Time will tell and you may be correct about some of the young players coming through....however here's betting Houston is past its "sell by" date and this season will show that.
You sound like boomersooner circa 2007. Or 2008 for that matter... ...and that's not meant to be a compliment.
thats funny on davis "no danger from corners or free kicks hopw dom reads this feel he has overated everyone. check out my player ratings feel they are a bit more near the mark (or maybe not)
Well, I was there as a neutral observer, and while it wasn't the greatest match I've seen at Robertson (far from it), it was at least entertaining. As for my opinion on Chabala's red, I felt it was warranted, though not as bad as Carlos Johnson's tackle. Chabala did come in with a late lunge on a player already on the ground. He did get some ball with his right foot, but the foot then went over it. Meanwhile, his left foot looked to make some significant contact with the other player's thigh area. It wasn't the worst tackle in the world, but it was dangerous and certainly a justified sending off considering the tone that the match had taken.
I think the real problem is that no one in your neck of the woods has started an anti-Houston thread yet. That thing worked wonders last season.
People have been predicting it for a long time, but it certainly does look like it might happen this year. Houston may just have too many players that got old at the same time. Ching, Mulrooney, Barrett, Onstadt, Mullin, Robinson, Waibel - that may just be too much to overcome. For me, watching Kamara play really brings it home. He may not be as good as Ching, but he is so much more energetic and active that he winds up being involved in the play more. In this same way, other teams seem much more energetic and active than us and I can only attribute this to team age. In the past this was masked by the chemistry the Dynamo had together, but that advantage is fading. I'm a little concerned that we've spent an early acquisition on a forward when our most desperate need right now seems to be in midfield. I find our forwards capable (if few in number), but our biggest problem has been total inability to provide service to them. DeRo would not have made any difference with this problem. We had the exact same problems last year when he was here.
Our starting lineup with age listed instead of name. -----------31(in May)---24--------- ----------------27-------------------- -23-------------------------------31- ----------------26-------------------- -33(in June)--26--------23--------32-- ------------------41------------------ We have more outfield starters under the age of 30 than we do over the age of 30. Hell, we have more outfield starters under the age of 28 than we do over the age of 28. And of course, the age factor is limited for a goalkeeper. As of today, our average age for our starting lineup is 27.5 for our outfield players. I'm just not sure how much old age is affecting our current form. I think talent and/or inexperience are playing larger roles than old age.
Hey, where's Brahmafútbol? Seems like he used to post here all the time... Last night I was veeeery disappointed, I couldn't believe we lost (tied) to those guys, NY really sucked big time and I thought we played very well, except for the passes to nobody we kept making over the end line. But I'm over it, we're ok, we need a forward and we need to get Cameron in the middle more where he's more effective. He, Corey, and Kei I thought played really well, Davis and Rico had their moments too, and I thought Ching was doing well too except for his two big flubs when we missed seemingly easy goals. Something that I kept thinking about, in every game we've played this year until NY, we've made one or two mistakes and each time the other team jumped on the mistakes and scored. This game we never made a mistake, and NY never scored. On the other hand, they made lots of mistakes and we never capitalized. That's frustrating. And the guy that complained about the PA announcer, I didn't notice him (the announcer, not the guy on BS ) butchering any names, I didn't hear that, but I thought he did a good job of announcing the game and getting the crowd up. And I really thought the crowd was up for the game too, at least until the second half when everybody started feeling the frustration.
That game was almost as painful as a loss. We left points on the table against a team that looked awful. Some of the guys looked pretty good but we're definitely missing some creative flair. We don't need a forward, we need a #10.
Once Robinson comes back, assuming he starts, then you have 6 of the starting 11 at 31 or older. You can average all you want or throw out the goalkeeper, but that's pretty old. Now perhaps it isn't age that is responsible for us looking so bad. It could be lack of speed, or talent/inexperience of the younger players as you say. I don't know what it is. I only mention it because this year I haven't yet renewed my MLS Freekick (changing from Dish to DirecTV) so I've been watching whatever is on ESPN or FSC. Houston has been on a few times and to my eye, we look older, slower, and less energetic than other random MLS teams. We can hope that it is just an early season disinterest as in past seasons, but for some reason I'm more worried about it than in the past.
But look at where our age is - the outside backs, forward, and one outside mid. Substitute Erob in there for Cameron and you have another 30+ in the starting 11. Add Akinbyi in there and we have another. You can usually hide your age in the center backs, forward, and maybe a center mid with skill - we've got it all over the park in positions where it can be exposed.
I agree with that a lot of that to a degree. I'm not saying age isn't an issue, I just think it's played up a bit too much. Exactly. I'm not convinced that Robinson will come back healthy this season and I'm also not convinced he's a shoe in to take Cameron's spot even if he does. Let's face it, he was inconsistent and injured last season and he'll have missed a long time to start this season. Without a reserve league to build up his fitness and touch, does Dom throw in Robinson in place of Cameron if Cameron is putting in good performances consistently? Maybe but at most it will be in a very measured and deliberate way.
yes, it's the guy from the Aeros... sorry, had to FYP - did anyone else have a teensy little question about whether there were 19,000 there last night?
Based on the parking lots, westside stands, and general crowdedness on concourse (not sure if that is a word), it did not seem like 19,000, if you go by what we have drawn previously and what was announced in the past year or so. I've noticed that they tend to funnel folks over to the eastside stands for single game sales so I may be a bit off. Of course, it has been well argued on other Big Soccer threads that the eyeball method of estimating attendance is unreliable, but you can generally tell i believe a relevant range based on the eyeball method.
If what we saw on Sat. night passes for Houston pro men's soccer these days then I really don't know what to say.
ARRRARRR!! (Charlie Brown ) when will this squad get 3 pts!!! too bad the only confitti eggs I could bust were the ones I did on the way into the Northend.. btw..a friend of mine asked me to come over and sit with them in section 123 right before half ,I didn't hear this so called "white noise", I could hear EB loud and clear... the southenders (PULSE/TA) aswell. I tried to get folks to chant , no dice.. most folks are too busy chitchatting.
I thought the subs were good, though they should have come on sooner. Ashe created a spark, and I saw Chabala winning lots of headers and moving all over the field to help close things down. Shame about the red; I think he could eventually replace Wade when the time comes.
HD has a "Number 10": Kamara On the other hand, HD needs the creative offensive midfield playmaker. I agree on that.
Quoted For Truth. As I finish my taxes today, I am putting my 9 season tickets down as a charitable contribution. The level of football being played made me think I was at some charity event.