I showed up just after Boniek was subbed in. That's the worst I've ever seen him play. Thought he was genuinely the worst player on the pitch. Second goal was his fault, giveaway on a horrible pass. During the time I was there, Sanchez looked pretty poor as well. Generally the team looked toothless. SKC looked far more imposing.
Yes the ref totally botched a clear penalty... ... but come on... ...2 shots on goal at home (of which i can not remember either) Pathetic display...
It was obvious by the line up that Cabrera has different priorities. That's why I did not waste my time going.
https://www.houstondynamo.com/post/...sed-youngsters-houston-dynamos-open-cup-loss? what did/do people think of bird and ward?
It might not be Cabrera's decision alone. let's face it he's going to be evaluated on whether or not this team makes the playoffs and if he's gonna waste guys on the US open cup that puts a lesser chance of getting some points on Colorado.
I like both players but I am not sure they have the speed and athleticism for MLS 4.0 smart players pretty tidy with the ball and passing, albiet a few turnovers worked very hard Cabrera had them sit back as two defensive midfielders in the 4231
I can see situations where tactically we might want a DM sub to milk clock. We tend to use an out of position attacker instead. So there might be a use for one lunchpail type. We have had some trouble closing things out. Is there anyone decent in the pipeline you would consider a creative type? We seem good at training up workhorse mids but not forwards, creative mids, or backs. I wonder what happened there because there used to be a Soto/Navas Cobo type we'd routinely promote up.
Is it possible that Cabrera thinks the Supporter Shield is still a possibility? Or at minimum a Western Conference Supporter Shield that would guarantee home field advantage throughout the playoffs and the way the Dynamo have played at home, well.
I don't disagree with Cabrera. I think he did what he had to do to prioritize maxing points in the campaign.
Driving past the obvious. Three Hondurans out for Gold Cup. Old defense that is nonetheless heavily relied on for league on a weekly basis. Ditto Clark. Old team minus a few spring chickens. Badly need playoffs and no one cares about USOC unless you win. Gonna need some B teamers the next few weeks just because. July is gonna be interesting. Run the kids out and do not blink. As I said the other day, I felt it was more an expression that we lack downroster quality to compete for cups, which we handle by continuing to improve the team over time, as opposed to a poor decision of how to handle the schedule at a meta level. There are some good teams that chase USOC but they usually have deep rosters which tolerate it. We were trying to win with a combination of bench players and minor leaguers. That should be better than minor league oppo but SKC had better dregs than we did. Is what it is, improve the tail end of the roster if you care. Used to be Wondo and other decent players would see minutes in these games. I feel like the "but we could win SS" ideas are in the neighborhood but that I doubt this is about specific finish but rather general playoff trajectory. Really, it's more that we are no longer wilderness suckage with nothing else to play for and thus reason to push more chips into USOC. To me USOC is the playground of the deep and rich, and the sucky with nothing else to do. We are neither, a decent home team with an inch deep of quality. Enough quality to have ambitions but not enough where we could send out the scrubs and win. I don't want to go backward to running the A team out for something to cheer for so improve the depth instead.
If he cant figure out how to get some wins on the road its flawed thinking. Wont overtake KC or Dallas any other way.
MLS playoffs are a first team crapshoot to some extent. You can surprise yourself. I would rather buy that ticket and see if they draw my numbers than chase USOC with a difficult to predict B team lineup and have basically nothing to gain for anything but first. With all the Gold Cup callups there is no unscathed first team concept to be fielding in anything this July. If you advanced in USOC you weren't going to have players for the next rounds. As it is league is going to be an exercise in adaptation. By its nature it's going to be slapped together and potentially too 2016 for my liking. So I'd throw my energy into league because we'll need every point we can get. I think second place is going to your heads because I'd be worried how we will get points in July minus two key forwards on a forward centric team. I wouldn't have a SS-based strategy with any team, even leading the standings, until late September or perhaps even October. Among other things a team tight at the top but safe from the line might rest players to gun for the cup rather than field its first selections to max out table spots. I can't believe in that kind of situation we'd favor SS over playoffs. That's Euro-snob-think. I'm not sure many MLS teams care about that unless it's a low risk pursuit.
I can't believe a team with our road woes, midfield depth issues, defensive glitches, is like we'll just keep playing the same way.