You would think he would be playing.... I think Florentina and others are right, something must be awfully wrong with Lopez. If we have not seen him by now, then it must mean he's gone. Lopez, Caraccio, Koke, Landin... OMG, all fiascos have been Latinos???? Well, that Tony Caig guy and Akimbuy-you weren't.
Cascio doesn't have the vision that Lopez does, but is likely better on the wing than Lopez. Cascio is very slow making decisions.
Well, when the OFFICIAL Houston Dynamo website publishes something like THIS: http://www.houstondynamo.com/news/2...r-alexander-lopez-hoping-more-productive-2014 Something is not right.
I'm going to assume that one of two things are in play with Lopez: (1) he's in Dom's doghouse and no matter his salary or status, Dom is not giving in to play him or (2) it was just a bad signingsigning
Lopez has great vision, he is a great passer. He is a walking disaster on defense though. That was what Dom was on him for all preseason. The Dynamo continue to try and get him to defend and it isn't happening. In a 4-4-2 system you can't really have a CM who doesn't defend (ironic to say given the poor overall defensive performance tonight). I also have heard rumblings that his fitness levels are not so great and that he is lazy, perhaps not as lazy as Salazar, but... That is all rumor, mind you.
The Dynamo are going to get scored on. Let's just agree on that. What they need are goals. Score first, and score more than the opponent. I don't see them as a defensive team. If Lopez is not match fit still than it's a bad fit, because this team needs more offensive threats, and he's not going to help.
Right now the Dynamo does not have those scorers, Heft. Not only that but looks like the Dynamo will NOT do anything about that.
Maybe, but Dom is a defensive minded coach. Can't imagine we'd ever see the Dynamo suddenly playing an attacking style as long as he is at the helm.
I wish I could say I was surprised. But in the back of my mind, I've feared that something like this might become our reality. And who knows, it may still turn out to be just our annual early-season skid. But if it's a turn for the worse, I'll have to ask what we all expected. This Dynamo team has surprised me time and again over the past three seasons, in terms of what they were able to accomplish. And almost all of those accomplishments were due in big part to the heart that the Dynamo have always had. Over the last couple years, and especially this last one, this league has absolutely exploded. And the Dynamo have not. They've always made things exciting, and they've always been able to make a couple REAL good signings here and there, like under-rated players (Boniek) and unknowns that have turned out pretty decent, but without the money that the rest of the league's organizations are now easily putting up for high quality players and play-makers... we could finally be falling behind. I hope this isn't the case. I hope this team will come around and snap out of it like they seem to do every year. But if they don't, I'm afraid this is just the beginning of a long road...one that could potentially take a couple seasons of Chivas-style suffering before being bought by an owner(s) who is capable of-- and willing to put up the big bucks (and not just once) for some high-quality players. The league is getting so much better, and the Dynamo have to be a part of that, or else they will eventually be at the bottom of the table...regularly. I'm only thinking this way because you're right, we all know these are not losses that the Dynamo take, even in their annual "skid". I don't remember seeing the Dynamo lose 4-1 and 4-0 within a week-and-a-half. Ever.
Last season was the same. The Dynamo were humiliated by teams, and could not score goals. They were able to squeak into the playoffs and beat MTL, and NY, which made people forget those humiliations by MTL, and NY in the regular season. The Dynamo made no moves during the transfer window to correct the problem, and are still being exploited by other teams with a better game plan. I find it too hard to swallow. They need to get it figured out.
It's too bad this is happening now, when the crowds are finally actually filling BBVA, not just sell outs but a genuinely full stadium. That's not going to happen again for a while.....
I can't really agree with the assessment that we have neve been an attacking style team (or least have attempted to be). A couple of years ago we actually switched to a 4-3-3 for a while. Alas the 4-3-3 this became more of a 4-5-1 when we lost the ball and a 4-4-2 when we got it back. Several years ago we transitioned to more of a a 'possession' style team where we could be more attacking with the outside backs and wide midfielders playing more advanced. This was evidenced in the statistics when our possession percentage ranking in the league went up into the top five. The problem is for all the percentage of possession we increased, our goals per game really dropped last year and have really dropped further in the hole so far this year. Lack of quality up top is killing us. The drop in midfield performance this year has exacerbated this problem becuase that was our strength in 2010, 2011, 2012. NYRB exposed us in several few blow out games last year. NYRB have speed all over and one of the few teams to make us look very slow. Playing in NY is more in their element becuase the field is bigger and they have more space to spread you out here. Poor performance by many players - especially disappointed in Cascio, Creavalle and Driver.
Yeah, at times it does seem like when we are down we are somehow making subs to preserve goal differential, not win the game.
But recently Dom has gone down to one CB to try to score goals, so I can't agree totally with you. I think the whole issue is the squad is not right. The current players are not playing good enough for MLS.
I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bath. We created enough scoring chances to win last night. Chances that should have been buried. There is no excuse for how poor this team is at putting the ball on frame. With all the problems this team has, we've created chances but never take advantage. This was an issue last season, it's an issue this season yet our coaching staff rolls out the same two guys up top. The lack of willingness to shake up this team is the most frustrating. Players go through slumps, some players just don't have what it takes, but the coaching staff has to be willing to make changes. It's absolutely crazy to roll out the same Fwd pairing and expect different results!
This is another Landin or Camargo signing situation. I'll call it now. I was going to give it the season but if he can't find a way to get into a game in front of Carrasco, not sure it will ever work out.
Even then, he has dropped the holding midfielder back into the back 4 and the attacking midfielder dropped deeper. Against New England, Cummings came on and Barnes dropped into midfield. Recall how deep he played the remainder of the game? Look at the substitution patterns the last few games. Apart from subs forced by injury or cards, the first sub on every match has been a defensive midfielder. Against New England that really puzzled me. We are losing and Creavalle comes on. Last night, we are losing and Carrasco comes on.
Carrasco is a CDM. Lopez is a CAM. Lopez would not sub in for Rico. Other than that, I can only speculate.
I mentioned how MLS as a whole, how much the league has grown from just one World Cup cycle. That being from start of season/Spring in 2010 to here start of season/Spring of 2014. The jump in talent and pace is very noticeable imho. Our squad, while talented, is slow and not very dynamic in approach. As mentioned before, our team is not on the same page at all. This is blatantly obvious. Also, one of yall mentioned that our players don't read the game very well at all which compounds the above issue 1o fold! I mean honestly, last night was the absolute worst Dynamo football match I have witnessed. It was like a fuked up Open Cup, who gives a shit, fuk a result, fuk a team hustle type of performance. We lack grit, pace, and even the slightest inclination of offensive picardilla (street smarts). If I am Rico I might be about to strangle someone in my locker room just on principle! Just to remind these fools that I ain't fuking around!!! "YALL MOTHER FUKERS NEED TO RODEO THE FUK UP!!!"---Ricardo Clark
Agree. Cascio stood out for me last night. Got much more involved in the attack, showed some flashes but he was too slow. Could not beat players off the dribble. As for worst match, while this one was not pretty, I'll still go with the 5-1 thrashing at Montreal as the worst performance in orange.
Now that I really think about that one up in Montreal you mention and last night up in Jersey, I have to mention, and this actually makes me chuckle thinking about it specifically cuz how bad last night was, there was the infamous Gamba Osaka ass raping in Ching's home state where our guys were made to look LITERALLY like a youth team on the same field with a real professional men's team and the outcome of such an encounter if this scenario was to ever take place. So, now that I reminded us of that night and having to stomach last night's shitastic display....Let's go Dynamo! C'mon home and let's beat Portland!!!