We suck again. Our defense is a no show. We get owned again at San Jose again. DC united next week marked as a lost on the road. 0-2-1 last place next week.
Awe shucks !! couple of mistakes here, couple of players missing there and what do we get?? UAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAA !! We got a cow to sacrifice !!! P.M.S. I say Miss Cleo is a Troll !!
I actually take some positives out of the game, mainly from the play of the younger guys. But that highlights the fact that age is catching up with some members of the team. If we don't get more athletic, these teams are going to sprint by us if we try to go 4-4-2 every week with Dom's core guys (read: the older veterans) filling all of the positions.
Wade and Mulrooney look very slow and our defense looked as bad as theirs. We didn't finish enough chances. We had a better midfield, they had a better front line (even after subbing). They deserved the win. Wondo and Mullen looked better this game but Wondo just isn't fast enough and rarely creates his own space. More of a poacher. I can't blame the loss on not being dangerous enough. We accomplished that. It was the defense and finishing in the box that let us down this game.
Tonight, Danny Cruz became the Dynamo's youngest ever player. Previously it was Stuart Holden. Doesn't make the top 25 youngest players in MLS history though.
The 2008 Dynamo were the league's 8th oldest team of all time. They have a serious chance of finishing first this year. Also, 55% of that team's minutes were from players who were 30+, which I believe is an all time MLS record.
I could be wrong, because a bar isn't the best place to watch a game and then offer up analysis, but I believe the center of defense was as much at fault as the outside backs on at least two of SJ's goals. As for the game, I agree that we can take some positives out of this. The offense seemed to click for the first time all season...it definitely made another stride in improvement. The defense obviously wasn't great but I think that you are going to see that it's going to be inconsistent for quite some time if Cameron is paired up with Boswell. I'm not saying he shouldn't start at CB but if he does, there are going to be games where his athleticism can't cover up for his experience back there. He'll get better as he gets more time there. One thing that I'm finding a little distressing. We apparently traded one of our best players for a 4th option CB. That seems to be the case unless James isn't match fit or something. That's a little disconcerting. Also, I'm really beginning to wonder how much longer Wade Barrett has as an automatic starter at LB. I know that many here have been asking that question for months, but I think Dom might be asking that question a bit too. Think about it...he's been subbed out in two of the last three games (@ Atlante, @ SJ). I don't know that he was subbed out in two games all of last season. Granted, the games where he was subbed out was a result of a formation change as it was anything else but in times past when Dom would go 3 in the back, he'd often keep Barrett on but push him up into midfield. That phenomenon coupled with the insane number of center backs we seem to have on this team whenever everyone is healthy (Boswell, Robinson, Hainault, James, Cameron) makes me think that Dom is developing options that might mean Barrett isn't the de facto 30 game starter, 3000 minute player he has been the last 3 seasons.
I was at the game last night, here's what I saw: Dom ejection - This happened when the Dynamo had a throwin on the side of the field right in front of the benches. The player who took the throw (forget who) was too far upfield, and either ignored or didn't hear the ref telling him to move back. When he threw it in, the ref blew the whistle and gave the throwin to San Jose. Dom went berserk, and he actually was right in front of the San Jose bench (because that's where the throwin was taken). Anyway, it was't clear if he got ejected for what he said, or for being so far away from his own bench, or both. Overall game - Houston Defense: Weaver and Johnson were both pretty physical, and they caused some problems for the Houston defense. Normally we see Boswell win just about every header in his area, he was fought hard and really had to work to win the balls in the air. Barrett was really poor - on the second goal, he somehow forgot that Alvarez has absolutely no right foot and let Arturo cut in to his left foot and get a free run to get a shot off. And that happened on more than one occasion. I thought Clark played very well, he won a lot of tackles and really helped slow down the San Jose offense. And Onstad played well; he stopped several chances that looked like they were going to be sure goals. Houston Midfield: Holden, Clark and Davis all played well. Davis does tend to have extended periods where he just seems to disappear, but it's hard to say if that's his fault or just the game flow. Thought it was one of Corey Ashe's worst games in a while; hopefully it was just the result of him not playing much lately. But he looked like he didn't know where to make runs, and particularly in the first half he made a lot of poor decisions. One of the times he got behind the defense early in the first half he was in too much of a hurry to cross the ball and sent it across before the other guys had time to get into position. He could have beat Leitch all day long if he would have been more aggressive, but he wasn't the factor that I think he should have been. Houston Forwards: Wondo really