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Live Blogging the FCD-DCU Game

September 28th, 2008 by stevetoro | Posted in Uncategorized |

It’s a beautiful, warm Sunday here in Frisco, and your trusty correspondent SteveToro is here to try his hand liveblogging the event — from my Windows Mobile phone. No, it’s not an iPhone. Yes, I am going to be typing with my thumbs. Yes, I may run out of battery. But let’s see how much I can do…

Check the comments for more…

  1. 43 Responses to “Live Blogging the FCD-DCU Game”

  2. By stevetoro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:21 - well folks, this liveblogging may be made of fail, and we haven’t even reached kickoff. it is hot and sunny, and the resultant glare means I can barely see the screen. where’s my pressbox?

  3. By stevetoro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:23 - davino is out on the pitch, talking to rocha… wonder if he’ll play on his wig day. not warming up, mostly just standing. oh, and php is now playing “don’t stop believing” by journey. I half expect someone to walk in and whack schellas…

  4. By stevetoro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:27 - that was a sopranos reference. nothing but the most uptodate cultural references here. oh, and lochranns is an authentic irish beer garden that is way too far from me in 100 degree heat. no, will not wear my duilio wig for fear that it will melt to my head.

  5. By stevetoro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:32 - nonstarters: ray, avi, dom, duilio, dello, jamie, dax (now with shorter, more emo hair)

  6. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:39 - and we’re back. pocket of dcu fans to my left… bigger than the inferno is (right now, inferno’s probably still on their way in) but they look cool and comfortable in their black kits

  7. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    wow. rocha can cross with great accuracy. saragosa… not so much. they have moved the kids out of the likely landing zone after some girl got brained with a mishit cross. she is expected to recover…

  8. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:44 - there are 32 people in section 126.

  9. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:50 - there may be more people on the field than in the stands… I am not going to count, however.

  10. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    1:54 - kids holding their wigs on the field look like they’ve returned from some hunt for small furry animals. gross, really. the wigs look much more like your generic hippie wig, than last year’s toja (pbuh) memorial wigs. not much participation in the wigginess. most people are asking quien es davino?

  11. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    2:03 - we’re seconds from kickoff… we just have to switch end again… moor, pitch, adrian, wags the younger, saragosa, rocha, pablo, guarda, fear, and kc are your starers

  12. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    2:05 - I am trademarking the name ‘brazilian triangle’ for the grouping of guarda, ‘gosa, rocha… just like the bermuda triangle, balls go in, they don’t come out

  13. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +6: neither pablo, nor guarda look in sync. but adrian and wagner have consistently failed to connect on anything longer than 5 yds. now we have a stoppage due to guarda’s knee accidentally gaining the acquaintance of peralta’s mid-section. card issued, but the play should have been stopped much earlier, due to some chippiness…

  14. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +9: on the restart, rocha scores on a sick free kick that just kept going, and no one bothered to take seriously…

  15. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +12 : still can’t get over rocha’s sick strike… this game is pretty chippy, refs don’t seem to stop until someone goes down…

  16. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +18: kc just gently tackled the dcu keeper on a nice but overhit ball from brunito

  17. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +21: pitch with a nice putback into the box, jeff fighting hard to gain position. dcu really letting fcd bring the action to them

  18. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +24: rocha with another wicked free kick that cooper just about headed in.

    overheard: “if hyndman really loved guarda, he wouldn’t let all of mls kick the crap out of him” — kirkbhoy

  19. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +30: either peralta is particularly vocal, or fred is particularly fragile… peralta keeps encouraging fred after what has been a sequence of scattershot crosses

  20. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +32: quaranta giving pablo no room to breathe… pretty effective, except when pablo pushes up and brings the attack. ‘tino can’t keep up, really.

  21. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +36: excellent sequence started by a wagner freezeout of fred, followed by a nice ball to jc… kc missed just wide from maybe a bit too far out. excellent stuff so far from wagner vs. fred.

    i think that fcd should have a halftime promotion: ‘the kenny cooper patented 20 yard out low line drive shot slightly off goal’. the name needs work. here’s how it’d work: set up some targets about 2-3 feet to the left and/or right of the goal, about 4-5 feet off the ground. put some balls out beyond the corner of the 18 yd box. let kids try to whack the targets. if they hit it in the air 40%+ of the time, they win a tryout with cardiff or rosenborg.

  22. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +41: martinez on for quaranta. martinez loses his shoe 3 seconds after setting foot on the pitch. guarda’s on the scene. it’s an fcd maxim: you lose your shoe, guarda will punish you.

  23. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +44: drew and pitch have saved several dcu opportunities with great positioning alone. probably just pingpong play until the half… moreno on pablo now

  24. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +46: end of 1st half… rocha with a once-in-a-lifetime free kick off an fcd yellow… dcu looks organized, solid on defense, but is getting no performance from the forwards. dfw still giving away too many balls in the defensive and middle thirds, but getting monster games out of rocha, and pretty solid performances out of saragosa, wagner, and drew and pitch. pitch looked great going forward at the end of the half, and wagner and saragosa have definitely synced up.

    dcu is overloading the left side, which ends up putting kc or rocha in occasional 1 v 4 situations on breaks.

    more control out of guarda / ricchetti would really open this team up, especially going forward on the counter. the forwards need time to get loose. it’s pretty much like pocket protection in american football. the qb’s gotta hold the ball long enough to allow the receivers to shake their coverage. when we’re ping-ponging the ball around in the midfield, and keeping coverage based on throwing 6 vs 4 people in a closed area, we can’t get that separation.

    what’s worse, by sucking everybody into the middle with this tight diamond 4, we’re susceptible to the other teams going over the top. hopefully the back 4 will hold, and teams won’t get numbers forward.

    ricchetti can be a good qb, but guarda can end up getting swallowed up, especially when he tries to bring his frenetic (or his he just inexperienced / green?) play up against a bruiser back, like peralta. i’ve seen brunito crash over and over into some cb lummox who outweighs him by 20 lbs.

