Chris Gbandi is hurting my feelings

By: Robert | September 24th, 2007

I don’t know what to say. One man does not a team make; I was repeating that to myself that all night. No one performance, no one player, no matter how important (good or bad important) decides the fate of a team game. There are too many men on the field and there is too much time in a game to say that one person can change it all…and yet I’m presented with the case of Chris Gbandi and it makes me want to throw that theory out the window.

Eleven minutes into the game the announcers proclaimed an LA advantage and seconds later Dallas went ahead 1-0 when Chris Gbandi brought in a nice cross from the left side that was swept home by Dax McCarty 15 yards out. But that would be the end of UConn alumni’s positive contributions to the FC Dallas game plan because 13 minutes later he was throwing his jersey at a couple of Hoops fans in attendance after being given marching orders by referee Michael Kennedy. In the 21st minute Dallas was pushing forward when Gbandi was hacked to the ground by LA “player” Kevin Harmse, Chris immediately jumped up and found retribution by tripping Harmse as he tried to run past drawing his first yellow card, when he probably should have been shown a straight red.

I don’t mean to sound like a Chris Gbandi apologist (I am not apologizing for any defender any more this season) but his mental error wasn’t the only one on that play. The ref really bungled the situation as Harmse’s tackled resulted in a Dallas advantage when the ball rolled forward to Denilson, but instead of raising his hands to signal “advantage” and “keep playing” the ref failed to recognize the obvious foul which infuriated Chris and pushed him into retaliation. The emotional response to being ignored is understandable even if his actions are unforgivable. Two minutes later Chris Gbandi self-destructed when he couldn’t keep up with Chris Klein (how?!?) on a free kick, pulled him down in the box, got a second yellow (iffy), got ejected and changed the complexion of a game that had no business being won by a talent-less group of bums.

For more than an hour the Hoops were forced to absorb attacks from a team that couldn’t apply pressure with a cold compress and an SAT test because Chris Gbandi failed to maintain his composure and ultimately failed his side. I’ve tried to maintain in my head that it can’t all be laid at his feet because Adrian Serioux and Alex Yi never figured out how to play together; too many times they would be marking the same man while another man ran free or one of them would be oddly absent from the defensive third of the field in crucial situations. And there is a difference between playing defensive soccer and looking lifeless offensively, especially for a team that couldn’t defend a Russian missile silo. The non-existent offensive forays into the LA side of the field for almost the entire second half gave the Galaxy the impetus they needed to go forward. And any team, no matter how poor will eventually score if given enough chances and in the 72nd minute LA finally had enough chances.

Chris Gbandi has the potential but it’s never materialized and now the Hoops are hemorrhaging points in their slow crawl to the finish. Things need to change because right now in Dallas the FC stands for “flailing catastrophically.”

HOOPS PRIDE!

FC Dallas logo

Its a day late but I would like to wish Jennifer Johnson a happy birthday. She’s in Chicago and had to deal with the Dallas Cowboys playing Texas’ best football of any kind in Soldier Field yesterday. But because it was her birthday here’s a video of better times in the Windy City.