Game: Houston Dynamo vs FC Dallas Date: Saturday, July 21st Time: 8:00 PM [CST] Location: BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston, Texas, United States of America Weather Forecast: Partly Cloudy; H 100, L 78 Competition: Major League Soccer Last 5 For Opponent: D-W-D-L-W Live TV: KTXA-21 [DFW] | KUBE-57 [Houston] | ESPN+ [Out of Market] Radio: FCDallas.com/radio [English] | KFLC 1270 AM La Voz del Pueblo [Spanish] Another trek down to the armpit of Texas. Hopefully Papi can find his early years' form he had against the orange scum again. Game 1 of 2 tough road games against Western Conference rivals that will be a good test to see just how good this team really is.
Houston has a game tonight so they should be weakened like Chicago was last weekend. Not sure if KC will be full strength but will take a win against their U14's to break the hex in KC.
Dynablow beat a struggling Spork in the swamp to advance in the Open Cup. Didn't study who was in the lineups. Dynablow and Fahr in the semifinals, so hopefully Philly wins the whole thing because I'm not crazy about LAFC either...
Went to Ocean City, MD several weeks ago where the city's cocktail is the Orange Crush (OC for OC, get it?). It's a festive summertime beverage appropriate for watching the Dynablow get clobbered by us. Orange or tangerine vodka, triple sec or Grand Marnier, orange juice (almost always fresh-squeezed behind the bar in Ocean City) with a splash of Sprite. Recipe is at the bottom of the page in link below. Salud! https://www.howsweeteats.com/2018/06/orange-crush/
Many of y'all don't know this, but I am a native Houstonian. I spent my childhood in the Bayou City, I'm Houston Proud, and I consider Houston to be one of America's greatest cities. I am a lifelong fan of your 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros, the Houston Rockets, and the Houston Texans -- well, the entirety of the Texans' lifetime, I guess, but I was a lifelong fan of the Oilers before them. And having said all that, I say this: The Houston Dynamo can eat hot ********. ******** them. They low-down, they dirty, they some snitches.
About to head down to the swamp here in a few hours with one of my best friends, who is Houston through and through. I always dread this game because of mostly bad memories down there. Seeing the first win in 2010, the back to back 4-1 curb stomping wins and the 3-1 come from behind (Barrios can do THAT?!?) wins helped a little but the last time I was down there was that 5-0 horror show 2 seasons ago. Just like Chicago, I wish all the new fans could've experienced the early days of this rivalry. When we changed over to FC Dallas in 2005 and there was a general good vibe about the team after so many years of either darkness or mediocrity. The San Jose Earthquakes had all of a sudden blossomed into this shithead team that was tough to beat. Donovan had just moved to their cross-state rivals after a failed stint in Europe. Dom Kinnear was leading the charge with real pieces of garbage like Robinson, DeRo and Clark in the team. The bad blood was brewing. Then, out of no where, they get moved to Houston. So not only did we have a new little brother rival but that rival had the makeup of a team we as fans (and the players) genuinely hated. Lots of rough games in the early days. Going down there to the Third Ward and Robertson Stadium where their fans were menacing and you thought you could get stabbed at any time. We had a lot of 1 goal losses and "oh what could have been." Then back home instead of taking care of business on the regular, we would tie or lose. A few 1-0 wins here and there. Wasn't until the last 5 years that we really started kicking their ass consistently. In the midst of all of this (just like Chicago), Houston was basically playoff gold. Always found a way to win. Back to back MLS cup wins and then a few more appearances down the road. Our epic playoff collapse down there in 2007 in front of 30,000+. We would never hear the end of it. Just like Chicago, long gone are the truly hated players that made the rivalry wins so sweet but different from Chicago, they're still our in-state rivals. I f ucking hate them.
this is the least convincing 1st place team in the history of MLS. Has to be. Is the rest of MLS that bad? Maybe I'm just too jaded and mentally preparing myself for another season without a MLS Cup... Maybe I'm wrong, and this team is awesome (cue song from the Lego Movie). Or maybe, Pareja is just a great coach who's making lemonade from lemons, but he's low on sugar.
I guess the fact they are so unconvincing while still somehow collecting points is a skill. They have a lot of room for upside as Barrios and Acosta can and should get better as the season progresses. The kids are progressing as the season goes on. They seem to have replaced Diaz and like Charlie Brown with Lucy we all hope this is the year they find that big time goal scorer. If we wanted to follow a team with guaranteed wins we would just follow a Euro league top 2 in their country team but FC Dallas Burn fans are at heart masochists.
I don't think we're playing as bad as it's being made out on these boards lately. Jesse has gotten his confidence back and is playing well despite his error of judgment on the goal yesterday. The defense has been consistent and firm all year (2nd best in the league so far). The midfield has improved with Hayes coming into his own although I don't get why he's been dropped completely as of late, Ulloa and Gruezo getting back to form by protecting the defense better, winning balls back effectively in the middle, and helping launch attacks while Acosta hasn't even returned to his best yet. The attack has been a negative point, sure, but we've been playing without a recognized #10 for much of the year and Barrios has fallen terribly short of his best level. And yet even there, we still have two players who have decent scoring records in Lamah and Urruti while Mosquera has been a good addition in my opinion. It can only get better once Aranguiz comes in, Acosta gets back to his best which he teased last week he may be on his way to doing so, a #9 is potentially acquired, and Barrios gets that goal to get the monkey off his back and return to the player that we know he's capable of being as we've seen before from him. None of these things are a long stretch either. In any case, I'd rather the team play at 50% now and still get results with the peak coming later on when the playoffs roll around. Last year we peaked early and collapsed in the worst possible way around this time. I think a lot of people were spoiled by Diaz and Castillo, this team doesn't have players like that right now to play the soccer we did when they were around and healthy. That may change soon though with Aranguiz and a #9 being brought in, let's see how it goes. As for this game, their decision to play their big guns in midweek and here helped us as they tired out pretty early but it's a shame we didn't make the most of it to win. Lamah with two unforgivable misses, why he took the PK over Ziegler I don't really know. It's always best to go with the hot hand in that situation and not someone who's never taken one before in 18 months with the club but it is what it is. We limited Houston's threats to very little impact on the game which was good, but we didn't take full advantage of the control we had. At least that call on their 2nd goal was reversed otherwise it would have been probably the most frustrating, hair-ripping loss I've seen from this team in quite some time.
