Denílson Debut

"He’s pretty. So he’s very lucky: he’s both a footballer and pretty. I’m this ugly and still the women are all over me."
- Denílson

Last week, in the echoing silence of Beckham's injury that has removed him from the league for 6 weeks, the Brazilian 2002 World Cup Champion Denílson made his debut for FC Dallas. Press coverage of this event was lacking...even though he is just as great a player as Beckham. Denílson probably hit the nail on the head as to why (see the quote above).

As luck would have it, I was at Pizza Hut Park for his debut because the youth team that I coach was playing in a tournament in Dallas.

Unfortunately, FC Dallas was already down 4-0 when Denílson stepped onto the field. It was the worst home game loss in the history of FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park. Denílson though, was fun to watch. There were moments when he was on the ball and you could just tell that his creativity and level of thinking was at a level that overshadowed other players. I think that his addition to the league will be exciting to follow. This was also the first time I was able to see Tojas play for FC Dallasl. He's a real dynamic player and was one of the few bright spots for thier team in the game. Cool "mullay" as well - see an action shot of it below.


DC United, on the other hand, are looking awesome. Their possession and ball movement in that game were in a class above FC Dallas. Pizza Hut Park is a great venue - possibly better than Toronto's stadium. It is actually sunk below ground level so you walk in and the field opens up below you. Very cool. A few more game photos are below. Click here to go to the Flickr slideshow.