Despite a Poor MLS Season but with a U.S Open Cup Win, Was This Season a Success For Houston?

I think I have said this before, but they've grossly misread the fanbase. They come across like corporate shills for the Dynamo, saying everything is awesome when 95% of the fanbase knows everything is not awesome. There's probably 10-15 people out there (no market research on that number) that agree with them that everything is awesome and the rest of us are fairweather assholes. Consequently, their average viewership is 8-10 people.

If they were realists, if they were critical of the organization then that would resonate and give voice to what the vast majority of the fanbase is feeling, which might translate into a few more listeners. But they are too busy kissing ass for the organization in the hopes of being seen as legitimate by the Dynamo, getting guests, etc.

 

Yeah, there are some positive points with the Dynamo but to dismiss all negative ones as coming from “haters” is silly. And the absurdity of some of their statements just kill any credibility or desire to listen to them again. They are almost misstatements of
Facts sometimes.

 

Oh boy, full Baghdad Bob on tomorrows Gen Orange show!!

http://mobile.twitter.com/GenOrangeRadio/status/1049323916743888896

 

The Gen Orange propaganda briefing should be hilarious tonite. Come on dude, no one expects full EPL depth but when you brag about all of their transfer fee spending and then they blow a bunch on Adam Lindqvist who didn’t even make the game day 18 when we were down like 3 fullbacks, it tells me they aren’t spending it smartly and then they don’t pay for a 3rd DP or the owner-funded TAM so they aren’t putting in the necessary resources for success. That’s what people are “hating” on

http://mobile.twitter.com/SeanRingrose/status/1049698247080648720

 

A smart podcaster/writer/critic wouldn't even bring up the 3rd DP or owner TAM. Those are like the 50th and 51st things that need working on. A shrewd one would start with simple things like customer service, STH benefits (real ones not stupid point BS), Academy (including coaching and scouting), and so forth. Talking about extravagance from this ownership is laughable as they don't have the money for such things. This isn't Colorado where the money is there but the owner has just decided the club must live within their means. No. We have no means.

 

Wow. What a poorly devised ‘take’.

There’s some UEFA Champions League teams that aren’t that deep so why would anyone assume that Dynamo fans think we’re that deep.

That being said, I always stated that to be top tier MLS yuliy have to have 13-15 legit starters on the roster. Otherwise you’ll be fighting for the 6th spot every season.

 

In that case we've over performed with only about 5 or 6 starters.

 

There were a few years like 2008-09 where we went 15-16 deep.

 

Some of it is when you ask this question. I think we just passed through a soft section of the schedule and a USOC final against mediocre opposition at home. I think Seattle was a reminder of how the rest of the season has been, a return to reality. The rest of the schedule will be like that, both LA teams away, Seattle again. You ask how we did in 18 days after that buzzsaw against playoff type teams and I think you will get a different answer. I think we're done winning for the year -- though I hope they prove me wrong -- and that we finish with 15, 16 losses in a 34 game season, and behind Minnesota in 10th.

More pointedly, I think these games will give you a more ruthless answer about how much of this roster is competitive. Garcia and Wenger were getting exposed by Seattle, you know, the defenders who had plugged the leaks in the dam for a few weeks now. I thought even Cabezas looked in over his head against Seattle. I think the past few weeks people were selling some schlock where with him back it was different. But Cabezas was around when Seattle trashed us last season. And we got dogged out with him back against Seattle. OK, maybe he looks better against a particular level of team who you're never going to be playing in the championship. OK, do we aspire to be a marginal playoff team that maybe goes on runs? Or are our goals bigger? I think as in some of our recent bad seasons, we have a rough exit schedule, and if a team is honest with itself, it doesn't blow sunshine up its ______ for a few decent games in a soft schedule run, it looks at how it stacks up against the teams it wants to be at the level of. On the whole, we look like a tear down, except for the forwards.

OK, for the second straight season, what is there to be learned from getting our heads kicked in by Seattle. Which players looked bad as ever. Which players who generally looked ok suddenly didn't. Which players did fine.

