I agree with most of your assessment. If Camargo plays to his potential then I think he displaces Moffat. But Moffat does pass the long ball pretty damn well and has a hell of a long range shot to keep defenses honest. He does turn the ball over in bad places from time to time. I think ideally he comes off the bench for us or gets the spot start in tough stretch of games. Chabala has really picked up his distribution in this preseason compared to where he was when he last played with us, so I could see us grabbing him as depth.
Based on our roster to date, in a classic 4-4-2 I'd rather see Barnes play CM and Rico as DM as a regular pair throughout the season, with Moffat and Camargo providing the depth to these roles. Continuing the thought, with Davis on left and Boniak on right, that may be the best midfield in MLS IMHO. Add Cummings/Bruin pair up top, Taylor and Boswell as CB with Ashe left and Sarkodie right with Hall directing the show in the back. If they can all stay healthy, that's a line-up worthy of another Cup run. Big if . . . Ashe, Sarkodie and Boz are the only ones who are not on the radar to get called up by their national teams in 2013, and yet I'd go to war with that back line. I'd like to see our back-line get back to being a league leader in minimizing goals allowed like our '06 & '07 cup runs. And another thought - with so many getting called up this early in the year, we should be in the kind of shape to make a strong early run, both in MLS and hopefully in CL. Can't wait!
This Ching deal is interesting - what else could they still be negotiating? I'd have thought the salary would have been semi-agreed to.
Some preseason games added according to Keeper Notes: Thursday, January 24: Dynamo v. Dynamo Academy @ HASP HOU 3-0 DAC Saturday, January 26: Dynamo v. HBU @ HASP HOU 3-0 HBU Tuesday, January 29: Dynamo v. San Jose Earthquakes @ Tucson, AZ SJE 2-0 HOU Thursday, January 31: Dynamo v. Colorado Rapids @ Tucson, AZ COR 0-1 HOU Saturday, February 2: Dynamo v. Vancouver Whitecaps @ Tucson, AZ VAN 2-1 HOU Wednesday, February 6: Dynamo v. HBU @ Sorrels Field, 5:00 pm Saturday, February 9: Dynamo v. SMU @ HASP, 1:00 pm Saturday, February 16: Dynamo v. Chicago Fire @ Charleston, SC 4:00 pm Wednesday, February 20: Dynamo v. Vancouver Whitecaps @ Charleston, SC 4:00 pm Saturday, February 23: Dynamo v. Charleston Battery @ Charleston, SC 6:15 pm That game on Saturday, Feb. 9, is at the same time as the FanFest at BBVA Compass so I'm wondering if the location at HASP is correct. Stay alert for updates on that one.
I haven't watched as much of ore-season so far as I'd like, so I'm glad to see that people think that Camargo and Barnes are playing well. We'd all live to see one of the rookies or someone like Dixon step up a level, but, realistically, the guys on the squad who already have the talent to have a much bigger impact are Camargo and Barnes.
Keeper Notes@keepernotes NEW scrimmage times for @HoustonDynamo … 7 pm Wed at HBU, 10 am Sat vs SMU at @HoustonSportsPk.
Times have been updated: Thursday, January 24: Dynamo v. Dynamo Academy @ HASP HOU 3-0 DAC Saturday, January 26: Dynamo v. HBU @ HASP HOU 3-0 HBU Tuesday, January 29: Dynamo v. San Jose Earthquakes @ Tucson, AZ SJE 2-0 HOU Thursday, January 31: Dynamo v. Colorado Rapids @ Tucson, AZ COR 0-1 HOU Saturday, February 2: Dynamo v. Vancouver Whitecaps @ Tucson, AZ VAN 2-1 HOU Wednesday, February 6: Dynamo v. HBU @ Sorrels Field, 7:00 pm Saturday, February 9: Dynamo v. SMU @ HASP, 10:00 am Saturday, February 16: Dynamo v. Chicago Fire @ Charleston, SC 4:00 pm Wednesday, February 20: Dynamo v. Vancouver Whitecaps @ Charleston, SC 4:00 pm Saturday, February 23: Dynamo v. Charleston Battery @ Charleston, SC 6:15 pm
not too bad. 2-2 and that's after we were trailing 2-0 SMU proves again they are the best soccer team (professional/school) in the oklahoma region
Fan Fest was cool today. Anyone else get to do the 'Play on the Pitch'? Got to meet Brahma, too. Heck... he defended me! Kept me scoreless. Although, I did pull a Weaver and hit the post. Fun day all around.
my wife and I had a blast...unfortunately in her goalkeeping debut at BBVA she gave up six goals...of course a couple of them could have been credited to a defensive lapse on my part...
Anyone else concerned that the sodded area on the south end might not take in 3 weeks? I think troutseth was the groundskeeper at the country club, maybe he knows how this Bermuda-rye supergrass they have works, it may just be dormant but I'm more used to seeing sod that is live laid down and they hopefully it takes.
I have no idea what or why they laid it down. Although, I would guess they had to put it down for the US game. Fact is; there is no Bermuda growing anywhere right now so if they sodded it would be dormant grass. Bermuda, takes a combined temperature of 150 degrees to start growing heavily (80 day, 70 at night as an example). I don't know this particular strain but it will be similar. So . . . you are not likely to see any grass growing until April sometime. It is one of the challenges of living in the humid portion of the south.
One of the Dynamo folks said the rugby tourney tore it up and so they had to re-sod it. I have no idea if that is accurate or not. Someone probably can post a picture of it, it was clearly dormant. Pretty much covered the south penalty box.
Yep, it appeared to be put down just before the US - Canada match. I assumed that was why they did it now as opposed to later (no idea what tore it up).
The Dynamo beat the Academy 11-0 on Tuesday, February 12. Lineup and scoring summary: Houston Dynamo – Tyler Deric (Erich Marscheider 60); Kofi Sarkodie (Mike Chabala 46), Anthony Arena* (Luiz Camargo 46), Eric Brunner, Jimmy Nealis*; Je-Vaughn Watson (Adam Moffat 46), Warren Creavalle, Ricardo Clark (Brian Ownby 60), Franck Songo'o* (Brad Davis 46); Cam Weaver (Will Bruin 46), Jason Johnson. HOU – Dener Dos Santos (own goal) 14 HOU – Ricardo Clark (Kofi Sarkodie) 41 HOU – Cam Weaver (Je-Vaughn Watson) 41 HOU – Will Bruin 46 HOU – Will Bruin (Brad Davis) 52 HOU – Jason Johnson (penalty kick) 58 HOU – Alex Dixon 71 HOU – Adam Moffat 74 HOU – Will Bruin (Luiz Camargo) 77 HOU – Will Bruin (Brian Ownby) 81 HOU – Will Bruin (Jimmy Nealis) 83)