FRISCO - A wide variety of questions this week in the Mailbag from history to current form to the ever-popular lineup decisions. Let's dive right in:
“How many times has FCD made the playoffs in their history?” - Craig Hanna
The short answer here is 15 times in 22 seasons, but looking at the first 6 years or so of MLS and its playoff format, it was nearly impossible not to make the playoffs with four of the five teams (four of six starting in 2000) in each conference making the postseason. If you take the widely-used 2007 season as the first of the “Modern-Era MLS” Dallas has earned six of a possible eleven postseason berths, including each of the last three years. The beginning of the modern era somewhat coincides with Dallas’ downtick in success.
FCD made the tournament in 2007, didn’t appear again until a miraculous 2010 MLS Cup run and then bowed out in the Wild Card round in 2011 before Oscar Pareja came in to save the day in 2014.
“The defense and Jesse played stellar. How can we get our offense to match that?” - Andy Jaeger
The defense was great and Jesse is playing out of his mind recently. The offensive side has seen some improvement in recent weeks, but yes they need to get to scoring goals. Aside from two against a lackluster Colorado side last week, Dallas has one goal in it’s other three most recent matches. Simply put, they need to continue to create meaningful chances and looks at goal - and more importantly finish those chances. I dove into the uptick in this category in our Three Things column this week, but there have been signs of progress thanks in part to the midfield relationship of Javier Morales and Mauro Diaz.
“Has the intense preseason tour of 10 games in 10 days, coupled with the many tournament games, finally come back to haunt the team late this season in the form of tired legs? Could they have benefitted from giving more minutes to youngsters like Ferriera, Cannon, Hayes, Hume, Guillen, etc.?” - Eric Pipols
Eric, this is a great question and one that I’m not sure has a cut-and-dry answer. I think it’s easy to say that come October that every team in MLS is feeling it in the legs. Yes, Dallas had an intense preseason schedule, but players felt better coming out of the gate in CCL and MLS play (partly why FCD was near the top of the league for much of the year).
Oscar was asked this very question about if in hindsight he wishes he had played some of the younger players more over the course of the year. Essentially, his answer was that these are still kids (in reference to Ferreira, Pomykal and Cannon) and while you want to give them minutes, what does that say to the players brought in to start week after week? It’s a balance, and you always want to see young players, but at the same time there are starters who were brought in for a reason.
I think, yes it’s been a long season for Dallas, but looking back to last season with an even longer Open Cup run and CCL group stage play (and the crazy travel that comes with) to factor in. I would say this season hasn’t been too far from the norm, especially when you consider nearly a week off for everyone during the Gold Cup break to rejuvenate. There isn’t a heavily-compacted schedule to deal with over the last two months, so, in short, no I don’t think the two sides are heavily related.
