Please use this thread for post-game discussion of the result, player performances, coaching decisions, officiating, etc. No Flaming. No Trolling.
Our performance was sadly lacking. There was little connection between our front line and defenders. I guess we missed Brian Ching.
So ********ing pissed. If i were not at my office i would start breaking shit right now. Seriously, this ruined my night of drinking. Brian Ching, hurt himself in warmups in Scandinavia on Wednesday. If you are going to tie an entire team to one player, at least pay attention to what the hell he does. So angry.
Really disappointing result, it wasn't like Columbus came out and played that well. Houston just looked off. Columbus scores on a defensive breakdown, but Houston had many, many chances that they should have made more of. Jaqua had several chances that he should have put away, and Ngwenya and DeRo had the ball in great spots several times but were too slow to take the shot. Clark was pretty much missing in action, not sure if it was something that Columbus did or just an off night from Rico. Mullan and DeRo really worked hard (as usual), and I thought Mulrooney played well, both defensively and offensively. But the other defenders (particularly Barrett) seemed slow tonight. While Ngwenya probably should have put away one of his chances, at least he was moving around and winning the ball and making things happen. Jaqua just didn't do anything (I know, he scored a goal, but it's hard to give him much credit for that one). I really think Jaqua is better at midfield than at forward, his first touch just lets him down so much at forward and he does not know how to use his size to win balls in the air. Wondo came on and provided somewhat of a spark, but by that time Jaqua and Ngwenya were so tired that they could never get to the ball. I would have liked to see Wondo play up top instead of in the midfield, so that there were some fresh legs up top at the end. Ashe had about 5 minutes of good offensive play in the beginning of the first half, but otherwise he was pretty much missing from the offense. Oh well, hopefully the team is close to getting back some of the other players and can start to put it back together for the final stretch and playoffs.
Not that it's that important, but Ching said he hurt his calf initially in the Dallas game. He said it was tight, but he thought it would get better so he went to Europe. Then when he was practicing it had gotten worse and he couldn't play. So don't be pissed about the team missing Ching, just be pissed at how poorly they played tonight!
we lost 2 points tonight because we just did not show up for the game. when you are up a man and at home you should win the game but sometimes it does not happen. One of the last play Jaqua head the ball right in front of the goal and nobody was there to put it in. Dero was 10 yards back if he would run up instead of falling back maybe we would have score but its history now lets see if we can win next Saturday.
A bright moment tonight before the game started. Paul Dalglish came out with the other "walking wounded" Brad Davis, Ching, Waibel etc. because they were presenting autographed balls to some sponsors before the game. Anyway, when that was all over Paul jogged across the field at a pretty good pace with no limp. I think that's a positive sign. Brad is still very tentative on his knee but not using crutches or anything. We had a lot of opportunities to score tonight but just didn't finish. In defense of Nate and Joseph, they got mugged all night. Lots of rough play and as usual, I think this ref (Abby?) is an idiot. He lets things go until they escalate to a fever pitch and then he cards everyone. Control the game early and this won't happen, IMO. I can barely speak we screamed and shouted so much.
Oh yeah, don't know why* but Senor Cool was "escorted" out of the stadium by the police during the game. He was let back in later so they must have given him a "time out" in the corner. *rumor has it that it had something to do with defacing a Bud Light sign. I have no proof of this allegation.
Defensively miserable the first half. Abbey is the worst ref in the game, why is he still allowed to officiate? Senor Cool says Don't Drink Bud Light! DRINK BACK POCH BEER!!!
Wait until they see what he has planned for the Beckhamites game. Anyway, the guys obviously didn't have the best outing tonight, but a bit of a letdown in intensity is understandable. They just had a physically and emotionally exhausting OT/PK semifinal with Pachuca, followed by another emotionally draining game with FCD. I know that some fans expect every player to come out every game and play as if there's no tomorrow, blah, blah, etc. But that's just not realistic. Good teams have outings like tonight in similar circumstances in leagues all over the world. Lulls in intensity will occur over the course of a long season (and tonight was their 32nd competitive game this year). These things happen. We'll be fine.
C Ashe sucks... i said it over and over again... did you see how bad he played and how the other players have lost confidence in him with no passing the ball or talking to him... Common Coach.. bench him.. now .. or trade him.. cerritos played better...