played well in the first half, but then quieted down some in the second half. His goal was a sweet finish, and the result of a really nice run by him to beat two defenders to the ball from Holden. He was linking up with Davis and Holden very well and seemed much more comfortable connecting with other people than last week. Mullan showed why he's not a forward, he was really bad. He missed the sitter early in the game, and then missed a couple of other chances when he had the ball in the box with space. There were a couple of other times when he had the ball in the box and there were open players near him but he didn't find them with passes, and turned the ball over a lot. His pass directly to Alvarez led to the Quakes second goal. I like Mullan, but he needs to play out wide, he just didn't seem to be comfortable up top. The Field: not sure what was going on; the field looked like it was in great shape but a lot of the players kept slipping. It hadn't rained out in the area for over a week, so it's not that the field was wet, maybe it was just too hard and dry. But it caused a lot of problems for both teams, but particularly the Houston defenders. Not that they were playing that good to start with, but part of their issue was that it seemed like on every play one of the defenders would slip and be out of position. Overall, disappointing result. I guess the positive spin is that the offense looked pretty good, they created a lot of chances, just didn't finish all of them. But if you score two goals on the road, you expect to win or at least tie. The concern is the defense; San Jose could have scored more than 3 goals except Onstad made several nice saves to keep it close. I don't think James is the answer - for the short time he was in, he got beat several times.
One of the great hallmarks of this board, unlike other team's boards, is that we are generally positive and supportive of our team. Critical? Sure. Demanding? Of course. Negative? We avoid it. Demeaning and insulting of our team, coach and players? Never. Terry -- I respect your opinion on Barrett. I think the question on him and whether he should play as much as he does is a fair one, and worthy of discussion. I would not argue against using Barrett less, given the results of the last few years. However, can't we express these opinions without belittleing or insulting our team, players or coaches?
Did you have the Texas flag there? I saw that near the end of the game, who's ever it was, it was nice. Too bad we didn't get the win for it, though. That throw in was strange and they never really explained it on tv, though I figured that was why Dom got ejected. The Dynamo took the throw in quickly, then suddenly they gave it to SJ. And then Dom was yelling, then leaving. And you're right about lots of slipping. I figured it was because we've finally gotten used to playing on sand, and couldn't figure out what to do with that weird green, smooth playing surface we saw in SJ. I don't ever blame losses on players, cause there are so many possibilities of things happening in a game. And Brian Mullen is one of my favorite players, and my dinner partner at the Dynamo luncheon last week... but if he would have done two things right we might have won. First, he misses what looked like an easy cross from Corey with nobody to beat but a sort of out of position goalie (though I'm sure it was a lot harder than it looked, the cross had a lot of pace on it and he had to twist it back towards his left again). Then his pass straight to AA who took it in to score was sort of disappointing. But then again, he made some nice plays and generally doesn't mess up, so I'm not complaining, just saying....
Dynamo fan above suggests that outside backs should push attackers outside rather than inside where they have some help. That may be an appropriate tactic in a limited range of circumstances, but I would have to say that most coaches want an outside back to force attackers inside where there is help. Mulrooney and Barrett do this on a regular basis, and I have to believe that is what they are coached to do. In the case of Arturo's goal last night, I frankly believe Barrett did exactly what he should have done on that play.
I agree with you normally, but Arturo always tries to cut the ball back to his left foot. He has no right foot, and doesn't try to take it to the outside. I doubt that Barrett was coached to let him cut in, using his preferred move. Typically wingers play on the side that their dominant foot is on the outside, so pushing them into the middle where there's help is a smart thing to do. But this is one of the times when it's absolutely the wrong thing to do.
Yallop has the field watered down right before the game. From all the slipping it looks like they got it too wet.
homie, he 'chested' the ball into his own net. he had plenty of time to use his hands, but...... never mind.
The Good: Davis's blast The Bad: 1 point after two The Ugly: We are nowhere near the squad we were in '07 when speaking team D
The Quakes 3rd goal looked a little off-sides to me. Our D looked bad but our O showed up. Now, if we could only both to show up in the same game.
I would like to see more passing into open space for a player to make a run. I am tired of seeing the passes go to where a player is rather than where the player will/should be in a few seconds. Too many passes where the receiving player has to stop to collect the ball. Do professional soccer players watch other soccer matches? Maybe they should watch Barcelona matches where the passing is an art.