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Flyer Offense Blanked Again in 1-0 Loss to Fordham
Flyer Offense Blanked Again in 1-0 Loss to Fordham
Christopher Rieman
Published by Chris R
10-09-2011
Flyer Offense Blanked Again in 1-0 Loss to Fordham

DAYTON (OH) -- A new day dawns, but the song remains the same.

The Dayton Flyer offense failed to scratch for the second time this weekend in a hard-to-swallow 1-0 defeat to Fordham on Sunday afternoon at Baujan Field. The Rams' lone strike came in the second half as they remain undefeated in A10 play at 2-0, 6-4-1 overall. The Flyers fall to 1-11 (0-2).

The first half was a microcosm of the entire season thus far, with endless mistakes seemingly modest in adverse effects by themselves but debilitating when taken as an accumulation. Dayton was completely out of sorts, lost their shape, and let go of any patience that might have generated a fair amount of sustained possession.

Fordham's offense took advantage early on and pushed UD into a defensive posture over the first 20 minutes. Unable to cleanly play balls out of the back or clear balls to the touch lines, the Rams made a habit of regaining possession at midfield and re-applying attacking pressure.

Thankfully, the Rams threw patience to the wind as well, flushing great scoring chances down the toilet with suspect shots from long distance that were too ambitious for even David Beckham. Wasting the buildup, Fordham let Dayton off the hook and kept the match scoreless.

The Flyers once again fell into the bad habit of playing kick-and-run, losing possession on most long balls sent forward and taking away any opportunity to move the pieces on the chess board with a collective purpose. Dayton's back line had one of their worst halfs of the season in terms of distribution, refusing altogether to work the ball upfield with basic check-ins and wall passes -- not that their options were always superb. In the offense, UD remained incapable of digging out the aforementioned long balls.

The run of play favored Fordham for most of the half, though the Rams didn't exactly dominate as they could have. By halftime, UD was thankful for the 0-0 score and perhaps the intermission would serve as an opportunity to re-set the game plan.

Fordham out-shot Dayton 13-1 and 5-0 on corner kicks in the first half.

As bad as the first half was, Dayton showed signs of life after the re-start. The first 25 minutes of the second half were Dayton's best soccer all afternoon (by far) and generated some of their better scoring chances of the season. And unlike prior matches where the opportunities on goal were on broken plays, UD worked together as a unit and got the ball forward. At times, the Flyers looked far more committed to the basics and keeping the game simple. When they did that, the soccer took a huge step forward.

Dayton hit the crossbar from long distance and nearly punched it in directly in front of the box. Fordham struck first however in the 70th minute on a strike to the far post from 12yds out after UD failed to clear the ball away. By this time, UD's best soccer had already begun to fade and with 20 minutes remaining, the prospects of clawing back from a 1-0 deficit seemed overly optimistic given the circumstances.

By and large, that's how the remainder of the match played out. For a team struggling to score goals or manufacture any semblance of a cohesive offense, playing from behind isn't where the Flyers wanted to be.

Dayton had some quality chances to find the net, but the result was fairly indicative of the run of play. A 2-1 loss would have been equally so.

Match stats favored Fordham but highlighted UD's better effort in the second half. Shots were 20-18 and corner kicks 7-3.

There are no quick fixes when the wheels have fallen off. To their credit, Head Coach Dennis Currier's team continues to play reasonably hard. But the lack of polish and suspect decision making create a product that can't seem to get out of the way of itself. The lack of quality off-the-ball play is perhaps the weakest link; runs are not made or made with assertiveness, free space isn't properly leveraged, tunnel vision persists, and turnovers accumulate like weeds in a garden. By the time an opportunity presents itself, it's no longer there when Dayton chooses to play into it. The inability to anticipate two or three moves ahead on the chess board is where other teams take advantage of the Flyers.

The Flyers take advantage of another double dip at Baujan Field next weekend. Dayton takes on George Washington Friday evening and Richmond on Sunday afternoon.
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