having their defense shored up with alphonso davies to counter elis worked. the Senderos sub really hurt us. Not having Cabezas instead of Alexander late didn’t help. We hust did not have a complete tram performance and the ref made two crucial incorrect decisions against us. I thought we looked good with the high press and possession but Manotas did not playwell / looked very frustrated / feeling pressure. Once we tired out by the 70 minute we ran out of ideas and continued to lump crosses into a packed box if giants.
I agree that we need a #9 someone like Kei Kamara who can be an aerial threat and someone who can unlock defenses / chip in goals at the attacking midfield spot #10 like Lee Ngyuen. both were available to us at one time
Rey we look so much better in attack with someone who has pace even in this loss. Cubo was a pretty Mexican pony but he was a horrible #9 here.
Cubo wouldn't have changed that one bit. Cubo would have been falling over and at best drawn some kicks. But unless you got a PK, or wised up to their strategy and approached things different, you needed a crosser and a battering ram and didn't put either out there. Cubo is neither. At the tail end of last season Cabrera figured out a pattern that worked well, but today was like some of the games earlier in the season where he seemed rote and asleep at the wheel. Pulling forwards for forwards when what you need is service, ie, get the lunchpail mids off and get some finesse in. Boniek, Memo, lesser extent Alvarez. What they were missing was the sort of crosses Boniek hit last week. If you weren't going to be bright enough to keep the ball on the ground, that is. It's fair enough that Senderos messed subbing up but the subs lacked impact and didn't seem to speak to what the game needed. If what you need is a Brad Davis-accurate ball, the people he subbed on weren't the ones to do it.
The Dynamo had their chances but were wasteful. Against top teams, they need to finish chances that they have. The fullbacks overlapped well providing width in the attack, but attacker’s could not get the ball off of their feet quickly and shoot. Also, the defense was exposed on the second goal. It was a winnable game but the Dynamo lacked quality. Quioto brought a bit of attack when he came on, and hopefully starts games soon.
They were wasteful up top but I could tell you that before this one, it's always going to be bushels of chances and finish x%, would have been even with Cubo. The goal came up the same wing channel as your overlapping fullbacks who couldn't quite deliver the cross needed. Bunch of decent crosses but few of high quality. That's why Machado is attempting to mark Shea but lacking in the necessary jet pack, is, we're too far up and Garcia is nowhere to be found. The counter team got countered. Most of the time we whacked the crosses lofted, the rare instances they didn't, we had a few chances I can rattle off where someone got ball to feet and span and shot and either keeper gets a hand or it goes just wide. You're acting like I have a dumb idea when I can't remember a header height ball that made the keeper work.
I liked what I saw yesterday. They generated chances and Vancouver's goalie came up big a few times. If we can improve on converting a few more of those chances, we'll do well. Our goal came by patient play in the box and not a fast break. I was encouraged by that. Our passing and quickly switching fields is much improved over last season. Maybe I missed something watching at home with a 2yr and 4month old but overall I was encouraged.
What needed to be done -get people on field who could take long shots and hit more precise balls in (Davis mentioned but couldn’t seem to grasp lacking players to execute) -stay a little more back and give width to switch faster -go ahead and just turn the corner like the first goal last week, instead of taking easy but low percentage crosses -work the ball into feet instead of trying to outdo a physically dominant back line
I think Van is just going to be tough this year but this is where you earn your pay check; cubo is classic example player disappears this kind of test
FWIW it used to be a common anti-Dynamo tactic to harass and double Davis and try and make him turn back and pass to Ashe. I'd rather have the wing forwards winning corners and fouls than see so many crosses from backline players who aren't as effective. Hell, have the wings sit on the chalk and if they want to defend 60 yards of wide real estate the gaps between the defenders will open up.
I think Senderos is our best centerback but he screwed us iver this game by losing his shit after that penalty. He then gets a yellow and then supposedly has a hamstring and gets pulled. that right there put things into motion the ways things played out. the ref helped Vancouver for sure - we deserved a tie at the least. Unlucky to lose that game.
Hmmm. Low attendance deeply saddens me. The Dynamo have a team that is exciting to watch. I can't even explain why I don't feel like going to the stadium any more. The reasons are plenty. I don't feel like supporting a team that doesn't want to spend the money to sign big name players. First LA Galaxy, then Seattle, then Toronto... while it doesn't guarantee you an MLS cup, you need to spend money to get a player that will make a difference when needed and will bring even more excitement to the stadium. And I just don't like listening to the FO and their silly marketing campaigns. And there is the difficulty of selling a seat when you buy season tickets. And the sumemr heat, and parking, and the long concesion lines, and the traffic, and the lack of atmosphere in some areas of the stadium, the desorganization, them security guards, long entry lines, and so on. Instead, I am spending my money on things that bring me more happiness. I wonder why other people are not showing up? I suspect most soccer-loving folks in Houston still see MLS as a Mickey Mouse league and don't see a reason to go to the games.
I caught a good amount of the game on the KUBE-57!! Dynamo were "the better side" on the day but got zero points. Vancouver really took parking the bus to the extreme but until the Dynamo show they can break teams down and score outside of the counterattack and some set pieces expect to see a lot more of it. - I thought Vancouver did a decent job of working the ball out of the back and avoid the crushing turnovers that the Dynamo are excellent in converting to goals. - Senderos goes off injured - once again, we have an old and injury-prone backline that is supported by volume not quality - If Martinez isn't the creative answer in these situations where we have to breakdown a compact defense with passing and creativity, may be a bad sign. - There seems to be an unusual amount of whining about the ref - I thought he was shaky and the PK for Kamara was weak but people forget that last year the Dynamo got a good amount of PKs early in the year and then got less as the year went on, partially because Cubo and others were diving constantly. After 2 games the Dynamo aren't as good as 4-0 vs. Atlanta and as bad as 2-1 loss yesterday.
