FCD vs. Houston Baptist University Scrimmage

David Ferreira / Photo by Harlan Bowling

FCD took on Houston Baptist in a scrimmage yesterday, and while most of the game was overshadowed by the breaking news of Heath Pearce’s departure, there were still quite a few talking points from the match itself.  The match ended up 4-1 in Dallas’ favor.  Here’s how it panned out.

Goals:
Milton Rodriguez 2 (23, 29)
Ricardo Villar (30)
Bruno Guarda (70)

HBU goal scored by an unknown player (apologies) in the 71st minute.

Lineups:
FIRST HALF (4-1-4-1)
GK-Lambo
D-Benitez, Pradie, Gordon, Jackson
M-Shea, Villar, Ferreira, Warshaw, Chavez
F-Rodriguez

SECOND HALF (4-4-2)
GK-Seitz
D-M. Hernandez, Pradie, Gordon (Ulloa 81), Wiedeman
M-Avila, Martins, Guarda (Leyva 81), Alexander (Ogunyemi 81)
F-Luna (Marosevic 81), Galindo

Just a couple of observations:

- I really like this first outing from Ricardo Villar, he is obviously struggling to get into full conditioning, but he works hard, distributes well, and the header finish for the goal in the 30th minute wasn’t an easy task.  He played, for the most part, alongside David Ferreira in an attacking midfielder sort of role.  The 4-1-4-1 shape fits them together pretty nicely.  It sort of makes you wonder if Schellas will ever get to his beloved diamond 4-4-2.

- Shea and Chavez switched sides about halfway through the first half, in a move pretty reminiscent of what he liked to do with Shea and Harris throughout last season.  I think we’ll see quite a bit of this in the future.

- Got to see Bobby Warshaw for the first time as well.  He played the first half with most of the first team, and seemed to do well in the defensive mid spot usually reserved for Daniel Hernandez.  I don’t see him challenging Hernandez anytime soon for a starting spot…but he could be a good backup there for a spell or in the case of an injury.  He’s a rookie, but he’s got a good build and is physical on the ball.  He even made an attempt on goal late in the first half that caught the cross bar.

So overall, pretty decent stuff from the red stripes.  That said, it would be nice to see them perform similarly against a stronger opponent: say, the Dynamo.  Still about a month until the start of the season, so no worries on my end yet.

The next scrimmage is 7:30pm on Friday against SMU.  I’ll be out there, and will give my thoughts on it as well.

Category: Team News