A frustrating end to what was, at times, a spectacular display of Damet ball last night, as CITY drops points after a late Dallas equalizer. Let's break down the 6(!!) goals scored.
Simon Becher - Goal (3')
The play starts with a nice over-the-top ball from Durkin. One of the ways to beat a team that likes to surrender possession and stay structured defensively is to through transition and on the break before they have a chance to set up, and CITY tried to exploit this - especially early on.
Durkin's ball finds a running Totland, who is defended by Dallas' Sebastien Ibeagha (#25). Tots does a nice job to cut the ball back past him as he runs by, and Becher continues his run into space. This drags the other two Dallas defenders along with him and opens up room at the top of the penalty arc for a trailing Sang-Bin, who wisely slowed his run to move into that open area. Although his touch to Becher from Totland's pass is heavy, CITY gets a fortunate deflection off of Ibeagha that Becher corrals at his feet.
From there, Simon makes an excellent turn on the ball and fires it low past the Dallas GK Jonathan Sirois, who had just shuffled slightly to his left, which might have just slightly impeded his ability to dive back to his right on the shot. Regardless, it was a really well struck ball from Simon after some solid transition play from all three CITY attackers to open the scoring.
Shaq Moore - Goal (18')
Dallas got their (first) equalizer from a brilliant individual effort from Shaq Moore and a bit of a lucky bounce. Moore initially gathered a flipped Bernard Kamungo pass and had Conrad Wallem 1-on-1 on the right edge of the penalty area. Wallem does a nice job of standing his ground and winning the ball, but seemingly relaxes for just a split second, enabling Moore to make a nice recovery and win the ball back.
From here, he angles away from Wallem, and neither of the closest CITY defenders (Edelman and Orozco) close him down - Orozco moves laterally and Edelman freezes in place. This gave Moore the space he needed to get a shot away, and fortunately for Dallas, it deflects off the outstretched foot of Orozco, arching the ball past a helpless Roman Bürki into the side netting.
Moore's individual effort, Wallem letting his guard down momentarily, and a fortunate deflection tied this match up despite CITY carrying the play through the first 20 minutes.
Daniel Edelman - Goal (43')
CITY went back ahead just before halftime thanks to an outstanding effort play from Daniel Edelman, but Jaziel Oroczo's step up to turn the ball over started this sequence. CITY has excellent defensive structure, with 4 players surrounding the ball after Dallas' Kaick (#55) received a pass from Kamungo (#77). Mățan's pressure on the ball forces an attemtped pass, and Orozco reads it beautifully, stepping up to deflect it back upfield.
Mățan gathers, turns, and feeds to Becher, who has 4 Dallas defenders in front of him, but takes on Shaq Moore, ripping a shot from just inside the penalty area that Dallas GK Sirois deflects to his right, into the path of an onrushing Edelman, who had begun his run into the box when Becher receives the ball. An outstanding hustle play from the CITY midfielder, who covered about 70 feet on his run and the last 42 or so before Dallas' Osaze Urhoghide (#3) could cover 22. Edelman's effort gave CITY a 2-1 lead heading into the half.
Carlo Holse - Goal (64')
CITY's newest DP (as of Sunday night) Carlo Holse opened his account with a pretty easy tap-in, the product of a nice run and an even nicer play by Conrad Wallem, who ran onto a Sang-Bin ball and played an excellent cross to the onrushing Holse.
The play starts with an absolute shank of a pass by Dallas' Bernard Kamungo (check out his hilarious reaction at the beginning) that Edleman flicks to Wallem. Wallem turns his back and slides the ball to Becher, who makes a good, angled pass to Sang-Bin as he begins his run along the sideline. Sang-Bin takes a touch to gather the ball, then feeds it forward into space.
As Wallem gets to the top of the penalty area (well before he's near the ball) he turns his head to spot Holse crashing down the left side. Excellent recognition and awareness of where his teammate was and was going to be. Wallem then makes a perfect 1-time pass back across to a wide-open Holse, who had snuck behind the ball-watching Dallas defender Sebastien Ibeagha (#25). Holse simply had to redirect it home for 3-1 CITY lead.
Sebastien Ibeagha - Goal (81')
Dallas clawed one back to put pressure on CITY with a headed goal from Sebastien Ibeagha in the 81st minute, a product of a nice ball, some physical play in the box, and poor defensive positioning/awareness.
As Joaquín Valiente's cross is played in, Dallas's Osaze Urhoghide (#3) and Kaick (#55) are essentially walling off Jaziel Orozco, forcing him to have to choose among three players to try to mark. As he tangles with Urhoghide, they drift towards the center of the box, leaving Ibeagha completely alone to cut in front of Zach Zengue (marking Petar Musa) and head it through Chris Durkin and past Bürki.
Bad initial positioning from CITY, as they had too many guys bunched close to the near post and not enough near the cluster of Dallas players centrally.
Logan Farrington - Goal (90+7')
We don't need to go into the missed handball call at the other end of the field - it was an egregious, horrendous missed call that added to the CITY coaching staff's frustration with the refereeing all match long, and especially with regard to multiple non-calls against Becher in the last 15 minutes.
The equalizing goal at the death, however we will break down. Nolan Norris' entry pass is nicely dummied by Sam Sarver (#28), leaving it for Petar Musa. The Golden Boot leader surprised most everyone (myself included) by not turning and firing a shot on goal but cutting back an excellent pass to Logan Farrington making a run across the box.
As Musa turns, Farrington calls for the ball, Musa recognizes it and lays the ball back across his body nicely, and Farrington beat Polvara to the spot to turn and slam it past Bürki. Polvara was slow to react to Farrington's run, but multiple defenders were ball-watching Musa (he's the Golden Boot leader for a reason) and he just made a very nice pass to put Farrington in position to steal a point on the road.