I'll address some of this in the "Dynamo 2018 Attendance & Off-Field Performance Review" thread. You'd think after 3 non-playoff seasons and a really bad 2016 that everyone would be so starved for a good team that fans would flock back and be excited but it hasn't happened, which I think speaks to just how badly this organization took some of its legacy fans for granted and underestimated how hard it would be to sell new fans in this market.
looks like my fear of us being a one trick pony came to fruition. if we can't surprise anyone on the counter, we can't score. so much for all the talk of learning how to go to "plan b" in the preseason. still waiting for the hype about Manotas to materialize. his sub should have come 20 mnts earlier. his missed header is inexcusable. how do we have 1000 corner kicks and not one come close to being dangerous? how is it we never changed strategy from desperately smashing a ball into the center of the box where waston owned the space the whole game? where the 500 short corner attempts supposed to beat him? I lost count of the terrible services into the box as well. I'm ashamed at our inability to professionally get the ball into the box with targeted purpose regularly. especially from the corner. expect most teams to come here and do exactly what VC did. bunker and waste time. especially when they get the lead. until we can show that we can break down a team with a half field, possession offense, we will be stuck relying on our one trick. a trick that every team in the league is aware of.
Agreed. I want to believe Manotas will do better because he has all the ability to do so. I can't believe someone even mentioned "cubo" earlier, although not surprised because of who it was. If we aren't doing like for like sub with Mac Steeves then we need another striker. Elis hardly touched the ball once he became the "9". Overall we played well except for the final 3rd. I think it was already mentioned but had Mano and Wenger hit their chances early we are going up 2-0 and from there who knows but most likely would have looked like last week. Martinez first game back and had an "assist" which was more credit to Elis than himself. I would give him a couple more games to fully judge him but he was forgettable and nonexistent. They bunkered really well and had no answer to that, our fault for letting them score twice early although that PK was extremely weak. Kendall Waston was a beast back there.
Can we be real? If Martinez is not already knocking the ball around the park you basically know what you need to know. It's like Cubo. Even if he figures it out and produces some more, you know deep down it's not what you're looking for. I think he is actually a decent workhorse with ability to get forward but the workhorse part of the midfield is overloaded. Half the point to how that game went is we needed a little more precision out of the mids we weren't getting. They are out there to clog. Glenn Davis wanted long shots, I agree, but was there any Brad Davis out there to hit them? I thought the crosses needed to be just a little more precise -- although I agree we should have been up early with finishing -- but again, you have lunchpail people doing the creating, or in this game, also overlapping fullbacks. We're more effective right now in situations when the forwards playmake for each other. So they need to decide if they want to upgrade the forwards where we're not starting Wenger or depending on Quioto or Manotas so much; or whether those players would be what we need........if we had a Lodeiro equivalent in the midfield playing them around. If you're wondering what you were missing in terms of corners and crosses it was sitting on the bench and his name is Boniek. You can kind of blame Senderos there but then I would say it was obvious to me this was a park the bus game by second half and he subbed on Alvarez and Quioto. I still think whacking crosses all day was playing their post half time game plan but if you're going to play their game get your best crosser in.
To lob a stinker in here, I think Cabrera has an OK eye for players like Dom before him, but also like Dom lacks horse sense about how to change a game. I think at the end of the season he finally figured out a rotation and benched the right people and it clicked til we played a team with sufficient payroll to be above our pay grade. But to me, we got outcoached this time, they also lost a player injured too (lest we forget), and instead of rote subbing they pushed their fast kid back and put Shea in the attack -- not the obvious choice to many -- and it drove us nuts. The injury made them look better, not worse. Until then I thought it was even or perhaps favoring us with dumb luck on the penalty. But second half the road team from a cool climate looked faster and fitter and to have figured how to counter us, and while they would let us whack in crosses I think they were happy to do so. Yeah this was another where Cabrera is pushing the buttons to put his next two up in, regardless of whether it seems attuned to what's happening. I think over the course of a season if we are in contention he figures out lineups and key subs and will sit people who don't play well, even if they make a lot of salary. But at this stage in the season it's kind of like, why's he starting? Why's he subbing? And some of the choices like this that he'll take a few months to sort out, aren't that complicated........ I mean I could be forgiven for asking if Cabrera should be GM and we hire someone with a little more game feel to come up with lineups and subs. We have a GM. It's odd to talk about a coach who has a GM as the eye for talent. And then to be like, what is this lineup?
JC I think that Senderos leaving the game screwed us up again just like against Seattle. Really a liability if you have to use a sub on a field player who should be the freshest / runs the least during the game. Subs Alvarez had one good play and did not make much difference. Quioto had an overall positive impact. You can fault him with not having Steeves on the bench in case of an emergency - which unfortunately happened. Hopefully Steeves gets some playing time at RGV to prepare for first team substitution minutes.
Sort of... More than anything, it’s an extreme dislike of what is left on the roster. Lots of people want to blame Cubo for all the Dynamo ills but that’s ignorant. I compare this to when your dog has an accident in the house. Getting rid of Cubo is the equivalent of cleaning up the piss, but leaving a steaming turd in the middle of the living room. I was willing to give Matt Jordan the benefit of the doubt the first year and a half but at this point I don’t know what we’re playing at. There’s a lot of soccer people on here and Facebook and I’m disappointed at the lack of criticism concerning the make-up of this roster. It’s to the point where I agree with more than half of what JuveChelsea says. So you know something is rotten in Denmark. Don’t get me started on Canetti.....