goalkeeper Scott Garlick and midfielder Carey Talley were sent to Real Salt Lake for a portion of an allocation -- and there will be more, the heart of the 2005 Hoops should be back next year to have another bite at the cherry.
While there won't be a roster overhaul, it's inaccurate to say there are no questions about what is going to happen in Dallas this offseason. The big one: Will striker Carlos Ruiz be back? Head coach Colin Clarke says he doesn't know. Because of Ruiz's complicated contract situation, which involves his former club CSD Municipal, negotiations probably won't be easy.
"We'd love to get Carlos back and get signed to a new deal," Clarke said. "It's not a straightforward situation, so it's something that's going to take a little time. But we've got our fingers crossed that it can happen."
The club expects Richard Mulrooney to be back and in good shape next year after suffering a season-ending ACL tear in May. Ramon Nunez showed this season he has every bit of the talent he was said to have before he was drafted in 2004, and Simo Valakari and Ronnie O'Brien are coming back, too, so the Hoops' midfield appears to be in good shape. It's the club's rearguard that needs some work.
Clarke, at a minimum, will likely add a defender. He's also open to signing or trading for any player -- anywhere on the field -- he feels will improve his team's overall talent. The former Northern Ireland international will be scouting players in Brazil and Argentina next week, and he'll be in Europe for the same purpose over the holidays.
WHAT WAS THE TEAM'S BEST MOMENT IN '05?
FC Dallas had plenty of good moments in 2005, including the opening of Pizza Hut Park, their new state-of-the-art stadium. What Clarke and Greg Vanney saw as their best moment, though, was the club's U.S. Open Cup run.
At the same time that the Hoops were struggling through their 10-game winless streak in the middle third of the season, they were mounting a run through the nation's premier soccer tournament. FCD won their first three Open Cup games in overtime or on penalty kicks and then defeated the Chicago Fire in the semifinals before falling to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the championship game.
For Vanney, the club's victory against D.C. United in the Open Cup quarterfinals was the highlight of the tournament and of the season as a whole. Down 1-0 with seconds left to play, Ruiz scored at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime; the Hoops went on to win 4-1 on penalty kicks. The impact of the game stretched beyond the fact that the club had moved on in the tournament.
"It was a time when we were going through some very tough games, where we were losing games and not getting results," Vanney said. "Though we were down 1-0, the team kept fighting and battling. It was a little bit of a turning point for us, also, because we started to figure out the kind of effort it really takes to win games again."
There was also a memorable moment in the final game of the regular season. Making his final league appearance of his outstanding career, Oscar Pareja came on as a substitute -- and scored a 69th-minute goal to give FCD an eventual 2-2 draw with the Kansas City Wizards.
The crowd at Pizza Hut Park went crazy as the Hoops rushed the field to congratulate Pareja in what would be his last goal for Dallas. Pareja stayed on the field long after the final whistle to sign autographs for the Inferno and all the other fans who had come to show their appreciation for his years of service to the team.
WHO MADE THE MOST IMPROVEMENT OVER THE COURSE OF THE SEASON?
Nunez came out of nowhere in the latter part of the season to lead the FC Dallas attack. After sitting on the bench for a year and a half, the Honduran youth international took on board advice that he needed to improve the defensive side of his game and showed the talent that made Dallas take him with the fourth overall selection in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft.
"The one that probably has come the longest way is probably Ramon Nunez," Clarke said. "He's someone who at the start of the year wasn't in the lineup, but fought his way into it and really developed a lot during the season and was one of our best and most consistent players toward the end."
Nunez started the last 10 games of the season, scoring five goals during that stretch. Three of those goals were cannon blasts that earned Sierra Mist Goal of the Week nominations. One of those Goal of the Week nominees was a game-tying goal against Chivas USA on Aug. 27, and another was a stoppage-time game-winner against the Columbus Crew on Oct. 5.
"He scored some big goals, important goals for us," he said. "I know he was frustrated that he didn't get to play as much early on in his career here, but he's overcome that now."
WHAT RESERVES ARE MOST READY TO MOVE INTO THE TEAM?
The answer here is Nunez, again. With the impressive performance he put on late in the season, Clarke will find it difficult to relegate him to the sidelines again next year. In fact, Clarke expects Nunez to become entrenched as a starter.
"I'm looking forward to seeing him next year continuing his development," Clarke said. "He's a great talent and he's going to be a great force in this league for years to come ... When he was first drafted, he was only 18 years of age. He was very young and only had the one year in college. He's going to be a force to reckon with."
Looking beyond Nunez, the reserves with the most potential going into 2006 are Abe Thompson and Drew Moor. Both rookies got plenty of action this year and will both challenge for starting roles going into 2006. Moor has the best chance of seeing action as the depth chart at wingback is shorter than Thompson's group at forward.
But Thompson, in a lot of ways, is the most important as Johnson, Roberto Mina and possibly Ruiz will all miss time with their respective national teams -- Johnson and Mina in particular with the world Cup. In addition there is highly-touted defender Alex Yi, who arrived in Dallas in a special lottery -- then played just one game.
"We have a lot of good young center backs on the team, Alex being one of them. That is going to be one of our problems next year is to make sure these young players get experience in games," Clarke said. "Alex played in the (USL First Division) for a bit and came back a better player. The one start he did get, he did very well in San Jose."
WHAT AREA OF THE TEAM NEEDS THE MOST IMPROVEMENT?
Clarke is most concerned about improving his defense for next season, and rightly so. While FCD were in the top half of the league this season in goals allowed, too many of those goals were soft or benefited from stunningly poor marking.
The 'keeper position was never an easy call last season, and now that Scott Garlick has been traded it's left to Dario Sala and Jeff Cassar to battle over the position. Look for Clarke to bring in some more competition for these two once the preseason cranks up -- both are certainly competent, but Sala's full potential has yet to be seen as he saw only one start toward the end of the year.
The Hoops signed Vanney last offseason to replace the departed Cory Gibbs and lend some experience to a young defensive corps, but it wasn't enough. When Vanney was away with the U.S. national team, the FCD rearguard glowed green with inexperience and couldn't seem to keep together.
The best example of this discombobulation came on July 16, when New England Revolution forward Taylor Twellman cut through a gaping hole in the FCD back line to score a stoppage-time winner, just a minute after scoring the equalizer. With the ball in the back of the net, second-year center back Clarence Goodson exasperatingly gesticulated toward the space Twellman had taken while veteran Steve Jolley stared back at him.
"We gave up too many soft and easy goals," Clarke said. "Defensively, we need to get better. We believe we've got the young players here that can develop and make us better, but we're also out there looking like everybody else."
If Clarke goes outside the organization to improve his defense, which seems more than likely, he might want to sign more than one defender. Vanney is a candidate for U.S. national team manager Bruce Arena's 2006 World Cup team, and if he gets called in for the tournament, he'd probably miss at least a month of action with FCD.
Jason Halpin and Scott Joiner are contributors to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