The bad sign about the franchise, to me, is when Jordan was interviewed last year, he expressed surprise at how fast it came along, implying he didn't expect it to be that good. And then he shipped Torres and stood pat. So the GM rationally is telling himself, this shouldn't be as good a team as it performed, but then doesn't upgrade. We buy our own press clippings. That's not good because to me MLS is earned success each season and the minute you stand still and pat your back the race goes by you. I am concerned USOC redeems a bad season and bad team, when I think in context after the next few weeks that will feel like a brief oasis in a nasty, hot desert that bakes away your brains. Our response to this season should be based on the gestalt and not the brief positive moments. This is a team that will lose nearly half its games, and be mis-coached so bad it is around even on goal difference but 10th in its conference, ie, loses the close ones repeatedly. If you throw away the eyewash and what you use to put the rubes in the stands, and look at this rationally, this is a clean house situation. The mids are generally shoddy. The backline is generally shoddy. The keeper is subpar. The coach can't win the close ones when his team is competitive.

 

I also think the growing focus on USOC, and success this season, is actually a manifestation of reduced ambition where it matters. The stereotype is that teams with nothing else to play for throw their energy into USOC. Teams who think they have a chance to win MLS run out their reserves in USOC and fall out earlier. They have bigger fish to fry.

There is a reason during Kinnear's tenure we rarely had a shot at USOC. It's because teams aspiring to winning MLS treat it as an afterthought. That we actually think about it intensely lately is basically a reflection of lowered ambitions and a sop to the fanbase. Here is something to cheer about since we're not really giving you what you really want.

That being said, take what we get, but let's acknowledge that USOC ambitions are actually fairly unambitious by MLS standards. If the other 20 teams cared as much I don't think we would have won that either.

 

The past few years should be a pretty thorough refutation of the silly idea that you can chase a few international players and then put around them a bunch of other team's castoffs and win. Rational abstraction it should make no sense to think if I take your bench players, and yours, and yours (Ceren, Alexander, Leonardo, Willis, etc. etc.), that somehow my starting team winds up better than yours. To me it appears like the surest way to suck.

It's a short cut to success. Take on other teams' veterans. But if you look at reality, the core standouts on the team are young foreign players. This needs to be reoriented towards the draft, HGP, young foreign players. Then chase salary casualty veterans like Wenger -- "I like him but I can't afford him" -- rather than washouts like Ceren -- "take that crap off my hands."

 

This show is hilarious - the guy wearing the cap makes the case we are better off bringing in unproven young players on transfer fees than signing Zlatan. And how all of these young signings at all levels like RGV and Brazos Valley we will see “talent across the board” and develop in the “Dynamo Way” (which means they won’t develop as a soccer player but will understand how a business preserves its profit with minimal cash outlay).

The amount of false equivalencies they throw out (“you know if you pay for a BWP and he struggles, RBNY won’t win but our 7 mediocre players will always be here “) are delusional. Comparing the Dynamo losing Cabezas to the Texans losing Watson to injury. Deranged Trump Syndrome must be at work.

Now the hat guy can’t understand how folks wouldn’t view the season “anything but positive”!!

 

Yea, when he said all that and then followed it with "We won the Open Cup, ******** you" I turned it off.

 

I had it on replaying on in the background and caught one thing from that ball cap guy about how winning the USOC meant more than winning the 2007 MLS Cup. At that point it’s not worth any time and attention unless you like unintentional comedy

 

I've made this point before, what LAG does is go sign a sure thing with the requisite money for that certitude. And they get 21 goals for it. The mix of those players is off right now, which is cyclical with LA.

We go cheaper, by definition, riskier players, less certitude. For every Elis you can expect a Lundkvist, because the whole idea is we are trying to be sneaky smart about unproven players. We can pretend that's better, but it's not. It's kind of like chasing USOC when the serious teams don't bother because they are after MLS.

