Troubled Times in Big D

Michael Hitchcock/MLSNet

The club that has made the MLS Playoffs more than any other in the league’s history will not be participating in the 2008 MLS Cup sweepstakes. No, I am not talking about the LA Galaxy or DC United but the club currently known as FC Dallas.

For all its success as a franchise in the regular season, the Dallas Burn/FC Dallas has been a playoff failure, and a great disappointment. Players such as Leonel Alvarez, Jason Kreis, Oscar Parreja, Ariel Graziani and Juan Toja have come and gone, but one thing has remained consistent: Dallas is simply not good enough.

Two years ago Colin Clarke had turned FC Dallas into a side that could potentially win the MLS Cup. But after a first round playoff exit he was fired, despite having the second most points in the MLS Regular Season in 2006. Steve Morrow whom Clarke brought over in 2003 to play for the then Burn took over and did a fair job.  Michael Hitchcock who had the faith to hire Morrow when others were calling for Schellas Hyndman, the coach at nearby NCAA Soccer power SMU, lost his patience with the project before long. When Morrow lost badly at home to Ruud Gullit’s LA Galaxy earlier this year, Hitchcock panicked despite the fact that the Hoops were from my vantage point no worse than they had been the previous year at the same time, and were on track to make the playoffs. Hyndman was brought in and despite some very fortune late game penalty calls, (FC Dallas was awarded strange late game PKs against Toronto twice and San Jose once under Hyndman accounting for the club earning what can be best described as five additional dubious points and denying Toronto three points that would have kept the Canadian club right on the brink of playoff qualification heading into the season’s final weekend.) Hitchcock had in fact completely thrown Morrow off his long term game plan for the club when he signed washed up Brazil World Cup veteran Denilson for an extrodinary salary late in 2007. It was Hitchcock and not Morrow who completely destroyed the chemistry developed between Juan Toja, Pablo Richetti, Marcello Saragosa and Arturo Alvarez in the Dallas midfield and locker room with the signing of Denilson. But yet Morrow was held accountable for a move he did not want to make.

Even in the Burn days, Dave Dir seemed to not get the most out of his team. Dallas always played attractive football: for my money the Burn along with Columbus were the two most watchable teams in the league’s early days. But Dallas, like Columbus never won anything. Now with the Crew riding high, the Hoops could perhaps cement their place as the league’s biggest long term failed franchise. In a league like MLS which promotes parity, why cannot Dallas ever get it right. How can the team so seemingly on the brink in 1999 still in 2008 be searching for answers?