I agree with Anderson - disappointing result, but that happens sometimes. And I actually thought the team played ok, not as bad as some others. If Jaqua, Ngwenya, or DeRo could have finished one of the many chances they had, Houston wins and everyone is happy. Joseph was playing hurt, and it showed in the first half, as he was slower with the ball and didn't get his shot off quickly enough a couple of times. But he still worked hard, and he was able to hold the ball up and create some chances. His dangerous runs caused Gonazlez to get two yellow cards. Jaqua, however, was bad. As others have posted, he is not able to win the ball and hold it up, and he is so uncoordinated and slow to the ball on his runs that he can't win the ball in the box. If someone passes him the ball when he's open in the box, he can score. Otherwise, he doesn't bring much to the game. I think that DeRo and Clark were slowed down because Columbus really set their defense to clog up the middle and focus on them. Then, Houston looked like they kind of got used to staying out of the middle and either going up the flanks or sending a long ball. DeRo did create several chances, and also hustled on defense. Former Dynamo players (Moreno and O'Rourke) really hurt Houston tonight - O'Rourke made several nice defensive plays that stopped what looked to be great scoring chances. The one time he took the dive in the box and the ref stopped the play really pissed us off, though. I still don't get why Columbus got the free kick after that call. The defense was slow to respond early in the game, and that's what led to the Columbus goal. Too many guys were crowded around Scheletto and nobody picked up Moreno. Barrett got there late, but it looked like Ianni or Cochrane really should have been on Alejandro. But later in the match the defense did a good job. Mulrooney looked good, and Barrett worked hard but his passing out of the back was off, he gave it away too often. But considering how many guys were out for this game, and that Ngwenya (and Cochrane) were both playing hurt, it was not a bad effort.
A little harsh.....I didn't think Ashe played well, but he's just a rookie and he's going to make mistakes and play poorly at times. He's clearly not ready to start at this level, but Dom had limited options tonight. Maybe Wondo should have started, he at least has had some more experience and has seemed to be more consistent lately. But I suspect that Dom wanted to see if Ashe's speed up the wing could create offense tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't and Corey showed he has a lot to learn. But let's not get carried away about trading him, give him a chance to learn with the Reserves and he could be a good player in a year or two. It sounds like Holden will be back next week, and then Ashe will be back on the bench.
Wanted, one referee who has a clue to replace one who does not. Actually I shouldn't complain about Abbey, at least he isn't Vaughn. Like that means anything... Tonight was one of the best demonstrations of how much we miss Davis/Holden on that left side. Without one of them on the left we become a little too easy to stop in the middle or the right. (I think we have an easier time without Ching then without that left side.) Maybe DeRo should play on the left and use a 2 DM system with Clark and Mulrooney. But we would need a healthy Waibel to even consider that. But man do we ever need to do something with that left side. I'm beginning to think that Jaqua is only allowed 3 non-crappie touches a day (not game) and he burnt 2 of them up in pregame warm-ups and never got to his third one. What a sleestak. Ngwenya, Mullan and Wando seemed to be playing well. Too bad they were the only ones that looked like they cared. Clark looked like he needs to shake a lot of rust off. Not his usual top flight self. DeRo, for all his hustle at the end also had a lot of his "passes to nobody" again tonight. Ashe had a few WTF moments, but seems to be controlling his game better. There maybe upside yet. Maybe. No reason to comment on the defense individually. They took a nap in front of our goal and cost us 2 points on the table. Oh well, other then that they were okay.. Onstad can't be blamed for their goal. He got screwed by the defenders.
we call that in our house " the notty spot" for each year 1 minute, sitting in a corner, facing the wall . I guess Senor Cool is in the mid twenties, so he had to stare for about 25 min to a wall ....
Corey Ashe is a hell of a player, give him more time.His speed is just amazing, Rome wasn't build in 1 day !
Well, let's see.... man we should have beaten Columbus. But that said, I didn't think we played that bad, especially in the second half. And we had several shots that came close to going in, and other chances that we didn't finish properly, and several more chances to make shots that we didn't quite get around to taking. Columbus was playing pretty well, particularly on defense, and they were also draping themselves all over a few of our players. Unlike others, I thought Rico played very well, and I don't see that Ashe played badly either, except for one or two poor desicions. People around me were complaining about Jaqua, but he had some great touches that lead to some nice chances. I'm glad we scored, I wish we could have gotten one more. We are the best team in the MLS, we really need to dominate teams like the Crew, RSL and Colorado. But like Anderson said, we won't win every game, and with so many hurt it's good to get a tie. And nobody said that playing a man up was a guarantee win. So all in all, I can sleep well. Oh, one more thing, what the hell was Abbey calling offsides for when the Columbus guy was down practically in the goal? There's no way anyone could have been offsides. Oh, and Abbey sucks.
