With 13 days between their 2-1 victory against Chivas USA last Sunday at Pizza Hut Park and their next game on June 24 against Colorado, FC Dallas is in the middle of its longest break of the season. But the Hoops have several things to work on during the break. At the top of the list is improving their ball possession.
"We'll sit down and go through some stuff we need to get better at," FCD head coach Colin Clarke said. "I still felt that our passing wasn't good enough (Sunday). Particularly in hot conditions, when you give it away, it's hard work to win it back. It's nice to have a break and we'll put it to good use."
June is when temperatures in Texas start to hover around or near the century mark. Since the Hoops train in those conditions and also play their home games in it, they feel it gives them a distinct advantage over their foes in Frisco. Better ball control is tantamount to capitalizing on that advantage, which leads to controlling the game, in turn leading to more positive results.
The Hoops players know that better ball possession is key for their continued success.
"We're obviously going to work on our team shape and on keeping the ball," said defender Chris Gbandi. "We feel like it's tough for a lot of teams who come here to run in the heat. We need to do a better job keeping the ball so we have a lot of teams struggling that play us here. We're going to try to work on that."
Added midfielder Ronnie O'Brien: "Keeping the ball really (is the major thing we need to work on). I don't think we've been keeping the ball well enough over the last two or three games. We've gotten away from what we did at the start of the year. I think in training for the next week and a half, that's what we'll work on."
Another focus for the Hoops, who lead the MLS Western Conference with a 7-2-3 mark and 24 points, will be on avoiding another performance like they had on June 3 when Columbus handed FCD a 2-1 setback, their first home loss of the season.
"We know we have a clear advantage when we play here at home in terms of teams who come in here not wanting to exert too much energy. We know we need to be more patient in moving the ball and forcing them (the opposition) to exert energy trying to chase it," said defender Bobby Rhine. "We know it's critical for us to be better in possession. In certain situations, we know that things like tired legs, heat, bad decisions, loss of concentration can cause bad things to happen."
That loss to the Crew came after a 10-day layoff following their 2-1 win at New York on May 24. The Hoops were flat in the first half, allowing the Crew to dictate play, but the game was still scoreless at halftime. They came out of the break with a sense of urgency but gave up two goals to the Crew before Carlos Ruiz scored in stoppage time of the second half. It was a disappointing way for their four-game unbeaten streak to end.
But FCD has no intention of letting history repeat itself after this layoff.
"We realize that after a couple of days off before Columbus, we weren't as sharp as we should be," Rhine said. "Hopefully it's a lesson learned and we look forward to Colorado next Saturday with the mindset of not allowing ourselves to take too much of a mental break."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
