Dallas Sidekicks’ Playoff Positives
By Curry Goff
In their final tuneup before the playoffs begin this weekend, the Dallas Sidekicks fell to the Monterrey Flash by a score of 6-2. While the final tally on the scoreboard may not have been the result the Kicks were looking for, Tatu and company can take a few positives from the game.
The first positive is that no one was injured. In talking with some people before the game, we concluded that a good result for the Sidekicks would mean that no one got hurt and everyone was ready to go for this weekend’s home playoff clash against Oxford City FC.
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In truth, the game itself mattered very little in the grand scheme of things. Both teams had solidified their playoff seeding weeks prior (Monterrey as the one seed and Dallas as the two seed). Losing anyone to injury in a game that essentially meant nothing would have been incredibly gut wrenching. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
The second positive was that, after a pretty lackluster display in the first quarter, the Kicks rebounded and played a much better, much more organized brand of soccer the rest of the first half.
When Monterrey came out, they bossed possession, pressed high up the field, and left Dallas with little time to make decisions. The Flash’s pressing led to careless giveaways and a disorganized defense from the Kicks that yielded two similarly placed goals from the visitors.
Tatu, who must have been acutely aware of his team’s shortcomings in the first quarter, organized his men and started to hit Monterrey with a taste of their own medicine. The Kicks pressured the Flash in possession and broke up their slow and patient offense. The turnaround showed this team’s ability to regroup and rebound from struggles.
A third positive was the play of in-form goalkeeper Milo in the Sidekicks’ net. In truth, this game could have been out of the Kicks’ reach after the first half were it not for the stellar play of the Serbian keeper.
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The two shots that got by him in the first half had little to do with him and more to do with a combination of great shots and poor defending; both goals were rocketed into the upper left corner from runs down the right side. Good defending limits that angle and protects a goalkeeper from those types of spectacular strikes.
On multiple instances, Milo stopped the Flash 1v1 and made important interventions that kept the game within reach. The only thing you could fault him for was his aimless run upfield and subsequent turnover in the last 3 minutes of the game that led to an empty netter for Monterrey. Apart from that one blemish, Milo earned the confidence of every Kicks fan that he can back up his team more than adequately in the playoffs.
Come Sunday, when Oxford City come into the Allen Event Center for the first round of the playoffs, the Sidekicks will be looking to build off of all of these positives. With midfielder Nestor Hernandez back in the lineup and a healthy rest of the squad, the Kicks will be confident they can sweep aside OCFC and set themselves up for a rematch with the Flash in Monterrey.
Could a fifth league title be in the near future for the Dallas Sidekicks? Come out this Sunday, March 1st to the Allen Event Center at 2pm and help support the Kicks as they seek to do just that. Let’s go, Kicks!