you get with a No. 10 out there. He knows what he has in the 4-2-4, but he wants to continue to develop the other aspect of the game for his side. When Mauro Diaz returns, this team will likely be a 4-2-3-1-first team again, so they’ll need to be ready.
He’s also experimenting in this early stage of the season with what works and what doesn’t as far as personnel in different positions (i.e. Tesho on the wing). It’s not so much a hesitation as it is a plan to figure out come late in the season exactly what you have in your pocket.
“What can Dallas do to improve on both offense and defense?” - Giovanni Salazar
I think first and foremost, especially on defense, the club has to play a full 90 minutes. We’ve talked about this before with some of the late goals in matches, but on Saturday the team came out a little flat. I’m not sure whether it was the short rain delay, just one of those games or what, but it was a completely different team in the second half. Defensively, there’s not much else to improve on than that, in my opinion.
On the offensive side of the ball, it’s all about finishing chances. Maxi Urruti was playing with a big boost of confidence against his former team and it showed in his performance on the field. Tesho Akindele scored his first of the year after another solid performance on both the wing and up top working with Urruti, which will go a long way in his confidence this season. Cristian Colman will need something similar after another look at goal that he couldn’t put away and he definitely needs to score just one to get the monkey off his back.
Most importantly, thought Dallas is starting to spread around the scoring which only helps in the long-term to provide a multi-layered threat offensively. I think Pareja’s tweaking of the formations and players on the field is working to solve this, but they did put up a multi-goal performance for the second time in the last five games. Sometimes it’s just about being patient.
“With Diaz coming back soon, is it safe to say Dallas will repeat in winning the supporters shield and win the MLS Cup?” - Conner B
Conner, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but it’s a long season my friend haha. I think Dallas will be a force to be reckoned with once Mauro returns, but anything is far from a lock in this league. We just saw a dangerous Portland team without their star No. 10 as well, Orlando is on a tear to start the season and undoubtedly a few teams will emerge over the next few months as the cream of the crop in MLS. Anything can happen and I think everyone expects Dallas to be in the hunt for one, if not both trophies, but nothing is safe to say in this league.