    I am suffering from dehydration, so I may be entirely off base here.

    we do need 1 more goal… truth be told, dcu is playing about as well as we are right now…

  25. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    shaped up to be a nice, vocal crowd, despite the heat…

  26. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +48: dcu just whiffed on a nice opportunity off a free kick. 3 straight botched touches in the box, with nary a fcd player involved. foul was called for general suckage.

  27. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +51: dcu much more inspired in the early going… drew just got beat down on a dcu cross that went long

  28. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    crayton, the dcu gk, is 10 yds away from the midline. fcd is all pulled back vs a spate of dcu corners, most of which have been stopped by pitch, marcelo, and drew’s heads

  29. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +54: nice stop by dario on a very soft shot. shades of khano smith

  30. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +57: fear just scored off a saragosa cross. phantom touch with the outside of the foot past crayton. section 124 wins free pizza, due to the magic minute promotion. goal was very much an abe thompson (pbuh) special phantom flick on.

    i may have to take back my earlier comments about saragosa’s scattershot crosses. that was a real beaut, and credit goes to jeffrey for getting to it.

    incidentally, the goal was scored right after dcu substituted for emilio out. the team definitely did not look set: may have made a significant contribution to the goal, because dcu didn’t match up after the restart

  31. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +61: rocha getting hammered, no fouls called. saragosa drifting central, doing really a nice job controlling the ball despite lots of dcu pressure on some of fcd’s weaker ball handlers.

    pressure is key to stopping fcd. you shake us up, you can force us into coughing the ball up in advantageous positions.

  32. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +63: drew moor has stopped 2 dcu breaks with nice slides. too bad he’s getting beat over the top. he’s had a nice game. what he lacks in size and speed for a cb, he makes up in smarts. i actually like him here. he’s that kind of solid, unshakeable dude we need back there.

  33. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +66: what is this guy in the number 5 jersey doing out there? dominating, that’s all. saragosa is looking phenomenal. but where is brunito? guarda’s been absent during the 2nd half, except when he’s holding a touch too long and ultimately getting the crap kicked out of him.

    i’m wondering what guarda would look like with a bigger bag of 1 v 1 tricks. he’s usually sent down to the turf when he’s 1 v 1 with an mls veteran (like moreno), and he’s trying to beat his opponent with speed or a simple outside-of-the-foot flick and chase type of move.

    what would happen to guarda if he stopped trying to beat people and became more of a distributor? rocha has the 1 v 1 skills, the size, and the toughness to get loose on the wing, provided he gets service.

  34. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +68: pitch for davino. hitch phoned in this sub. nice effort from pitch

    +69: dom for oduro. jeff looked gassed, but was fighting, playing more of a cam role

  35. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +71: peralta just whacked kc on a break. card issued. scary thing (for peralta) was that kc got up in anger… if kenny ever snaps, look out.

  36. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    + 74: coop continues to get whacked by peralta. peralta mounted coop over this loose ball. here’s a real clear case where the previous card kept him from the next foul getting called.

    +76: rocha down with a cramp (or is he stalling for time???). crayton (dcu gk) thinks he’s stalling. and he’s coming out to tell the ref.

    oh, man: what a crazy guy. crayton just went off in the face of the ref. pointing and everything. ref pointed him off, crayton couldn’t stop jawing. ref had to card him. yellow. could be candidate for the silliest card ever. (or a video on how to perform game disrepute.) a real nut.

  37. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +78: cooper needs to stay out of 1 v 6 situations. just saying.

    +79: dax for what I hope is guarda. nope, serioux. guess that means pablo drops back, dax to the flank, and saragosa, uh, i mean, mr. marcelo “the dominator” saragosa, to cdm

  38. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +81: poor #23 martinez, who is famous for receiving a beckham cross to the groin, just got hit again. much crotch grabbing has ensued. he is not a happy camper. poor fella.

  39. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +84: heat taking a toll on players, and tempers. moreno just clobbered rocha. (well, bitch-slapped is more like it.) tarjeta roja. now, a direct free kick about 25 yds out for dcu.

    +84: kick was straight at the wall, led to a oduro break, ball out of bounds in the dcu defensive third. kick was really too central to make much of a difference. rocha’s fine.

  40. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +88: killin’ time. can the clean sheet hold?

  41. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +90: 3 more minutes… will crayton snap?

  42. By steveToro on Sep 28, 2008

    +93: well, that’s about it. first win over dcu at php, ever. first win in 5 games against dcu. i’ll take it!

    +94: perils of liveblogging: kc just broke down 5 dcu players to score a game-ending goal on a break. way to give it up, dcu. assist to the inimitable dax. final score 3-0!

  43. By KirkBhoy on Sep 28, 2008

    Jeez, that phone was in your face for so much of the game, I’m impressed you were able to get so much down. Steve Hunt, beware of Steve Toro.

    Also, its a good thing you don’t need your thumbs when typing on a normal keyboard, cause I think they’ll be out for 2-3 weeks after this. It’s like a quarterback injuring his non-throwing hand. Or like Chris Simms losing his spleen. Sucks, but just keep on going.

  44. By Nathan on Sep 29, 2008

    Wow.. wish I’d followed this instead of the match tracker! Great stuff!

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