Losing. So nice we did it twice! part two.

So after the Canada game, I headed to Shoeless Joe's to watch TFC vs Dallas with little expectation of a result given we were missing 5 of our best players to injury and international call-ups (despite being announced in the starting line up, Attakora didn't even play due to "an error on the paper"  thanks Stephen Hart).  The game went pretty much as I would have predicted really, we were generally solid defensively, and stopped them from doing much, but we never really looked like doing something ourselves.  While we did create a few chances, they were generally from set pieces or Dan Gargan's long throws.  The few chances we created out of open play fell to either O'Brian White or Jacob Peterson and were unsuprisingly wasted.  On the other hand, Dallas didn't really create many chances until late in the game when we were pressing more, but one of the few chances they got fell to (an offside) Jeff Cunningham, who despite his many faults, and despite the impression he gave when with TFC, does know how to score.

In his post game interview, Preki bemoaned our bad luck and that the ball didn't bounce for us, which to me is ridiculous.  Cunningham scoring a chance and White missing multiple chances isn't bad luck, that's something that's going to happen 9 games out of 10, it would be good luck if the reverse happened.  This was all about our strength in depth, with De Ro, Barrett and Santos missing, we don't have a real scoring threat who'd be able to make something out of nothing, which is what we need to be able to score within the confines of Preki's defensive system.

White actually had one of his better games recently, pressuring their defence and goalie into the odd mistake, and getting a few chances, but he just doesn't look likely to score, and he looks like he knows that.  The best example of this isn't with his easiest chance, the header from Usanov's great tackle run and cross, but a half chance shortly after Cunningham scored, he got the ball on the edge of the area with a couple of yards of space.   Did he let fly with a hard shot on goal to at least force a save?  Nope.  Did he cut in towards goal to get a better angle, or maybe draw contact to win a penalty?  Nope.  He went further wide, and slowed down enough for the defender to catch him and the chance was gone.  That was really symptomatic of his play recently when he gets the ball near goal and has a chance.  There's no sense of urgency or dynamism, he just seems so timid and unsure of himself, which means he can hustle and run as much as he likes, but he really isn't doing his job.

You could ackowledge the "bad luck" that led us to the point where we have to have White out there as our main striker - injuries to Barrett and Santos coming at the same time as De Ro getting called up for Canada.  But a) every team has to deal with that sort of thing at some point, and b) Preki knew all along that that was the case for this game.  You can't call something that you've had a week to prepare for bad luck, it's your job Preki to come up with a plan that works with what you have.  A defensive system can work well with players out, even missing Attakora and De Guzman, we looked solid, which is a testament to the discipline and focus on defence that Preki has brought.  But if the only players who can create something within that system aren't playing, then you have to change things around, which Preki didn't do, a starting midfield of Nane, Labrocca, Saric and Gargan really isn't going to create much.

Mista had a nice touch here or there but was generally anonymous.  Without other quality players causing problems for the defence to give him room to create, he's easily stifled, he doesn't have the power or pace to create things for himself, and for the money he's being paid he should be able to do that.

All in all, we got what we played for, we went to play a team on a roll, away from home, and we only conceded one goal, that's a good result.  But to suggest it's only bad luck and bad bounces that stopped us from scoring is just a cop-out on Preki's behalf.  Those players playing that sytem were always going to struggle, it's a coach's job to give them a chance, not to blame bad luck.