This is playing out just like 2011 - that year the Dynamo didn’t win on the road until September that year. Dynamo have advances to the conference final only winning 2 road games all year
Didn't see that coming. Was that our first win on carpet? Willis made some great saves to keep us in it. After Portland scored first I thought we'd fold, but these guys actually have heart and grit.
I wasn't referring to the away leg, but yeah, two-midweek games... even better. Oh MLS. Anyone else find it pretty awesome that Senderos, a player with only like 5 appearances for us, wore the armband? I know he might not bleed orange, but the guy is a leader. Ever since Boswell left this team hasn't really had a vocal leader. I think too many of us overlook the leadership on the backline role.
Wowzers. I hadn’t realize Portland fans were such poor losers. All the it was BBVA field’s fault, the Dynamo time wasted, blah blah. You had 188 minutes to shit us up and you didn’t. What did you need another 8 minutes?
The Cascadia fans are just insufferable when it comes to this kind of stuff. They have a legitimate argument in terms of how much injuries impacted their team. Losing Mattocks to an elbow from Cabezas In the 15 minute or whateverdidn’t help either. I know the Dynamo had some injuries but I’m sorry losing Leonardo was not a giant loss. Merritt Paulson maybe should have spent more time yesterday morning about his team then worrying about gun control.
Oh, yeah, you're right, from our long history with Portland we know them to be absolute sweethearts. To be clear, to me it's only a "dive" if there is no contact. If Ridgewell shoves Torres in the open field it's not his responsibility to catch himself or undersell what happened. I remember maybe one play that could be literally called a "dive" (I think it was Elis) but even on that one the Timbers player had gone in hard on the slide tackle and it was just that I didn't see the contact. But I've personally ended up doing a baseball slide after low or no contact slide tackles because you end up taking evasive action to avoid serious injury. Personally I was the sort of player who tried to stay on my feet but I also think x% of calls I didn't get for the effort, plus I pulled a hamstring once trying to stay up.
Torres went in there once or twice and clambered into Ridgewell off the ball. To me what Torres and Elis did serves to draw attention to fouling of our players, and to place pressure on their backs where they can't just make relaxed passes. Part of team defense is everyone getting stuck in. Granted, in some calm random game I don't want Elis throwing a bow and getting a red. This was not one of those games. Our guys would get shoved over trying to do holdup play. So you need to either hold your ground harder, or show them who means business, or take the foul, or get a new profession. If you try and keep your feet and lose possession all night like Jozy sometimes does, you're wasting my time. Worse, you're not earning the foul you deserve. You don't keep possession, you don't earn fouls, and you don't earn respect or at least opposing cards. You have to do some mix of that to be worth my time.
In practical (and ref) terms the Cabezas/Mattocks play was no different than Machado/Asprilla later on. Two guys up for a header. The arms up in the Cabezas case are basic protection. This was not someone with no intent on the ball throwing an elbow. I mean, I couldn't quite tell but it almost looked to me like Cabezas won the header.
How awesome is y'all's Monday today?!? I mean, how long has it been since a Monday was like this where us in Houston have a World Series winning team and another team playing like gang busters, punching above.their weight, certainly by beating the best team in our West. ON THE ROAD NO LESS! DAMN!!! I as well thought that after conceding that first goal right before halftime, the flood gates would break and Portland was going to roll. But Remick had that incredible equalizer just before the break! And then the second half cage match! HA! I will enjoy remembering that volley of an equalizer from Remick, that BOMBAZO from our young cafetero and 8 minutes of stoppage time. Our coach's sideline reaction on TV was just funny as it was what all of us were thinking...8 F'N MINUTES!!! Thanks for coming out Portland. DALE DYNAMO!!!
They need to figure out something for the wingback spots. I felt like Senderos and Machado played well but the wings were vulnerable. If Alex doesn't play better he doesn't need to see the field.
Winning the header is grit and technique. I made winning any and all air contested battles my bread and butter! Helped playing basketball so much as well. Getting up to the ball first and having one's arms out is standard. Leading with an elbow however should be noticed by any good ref. I am very thankful that this was noticed as a 50-50 ball, in a playoff encounter night where no ill intent was made by our man Cabezas. Mattocks going to the locker room and no booking on our part was just going to be the game setting the standard for a very combative and chewed up match of soccer.
Mattocks is a one trick pony too bad he got hurt but it is a physical game and I have seen him kick defenders being aggressive to get a turnover so it happens in the back and forth. Nagby is a skilled player but he is too soft and credit Alex Elis Cabezas Martinez collectively never let him have the ball freely on the field. Alexander with some composed shielding and holdup to distribute forward in transition from the defense. A clear group effort to close down Valeri. Anibaba not melting. Machado using that Calvo. Senderos poking and heading things away at the last moment. Remick making up for that slip. Torres for being as physical as I have seen him. For Mauro being a young striker that will strike if you disrespect him by not closing him down. Quality sub in Boniek in really giving us energy and pace to deny Portlands midfield. This team is better coached than the teams we have had since the last MLS cup final.
This game is a microcosm of Nagby's potential - he is not USMNT caliber until he learns to be able to handle the physicality of being challenged and to actually perform his defensive duties. I kept hoping he would change his attitude but it looks like it is just his nature to be soft. Weak minded player and I curse the time we wasted with him on this qualifying cycle. He is one of the big reasons why we are out of the world cup.
My point about coaching - how bad were some of the same players last year? I really criticized keeping Alexander and others before but we don't have this streak without that smarter, improved play and depth this year.
OK - my last point. At the beginning of the year - how frightening was Elis and Qiuoto were in not EVER tracking back on the outside to help out on defense. I see improved commitment in total team defense from the midfield to up top. Credit to Cabrera.
