Delayed (Over)Reaction: FC Dallas

Jeff Parke's injury time goal against KC last Saturday was certainly a special moment. It sent the crowd home happy and gave us three points in the table. I think most of our fans were feeling pretty good about the game, when in fact they should have felt uneasy. The simple truth was that we played poorly against a bottom dwelling team. His goal simply masekd all that is wrong with the team.

Fast forward four days to a mid-week home match-up against FC Dallas a team that had not only played on Sunday, but they had their game delayed for weather and had to travel from Salt Lake City while the Sounders got to sleep in their own beds. I felt uneasy entering the match simply because of how good Dallas is. I know they lost their playmaker David Ferreira, but they should be visiting every MLS city this year as the defending champs. This was not a one horse show (some might even suggest that their 18-year old Colombian signing Fabien Castillo can step right into Ferreira's void) -they are a damn good team.

I won't go any further into specifics, but will simply point you to a rant on gosounders.com. I think he sums up my feelings pretty well. At the current time, there is something fundamentally wrong with this team. I am not saying we won't make the playoffs, but right now we're not good. We have some major fixes to make.

Now I will say that I continue to try to remind myself of last years stretch where we went 10-1-2 after starting the year in last place with a 4-8-4 record. I continue to try to remind myself how a team with a 12-8-10 record won the 2010 MLS Cup and a team with a 11-12-7 record won the 2009 MLS Cup. All we have to do is steady the ship over the next few weeks and we can still win the league. With that being said, it is going to be a tough sell if we can't get a full 3 points from three of our next four games (@RSL, @Chi, Van, @Tor)...
UPDATE: Just realized we will also have NY at home on the 23rd...if the US, Mexico and Canada make the Gold Cup Semi-Finals they would then be without Marquez, Ream, Agudelo and DeRo, definitely making them a weaker side

Come on you Sounders