Houston Dynamo v. Vancouver Whitecaps, Saturday, March 16

Boy, seems like our little Dynamo BigSoccer fan base (as you know, thr Dynamo Deplorables) is less than fired up about this big early-season Western tilt vs. Vancouver.

Cabezas is out with what they say is a right thigh injury so I would be concerned it’s a reinjury from last year and will linger.

I dunno, maybe we will set the record for smallest attendance at BBVA for an MLS game that wasn’t postponed or delayed?

 

No worries... I'm bringing some folks to the game... We're 10 total! Holding my breath until we get Philippe Coutinho signed from Barça.

 

May be a legitimate fight between the Dash and Dynamo on actual attendance figures this year. Shocking today.

 

There will be a litany of excuses given - 5th home game in 3 weeks (although most Dynamo fans didn’t actually go to either CCL game), Rodeo, afternoon game conflicts with activities, spring break for many, etc. but there should be no doubt the visuals today show that the Dynamo ownership and organization have severely wounded and damaged the fan base with their actions over the last few years.

Today’s crowd should go on Chris Canetti’s epitaph

Are there 5k people in the stadium? I know they will announce 11 or 12k.

 

Fans determine the market price of the Dynamo ticket. The Market does not view the price of the ticket is worth the show.

I would have gone to the game if the tickets were cheaper. Evidently season ticket holders are not bothering to sell them at a reduced cost and the Front office has been holding the line on promotional sales so no tickets at reasonable prices so far. I suspect as the season wears on the few season ticket holders will have more fatigue and will either sell them for much cheaper prices. The front office will have to come up with more deals to get people in seats. Of course if they go on an unbeaten streak all the way into the summer demand will go up but that is pretty speculative - we haven't played any habitual contenders yet (Portland KC NYRB CC LAFC SEA) or up and coming clubs (DCU maybe Chicago).Montreal hasn't played anyone yet - RSL is decent but not the level of the traditional clubs.

I still see a team that is too weak defensively that can actually win an MLS cup. Vancouver is not a good team. Their two forwards kept them in the game.

 

Memo helps us so much more in possession than Elis and Quioto. He also makes Martinez much better because Memo helps a lot more defensively than the other two.

To me both penalties were bogus. Maybe the one he awarded us was a make up call for Montero's dive.

Good to see Elis make some good crosses and for us to have an offense where we keep the ball on the ground and have creative movement and passing in the final third. This happens because of the addition of Memo's movement into the equation.

 

I was a bit concerned when the Starting XI was announced as there appeared to be places on the field that I thought what Wilmer was looking for was not to come to fruition once the ball was kicked! Boy was I wrong n pleasantly surprised! I thought with Figeuroa out that Struna and Swede would not play so well with Kevin Garcia installed there to cover missing Figeuroa's presence. But Garcia held his own and Swede really got up the wing to send in solid crosses that got our forwards motors running. Then Memo is free to roam in front of Martinez, who needs shooting practice bigtime, and Vera. Out right Elis got fired up tonight and played box to box like we know he can, that first assist sliced across the 6 and Memo was not gonna miss that sitter!
We know Vancouver are in rebuild mode and a club that sold their incredibly gifted youth player to Bayern so we should beat these guys at home, yet perhaps the CCL demands have us playing faster and more direct than all the other MLS teams are ready for being this is just their third game. Thid was our seventh!
Still, good on our boys to secure the home win!

DALE DYNAMO!

 

I concur - this is a playoff team likely a 5-7th place Western team that can score but struggles defensively. Although last year this game would have ended 3-3 with a late tying goal.

As far as attendance, they announced 13,454 which I guess is feasible but also implies a lot of sections with no one it were sold out or given away . Frankly it seems like a fib and Not a believable one. Understand 13k is roughly 60% tickets sold which seems unlikely given today’s visuals.

 

Give credit to MacNamara who gave us more strength in challenges in the midfield when the other teams go kick and scramble towards the end of the game.

He has decent technical skills enough to help us hold the ball late. An upgrade over Alexander from last year cuz he’s got quicker feet and more pace.

So this year instead of an Eric Alexander or Luis Gil or an Arturo Alvarez we have better bench players like Hairston & Alexander.

 

I think someone was slow to back track to help Struna on that cut back for the goal. Not sure which midfielder it was but it appeared they were making an effort to get back to help but gave up on it half way - after the goal the other defenders were yelling at him. My view is that Struna saw help coming and decided to make him cut back into the trailing team mate. Problem was the help quit on him. Memo Vera Martinez?

 

Ok, I watched the replay on that goal. The trailing player De La Garza who was sprinting at first to get back but slacked off too much. You could see Struna signaling him with his hand for him to help on the inside. AJ realized too late.

I would say Willis was a little out of position as well - maybe didn’t shuffle over quick enough when the cutback happened.

The penalty call on Lundquist was debatable but he made the sin of misjudging that ball and turned his back on it when he didn’t need to. If he hadn’t turned around he could have got his head on it.

 

Elis and Quioto were on today which is nice to see. Hell of a game from Memo and Elis.

Struna I guess doesn’t realize DeLaGarza’s slow as molasses? Regardless that was a dumb play by Struna. Don’t let your man cut in on goal.