Quioto got hurt and since then has largely subbed. The coach has been willing to start some pretty random people instead of Quioto. I find that telling and there is little doubt whether that is a coaching decision. I know he is "ours" (and for example Elis is not) but I will be curious if that continues long into the future. Now, Elis tracking back, I'm genuinely curious whether that's a switch in his head flipping or the coach rattled his cage and he responded. But I think he is out there probably more for continued diverse danger (at some point Quioto kind of reduced to cutting in for a banana shot, while Elis can win headers or run at people, a la Kamara) than per se for tracking back. Tracking back is iceing on the cake and takes us from marginal playoff to a solid defense. I don't see a bunch more effort over the season in the back 7 to play team defense. The middle 3 in the formation are actually chosen primarily to defend. At least 2 of the 3. And has been that way since day 1. Really since day 1 it's been 9 guys defending, including Torres when he plays. The difference is the wing forwards tracking back. To me true team defense requires complete commitment of all 11. If I can go down one or the other wing and create unguarded mismatches then you can actually use aggression against itself. Everyone started coming out of spot. All due respect to some of the premise here but Barrett had 11 people committed to defense and the team sucked. Some of this is simply talent and athleticism. I wouldn't trust last year's defense to stop anyone with everyone back. We can laud commitment and I would grant it's gone from 8 or 9 to 11, but last year we could have 11 people chasing around and still allow 40+. This is simply a better team. And at least some of the difference is we commit 3 forwards forward and they remain dangerous on into the late stages of a game. Recent years it would have been a bunker job with one man forward and even he might be chasing back too. This year there are outlets to play the ball to when won, there is speed where a team either respects the counter or gets burned, and there is a simple ability to run clock while either going for a Manotas winner or playing keepaway. One of the deteriorations in KinnearBall over the years was from a balanced team that could both defend and yet still threaten to score another, and the bunkerball with 2 DMs it became, where we might be lucky to pass the halfline in possession. That to me was always a distorted caricature of what this team "is," and I am glad to see that we are now as interested in chasing winners as sitting on a result. The best defense is sometimes being other end of the field.
JC - We all know how Barrett set the team up last year - my point was how improved the defense was from the beginning of the year especially from the midfield to up top. A lot more blood and sweat defending from Martinez, Cubo, along with Elis last night. Your remarks about Quioto are true - why else would Wenger be playing over him except for the fact that Wenger busts his ass both ways and has more desire for team results.
Suitability to roles. Last year we were playing 1 forward sometimes and desperate for creativity. You instead had a bunch of defensive mids. So we're starved for possession and service and Alexander was not the incisive Pirlo we felt we needed. This year the mids' responsibility is either starting the attack or defending. The forwards handle the offense largely among themselves. They have a specialist destroyer job and are more suited to it. I'm not going to oversell what I am seeing, I think the midfield is weak, and while hustling within a team concept and effective, ok, see what they do in some game where the offense is completely clogged and we need an incisive midfield ball they aren't capable of, and they're also needing to stop Giovinco. Personally I'd like to see a true playmaker and then 2 DMs who cover more ground faster. But I will grant that the formation and division of labor are more flattering to the lunchpail players, who have basically been able to pass off the creative responsibilities elsewhere. But to me on a lot of those regular season road losses you saw what happened when the other team got back on defense (we ran out of ideas) or was able to attack in larger numbers or down the wings, and that was that the mids aren't creative on their own and not so fleet afoot they cover from touchline to touchline.
Team defense has long been the premise around here, I see continuity in general, including to last year's Tie-namo, but you had some issues with a couple new players on immediate buy-in. But if you go back to opening day it wasn't attack attack but rather counter, win the ball and get it wide early, or (an aspect that disappeared over time) have Torres win it with deep pressure. The flaw in terms of table effectiveness was team defense requires complete buyin. Since the issues persisted well into August and September I am curious how much is coaching and how much is internationals saving energy for a long club/country grind still not complete for some. It comes across to me like the Hondurans see the finish line and potential dual success and the effort level has gone up. Having had the schizophrenia of Carlos Costly we shouldn't be surprised, nor would I assume it has to be the coach.
Good shout. Watched him a lot yesterday. He was directing the whole team constantly. He was telling Willis where to put goal kicks. He pulled the team together after the POT goal and rallied them. He was directing folks on set pieces. Where is the team now without him? I don't think the WCF.
Re Nagbe, I butt heads with some on here about "two way players" and such hybrid concepts but to me high level soccer is at the best levels often a specialist enterprise. You need people to do specific things. The "two way" advocates seem to want to tell me that some of a couple things is enough, or that you way total utility. But thinking about US soccer history, ask yourself how Nagbe compares to the great specialists, and what it is he "does." Is he a winger? DM? Playmaker? If you struggle to typecast that tells you something. Compare to Pulisic. The issue there is not suitability to role but rather sticking to a decision on which one. Is he a 10 or a wing. You can try and "hybrid" out of the question on paper but sometimes you need actual playmaking or destruction and it's either done or not. The US some nights struggled for lack of creation, and most nights for inability to end attacks with midfield ball winning. Nagbe is supposed to be fixing one or both of those. If he doesn't then hybrid nonsense aside I need someone who does. If they just happen to also excel in some other facet that is a two-fer. But we need better basic competence at their positions (particularly defense). There was a point there when Nagbe would play centrally but like Cameron get a head of steam downfield, drifting somewhat to a side, commit defenders, then set up a wing. He quit being that at some point and then he's not a great legbreaker or pure playmaker. It's not just his fault, I think we have some pure wing types plus Pulisic but then we have too much central mediocrity and don't really have destroyers and what we instead have is "slash" players decent at a few jobs but not really dominant at one. What we really need is another generation of Jermaine Jones or for Nagbe to elevate his game to 10 or wing levels.