I actually think the more successful part of the team is the younger value players, but we make too many mistakes and hold onto them too long. Lundkvist should have lasted maybe 3 games and then the contract be torn up and back on a plane to Sweden you go. "I'm homesick" or whatever non soccer excuse. And the batting average on value is poor. If we're this cheap we can't have this many flops. At some point this has to go to the GM. You can't be cheap AND inefficient.

Nor should you be cheap AND foreign dependent. But RGV/HGP, just be real with yourself about how many players we sign out of that and how many become productive contributors. And while Memo has many fans on here I increasingly see him as another dud. Latest in a series of players marginal to whether it should be tail end of MLS or down to USL as their long term home. Other teams have teenagers coming in and being more productive in a game than he is in a season. We are so thirsty the odd decent play has him being some stud. His overall play and stats don't support that.

I basically argued I think when you look at how we stand up next to Seattle, some of these players like Cabezas don't look so hot anymore. I think in triage terms they are not the first concerns. But when I watch Cabezas make a weak effort to tug a player who then goes in and makes the assist, hmm, maybe he is the guy to have if our ambitions are Beat San Jose, but not if we have higher expectations. Y'all aren't as bad as the fanboys but when we're acting like Cabezas is saving the day you might notice the games he doesn't play so well, and think about where that stacks us big picture. A lot of our problem is mid/back/supporting cast. But some of it, going full circle, is our best players aren't exactly Zlatan and Kante. I don't get why that was thoroughly applied to the frustrating Torres but not to the others.

 

you know when i was on 2 different radio shows over 5 years or invited to guest on any shows/podcasts i started with the premise that i wasn't a real journalist AND that i couldn't possibly know everything about soccer in the entire world.....

so i took the advice of my dad (who was a journalist in a previous life...he was on the crime beat), my brother (who has a communications degree and writes corporate white papers for a living), and fellow UofH alum Bernardo Fallas (Go Coogs!) and RESEARCHED my ass off for a minimum of 2 hours for each show (usually more). that's what journalism is about otherwise you're "just talkin' loud, sayin' nothin' (Willie D).

 

If that is who I think it is, they should know better but I'm not surprised they don't

 

The hat guy is on Twitter @SeanRingrose . Look, everyone has an opinion and if you can back it up I always view an opposing viewpoint as fair even if I disagree. But some of their “takes” are just so off and not supported by data or results or even perception that they seem silly and full of Orange Kool-Aid, especially on the player development and academy stuff, we have 12 years of history of poor results

 

You can bash LA for how the spend on big name DP's, but look what most of those hose done in this league....

Zlatan- 21 goals in 23 games
Keane- 104 goals in 165 apps 3 MLS Cups in 4 Appearances (probably best DP in MLS History)
David Beckham 20 goals in 118 apps 41 assis 2 MLS Cups- Let's not forget the exposure he gave the MLS due to his brand that opened doors to the possibility of others coming here

 

These are the same guys that were upset about RGVFC doing shitty and not making the playoffs. Sean made a comment about where were the haters when we were winning the US Open Cup and now they are back now.... Dude is delusional! Because we celebrated the one of two positive notes from this year, we aren't allowed to still hate what we see?


BTW Philly is the Revolution of the US Open Cup... lol just realized that.

 

He made some comment about how the Dynamo were going to be developing a second MLS-ready squad of 11 at RGVFC to supplement CCL and things like that since the parent club isn’t like Tigers or an EPL team that has a deep second team squad. We can’t even get useable MLS reserves from RGV now!!!

The other item was now some whining about how since the Dynamo don’t own Houston Sports Park they can’t always control their practice time or something like that.

 

really none of their comments made any sense. It's like they are making an excuse for an excuse or something along those lines.

 

Figures. Worked with him before and my comment stands

 

One team is going to the playoffs and one is not. These comparisons have some merit but it seems because the Dynamo can’t sustain any success, our only argument is to point out how much other teams pay more for their squad than the Dynamo

http://mobile.twitter.com/cisco0602/status/1050941229926686720

 

no