Vic, Cannon and Gruezo were immense last night. Maxi continues to have to drop too far back to get the damn ball. Now let's move on to Lamah. WTF? Who let him take a PK? How can professional teams not have a designated PK taker that has practiced it time and time again? It just blows my mind. The quotes from after the game led me to believe that they let the players decide on the field. That sounds like a horrible proposition. When adrenaline is pumping you think you're a god out there. Then we have his miss on the open net. How can he be so shit on the road and score so much at home? So frustrating as Houston was there for the taking.
The only enjoyable part of that game was when the Dallas faithful got on camera. Good job traveling fans!
Lamah's Anti-MOTM performance was frustrating as this seemed like a game we should have won. Can't complain too much as we got a gift from Uncle VAR after the boys (especially Reggie) fell asleep after Lamah's penalty f'up.
After listening to the Ticket yesterday about their left handed slugger not laying down a bunt for a win and thinking about FCD not using the player who made a penalty just last week for a win I wonder why coaches don't exert more influence at really important times in games. Hey do what you want if the game is a laugher or howler but when tight that guy is taking penalties - period.
Yeah, I've gotten some flack about the opinion. I get it, but at this moment I see a team that works very hard, is solid defensively but is maddeningly average going forward. Finishing continues to be a critical issue game in and out. If anyone can look at this particular team and get excited, more power to them. No idea how any of the three new faces are going to help in 2018, but it'll be most interesting to watch Pablo. The club's marketing keeps trying to tap him as a "Mauro replacement", but Oscar is annoyed by that. Why? because he knows its unfair to Pablo, he is a different type of player, oh and, he's 21 years old. My sense is Pablo is here for 2019 and everyone should temper their enthusiasm for this season. With Badji, Dallas now has a pair of "8-12 goals a season" type guys, instead of one. And one wants to get behind the defense and the other wants to drop into midfield. It will be interesting to see how Pareja makes that work.
I personally see it as a "two kinds of soup" situation that Dir talked about with Kreis and Graziani back in the day, two different kinds of forwards for different situations. If they can complement each other well, they can become more than the sum of their parts. If they can complement each other well, Badji and Urruti might be just "8-12 goals a season" scorers, but that'll be one more than FCD's got right now and it'll force opponents to have to devote attention to one more guy on the field and open up a little more space for both of them and for Lamah and Barrios. That's the sunshine-pumping perspective, mind you.
We already had two '8-12 goals a season' players in Lamah and Urruti, Badji should now be the third. All we were missing offensively was a #10 who could link the midfield with attack and register 10+ assists a season with Diaz not being fit or at his best since 2016 before departing recently. Hopefully Aranguiz will be that guy now.
My question is what formation allows for the three 8-12 goal scoring players to be out there together with a #10? Does the new guy play a wing spot like Diaz was at the end or does Urruti play a wing spot? Perhaps this is where Lamah starts getting his minutes cut. I see Badji as an improved Colman - one who can score with his head and - both feet! He can stay high like Colman did and allow the rest of the bunch to create underneath.
I'm wondering if the plan is to go to some sort of 4-4-2, with Pedroso, Ziegler, Hedges, and Cannon across the backline, two of Lamah, Barrios, and Mosquera on the wings, two of Aránguiz, Hayes, Gruezo, and Ulloa in the center, and Urruti and Badji upfront, which can essentially become a 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 when Urruti is coming back into the midfield as far as he does.
I thought of that but they've been pretty stout playing to defensive mids together and are hard to score on. That would seem more of a late game formation if they're behind. Since Barrios and Lamah haven't been that great on the wing maybe the plan is for Mosquera and the little prince to be wingers and either Urruti or Badji a lone forward.
I would not count on Pablo being a starter any time soon. Maybe I’m wrong but history tells us 21 year old SA’s dont’ generally walk on a Pareja team and start running things. I believe he’s here for 2019.
I’m betting 4-4-2 with Urruti playing off-striker. don’t forget that Mosquera also popped his hammy last Saturday (again) and while we’ve not heard anything so far, I would shocked if wasn’t out for a spell.
This was the reason why I hedged with the midfield. There are gonna be injuries, there are gonna be tactical issues, there are gonna be production issues, and there are gonna be freshness issues. From what we've seen from this team over the past four years, it's pretty much a given that there's not going to be a set midfield. You'll see certain guys in certain roles and not in others, but I think things are gonna be a lot more fluid there than up front or in back.
We're in an odd position of being really good (except for a few months last year) for a while now. We haven't won the big prize and may never but I bet fans of a lot of teams would trade places in a heartbeat.