Dallas Burn midfielder Brad Davis is in his third season in Major League Soccer, after finishing off a stellar career at Saint Louis University. His diary appears weekly on DallasBurn.com.
There's no doubt that the biggest problem we're having right now is that we aren't scoring enough goals. I think we're playing pretty good soccer, maybe not great soccer, but pretty good soccer. We've had enough chances to score the goals and win the games, we just haven't been able to do it. We've got to get more guys in the box and be a little more aggressive in there.
I think last weekend we had 13 or 14 corner kicks and we only got on the end of two or three of them. We've been working a lot this week on set pieces around the penalty area so that we can hopefully capitalize on some of those chances.
Last weekend's loss to San Jose was frustrating because I didn't really think they created much. We had two balls cleared off the line, and we left Landon Donovan open for a tap-in. They took advantage of their chances and we didn't and that's why we lost the game. The good part about it, though, is that we know what we need to fix to turn things around, whereas last year there were so many things to fix we didn't even know where to begin.
I thought the forward combination we started with last weekend pretty effective. I like having Bobby [Rhine] out there because it brings me into the game a little more. With Toni [Nhleko] and Eddie [Johnson] both out there, we become a much more direct team, since that's the style those guys play. Bobby, on the other hand, is a guy who likes to come back and get the ball at his feet, so it helps me get more involved and I don't feel like I'm constantly trying to catch up to the play.
I'm really looking forward to Saturday's game against Kansas City. I'm from Missouri and a lot of my friends and family will be at the game, so it will be great to see them and hopefully I can play in front of them. I'm finally feeling healthy now, and my calf isn't bothering me at all. We beat the Wizards at home earlier this year even though I didn't think we played particularly well in that game, so that helps our confidence. They are a team that works well together and they have some dangerous players, but I think if we put our chances away we can come home with three points.
More to come next week,
-- Brad Davis, #10
