Eddie Pope gets a red card.

[StarsOnSunday]

Bullcrap! That's all I have to say.

[Rover]

Poor officiating in this match, no doubt. Part of the game.

[DadOf8]

If Eddie Pope deserved that red card, Dennis Rodman deserves to be canonized.

[Aero]

That was a pretty atrocious call. It barely deserved a yellow card. Where do they come up with these refs? Last week was just as bad.

[Aerick]

That WAS baloney!!

[dasoccerplayafosho]

not a free kick
not a penalty kick
a foul, no card
Refs sucked

[Rover]

Free kick awarded for flop--YES.
Free kick properly defended--NO. 1-0 Dallas.

Eddie Johnson tough to handle--YES.
Eddie Johnson should run free down our left--NO. 2-0 Dallas.

Ruiz flops in the box--YES.
Rusty got all ball so it shouldn't have been a penalty--NO. 3-0 Dallas.

Folks, we were beaten by a better, more organized, and more motivated team. We're not there yet. We will get there, but we've got a lot of work to do.

Look at the stats. Dallas led us 16-7 on shots (7-2 on goal) and 9-4 on corners. That's offensive domination.

Oh, and fouls were 25-20--that's right, five more called on FCD than on us.

Sure the officials weren't good--the red card on Eddie Pope was ridiculous. But the officials didn't beat us. FC Dallas did.

[luvmyboys]

I agree....we got beat. BUT........the red card was BULLCRAP!!!!!

[Jim Umber]

Originally Posted by Rover

Free kick awarded for flop--YES.
Free kick properly defended--NO. 1-0 Dallas.

Eddie Johnson tough to handle--YES.
Eddie Johnson should run free down our left--NO. 2-0 Dallas.

Ruiz flops in the box--YES.
Rusty got all ball so it shouldn't have been a penalty--NO. 3-0 Dallas.

Folks, we were beaten by a better, more organized, and more motivated team. We're not there yet. We will get there, but we've got a lot of work to do.

Look at the stats. Dallas led us 16-7 on shots (7-2 on goal) and 9-4 on corners. That's offensive domination.

Oh, and fouls were 25-20--that's right, five more called on FCD than on us.

Sure the officials weren't good--the red card on Eddie Pope was ridiculous. But the officials didn't beat us. FC Dallas did.

Spurious red card issued by ref--YES (that's what they do).
Fans whining and complaining about it--YES (that's what they do).
We were beaten by the poor referreeing--NO. They didn't award Dalas 3 goals.

I agree that we were beaten soundly. I believe that we are still struggling with two things. First, the midfield is not controlling the ball. Witness the long passes that they resorted to on many occasions. However, there were moments when everything seemed to click and I think that means there is hope. We will get it, yet.

Then second thing is that when we do shoot, we don't seem to be getting the shot "on goal". If nothing else, we're not making their goalie work hard enough. Come on guys, make him sweat! Make him yell at his defenders. Maybe...dare I even think it...score goals!

I do like the way Kreis and Mathis and Selowane are working together, much of the time. They just aren't finishing.

One thing I noticed. I wonder if others noticed it. Once Pope was ejected, they started getting to the ball and controlling the ball better than they had up to that point. If they had played like that for the whole game, we might have won.

[Rover]

Originally Posted by Jim Umber

One thing I noticed. I wonder if others noticed it. Once Pope was ejected, they started getting to the ball and controlling the ball better than they had up to that point. If they had played like that for the whole game, we might have won.

Good observation. It's amazing how some teams actually play better when they're a man up.

I'd attribute it to two things. First, the team will eleven tends to take their collective foot off the gas. That's what happened with the Galaxy last night, when they could have drowned cheetos with goals in the second half but played knockaround instead. Second, the team with ten gets focused real quick, and players who might have been hanging back suddenly pick up the intensity.

It's a funny game.