Wingback play is going to kill this team. Beasley is the only adequate one we have. Swede can put in some pretty crosses, but absolutely can’t defend. He needs to notch an assist a game for this to be worth it at this point because he’s conceding goals at that rate. Get this Junqua kid into the mix.

DeLaGarza had a howler to me. He was dead by the second half and was an easy target.

Edit: Vera not as outright awful, but he still had a Ceren moment on the turnover that caused the goal Struna screwed up on. Also played a beautiful ball to Elis to set-up the second Memo goal. If he can cut the dumbass turnovers he might be a decent piece.

 

Yeah, Vera plays hard, appears to be a rugged player, but he apparently is good for one howler of a back pass to the wrong team or a lunging tackle for a booking in midfield no less each game.

 

I see better things than last year. Better team defending, but not what it needs to be. If the team improves

Late in the game the Dynamo struggled to see out a 1-goal win against only 10 Whitecaps. DLG up in the box getting caught-out with 10 minutes to go a goal up. That is the same type of stupid stuff WC has done the last two years.

I thought it was an ugly game because one-team was pretty bad (vcw) and the other team was either not-good or heavy-legged from 6 games in three weeks.

Vera is young and is making some huge turnover mistakes, but he is not the only one. Dynamo need to clean that up.

But the offense looks better to my eyes. The defense looks better.

We still don't know what we have though until the team goes on the road or drops more points at home. However, we are through our CCL phase into a long break with 7 points from 3 home games. Job done.

The Cabezas situation just bewilders me.

 

That was kind of what I was getting at when I said we improved the bench but not the lineup. The question I had was whether the lineup could keep us in games such that the bench matters. So far, yes.

I think it helps all of these are generous defenses, and the next 3 games will continue that.

MacNamara hustles and gets in for aerial stuff.

I have seen little from Hairston but he has raw athleticism to tap into if he gets his game reworked. There is more raw stuff to work with than Alvarez by last year.

 

It's a production position. If he produces more than Quioto there you have it. If not, no, because he's basically a hustling slow plodder. His issue in previous years was like many wunderkind brought in he'd have a nice goal and then not do much for 10 games. Like 6-goal Manotas before him, the question is consistent stepping it up.

To be real, Vancouver for reasons I cannot explain was literally leaving him unguarded on the weak side. But if you assist or poach every week I won't care.

I thought their kick was real. A fairly high chop is going to look like that and Lundkvist -- who often looks improved -- reverted to form. Count them up and it's not pretty. I thought ours was softer but he did trip him and to me the basic premise was jab for the ball but make sure he didn't stay on his feet. Missed ball and he went with the light trip. Could be a no call but wasn't a dive. To me a dive is only if you're untouched, and is overused. If someone does trip you this is just selling.

 

The team defending improvement is systemic, that 442 approach, plus Vera, who while a turnover machine does a solid job of covering ground and harassing. Boniek also does some good work getting back and cleaning up messes.

The backline itself, you still see that if they get to the final 4 the goals are fairly easy and soft. People talk up Struna but that's a couple now and he was going to backpedal into his own net. The wingbacks are iffy.

On the Struna goal I thought he stupidly pointed where he wanted backside help which is where the attacker then cut and scored. dlG was the helper but was several yards away. I think it's fair that dlG is slow enough he couldn't help. But Struna needs to know who he is working with in terms of how he defends. If I had slow help I assumed I was on my own til they arrived. I thought Struna kind of was ushering a guy to line that was nowhere near the line. He erred on that side and gave him the cutback.

We gave up 2 goals yesterday and are on pace for 40+ so I'm not gonna act like "problem solved." But it won't be 58-goals-bad. You wanna fix the problem get some better, athletic backs where it's not so easy if you make the last line.

 

I think we have had a very friendly schedule so far but this same set of opposing teams last season were 1T 3L so the worm is turning, and a lot of last year was those 10 or so games we handed away with a lead or tie. We were not 2016 uncompetitive. We just lost almost every close game late and handed away points. That adds up. This is not a blow the doors off championship type team -- and if you go back and look many of these games were tied or down in the second half -- but we are squeaking late results, opposite of last year, and it's those marginal gains in marginal games that I see as deciding who makes the playoffs as a low seed. Now if you want a team to keep up with the real stud sides, get out your checkbook, that whole analysis remains true. The old Dynamo usually had a key game or two to clinch but not because they had to live in real fear of being outside the line.

 

Memo ********ing Rodriquez!!! enough said about this is HOMEGROWN PRODUCT!!!!

Elis finally decided to check in to a game and look what he does.... 2 assist and 1 goal!

Struna.... you make TOTW and then you let a guy bait you to the outside knowing his only play on goal is inside. Gotta do better than that, but outside that embarrassment he played solidly.

our problems are still there, but to see us get 7 points in three games at home makes me happy. The road awaits us and it hasn't been our friend.

 

Speaking of homegrown - we need to sign Marcelo Palomino as soon as possible. Give the kids from Houston a chance Wilmer.

 

Palomino ain’t happening. He’s likely heading to Europe and was/is trialing with Porto. There was an instagram of him a week ago with a Houston sports doctor captioning it as him “getting ready for Porto.”

 

Well if Porto doesn't pan out - re-offer him!