Jaqua has scored 3 goals for Houston correct...and all of those have been inside the 6. After skying his first attempt in the opening half I would like to see Spencer work more with Nate on reps in practice at receiving the ball and then tucking balls away. Work on it in the Larry Bird mold of practice, ie stay after and do it 100 times more. Finishing is part art and part being a clinical bastard when given the slightest of opportunity. Not every club can have a Klinsman or Batistuta, yet a forward is there to score and Nate when positioned up top has to improve on this part of his game.
We miss Stuart Holden badly. Mullan and D-Ro arethe only players that canconsistently take people on with the ball and get by them to unbalance defenses. With the pitch being so narrow, D-Ro is usually several defenders near him because he is in the middle. His touch has not been good this year but he is still trying to push himself even late in the game trying to run down errant passes. That kind of attitude helps lead the way for the rest of the team. Corey Ashe had alot of defensive duties tonight and he had to especially keep tabs on Hedjuk where he did a pretty good job defending him as the game went on. He made fewer mistakes on the ball last night and contributed some on the offense. Not bad for a rookie with only one or two starts and minimal playing time. Ianni is doing well also. Cochrane was our worst defender out there. Jaqua played like a donkey and should have had a tying goal near the half when he was wide open and alone in the box and whacked it over the bar. He got the garbage goal and it saved us from a loss which rescued his grade some but he certainly wasn't the man of the match. Why do we keep playing balls over the top and in the air for Jaqua? The guy is not good in the air and does not like contact. Ngwenya was the only guy getting around anyone and when he did, CBus kept dragging him down. They deserved more yellow cards than they ended up getting. We had chances but just keep making bad passes in the final third, too many touches in the final third without shooting or passing, not shooting because it's on the left foot etc. We are not creative enough on offense. The fact is we are not playing good and deserved the tie just by working hard and giving the effort. Give credit to Cbus for playing some nice soccer and getting a nice goal before the ejection. They played good defense after the ejection to preserve the tie. At least this didn't turn out like the Toronto game - a total bore fest.
You know, we're hurting, missing a lot of key players... With that said, we weren't TERRIBLE, just not very good either... We should've won this game. Ref blew, obviously. There were some blatant calls he missed, and calls that shouldn't have been made, but so it goes... My head is killing me from all the racket we made in El Batallon... Dale Dynamo! Estoy cansado!!!!
Ashe actually had a few good crosses. This was his first start. Our team is super beat up. When is the last time we had consecutive games with the same line up? Once everyone gets healthy everything will fall into place. We have our playoff spot....the Crew on the other hand should be worried. They were playing a man down but they are on the bubble....and that's the performance they give?? My biggest concern is De Ro hasn't looked like him self in a while....flashes of it...he just looks off.
On the offside, Jaqua had basically stomped on O'Rourke's face in front of the goal (fell down doing it), while the ball was being cleared. Hesmer was waving for 10 seconds for an injury break, while the Dynamo kicked around midfield. O' Rourke was still down, and had been out of play for the entire Dynamo possession. Assuming he's part of the play (and not calling offside) is comparable to an offside call when the offside offensive player takes a knee to remove himself from the play...silly. Offside was the better call. Of course, Abbey or the linesman could have been watching the whole game, and noticed O'Rourke clearly injured, and flagged either for a stoppage with drop-ball, or clearance out of bounds. That would've been a better call than waiting for it to develop into a tenuous offside situation. Either way, lack of game management puts them in these difficult situations.
I was realistic in my wishes in the game and wanted a tie. We got that and we got a result at home with 6 of our starters missing. Yeah, we looked bad, but look who we are missing. We will still make the playoffs and we are still in contention for the supporters shield. Take this game with a grain of salt because we were at half strength at best. When we get all of first team back on the field the Dynamo, that we have been spoiled with, will show their true face. We a point on a crappy night because nobody who is on the field this team will fight to the end and give it their all. We just didn't have the personal to get the three points that we would expect against a mid table team. Its all good and we will rise to the top because we are the champions. goodnight.