WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Nothing like picking up a win at the right time for Marco Ferruzzi and his FC Dallas players. Coming into the game today with the Chicago Fire, the Hoops were riding a three game winless streak along with some shaky play for the past two months.

But that didn’t stop the home side from putting away their old rivals from the north 1-0 on a hot afternoon.

Kenny Cooper extended FCD’s home dominance against the Fire to 11 games, dating all the way back to 1999. Yeah, that’s one of those sports streaks that is in the impressive category.

It truly was the right time for the Hoops to get a win though. Going into a week where they are expected to get a new head coach, it was a perfect way to end the interim Ferruzzi era. The interim coach pulled out all the stops in this one, which felt like a rivalry game once again between these two sides.

Cooper gets on the board early for the home side and they never looked back. Chicago honestly never really got into the game. Blanco and company looked beat by the heat and Dallas nearly made it a two or three nil game in the second half with Cooper and Dominic Oduro.

I must say this was one of the more impressive wins out of this young Dallas club all season. They showed heart for 90 minutes and really never quit like we have seen them do in recent games. There were a lot of nervous faces out on th pitch late in the game, especially in the final seconds. But when it was all said and done Dallas walked away with three points and moved right back in the thick of things in the western conference.

The loss for Chicago showed us a couple things. One, it was hot and this club tires quickly in the heat; two, Blanco flops a lot; and three, without Jon Busch in net this club may not be where they are if it weren’t for him.

Sure Cooper had the goal for Dallas and was the man of the match for them, but to me Busch stood out as the man of the match overall. Nine saves on the afternoon, the one that beat him he wasn’t going to get anyways. A couple more later in the game I don’t know how he got.

I was left wondering after this game if this is more of the same out of the Fire now. Defense is slowly showing their weaknesses, their offense isn’t packing the same punch, and their depth is in question. Sure, once Brian McBride comes things should pick back up but right now this club looks to be going into a mid-season slump of some sorts.

It definitely was not the same road side that we had seen all season. Hard to believe it was their first road loss of the year. But given their track record in Dallas, its not all that shocking.

As for the Hoops. Just like I said earlier, they showed heart. I loved the fact that they never stopped going for goal in this game once they had the lead. Out shooting a club like Chicago is what this offense needed. And a shutout is easily what the doctor ordered for the defense.

Ferruzzi made the right moves in the line up in what should be his final game. Too bad its his final game, I think the club would be better off for the rest of the year with him. But that is for another day.

More weekend recaps on the way in the morning….

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