Everyone should do this. Really. Without Donovan Ricketts in goal everyone, EVERYONE, would be posting wonderful positive notes about how the Dynamo have found their form and are on their way to another MLS cup. I just watched the game on TV after getting home. Leaving the stadium, I felt like many of you posted. After watching the game on TV ... *Rey* is exactly right. Everyone needs to just chill and join me in LA next weekend. I plan to go to both games ....
Yep, but I felt that way leaving the stadium too. I really thought we played well. Besides those that Ricketts saved, there was the shot that just grazed over the top of the goal. And the horrendous offsides calls. If it weren't for our lack of good luck, we could have had at least 2, 3 goals easy.
ODURO: Wow, how did the referee catch Oduro's dive? I was at the stadium, and I didn't see it as a dive. It even took a few replays at home to notice that the galaxy defender never touched Oduro. The sad thing is that Oduro was falling even BEFORE he came close to the galaxy defender. I'd like to think that he is simply not very skilled, and he genuinely fell when he tried to turn to avoid the galaxy defender... I think we all are giving Oduro too much credit, I don't think he is smart enough to think about diving as a soccer strategy, I think he just trips on his own feet. Seriously, he is just plain... dumb. Unfortunately, until our forwards stop getting red cards, and until the end of the 2009 season (which may be as short as the 2008 season), Oduro is the cross we have to bear... LANDIN: Landin does appear slow, even Cuahtemoc runs faster than Landin. Was Davis pissed at Landin every time Landin screwed up? (I don't like Dynamo players publically yelling at each other... worst example was all the yelling that the players did at Julius every time he screwed up.) But Landin has skills, I hope Dom can get Landin to use his skills to score VERY soon. We need somebody to score.
I don't agree with this. Ricketts made two great saves (Landin lefty shot and Holden's point blank shot) and a few other good ones (Mullan's one on one) but mostly he just positioned himself well and the Dynamo shot it at him or missed the net. This was not Tim Howard or Matt Reis standing on their head for 90 like in the older MLS days and stealing a win. How many chances did the Dynamo have that were really good? 3 plus corners maybe? Did we look dangerous at all? Not in my eyes. LA came in with a defensive gameplan and stuck to it and we wasted half the game with hopefully long balls out of the back. We did not have or show the sustained pressure that shows me where are anywhere near form - this wasn't one of those games where there seems to be a forcefield blocking the ball from the net.
spot on-this guys is as fast as he's going to be. He could lose 20 lbs and still be the same speed. I don't think he's as fat as a lot of folks think. I think he's just built like a block. no-not yesterday, but that's an interesting quote because I thought about that the other day-his performances this season remind me a lot of Timmy with his last half season with Metro. He single handedly won a bunch of points for the team by preserving ties. A lot like Ricketts this year.
He is fat! He has a pooch belly. There is no excuse this guy has been with the team for 5 - 6 weeks and is in terrible physical shape for a young DP. I think the guys are frustrated with him as Davis was getting all over him.
i'm agreeing with you, but also with my original statement. proper positioning to me is worth as much as an outstanding stretched out save and positioning-wise he had an outstanding game.
I haven't watched any replays of it but it didn't look like a dive to me, as Oduro was moving to the left a Galaxy defender crossed over behind him and clipped his leg.
I gotta say this is pretty cool.... I've had three different people come up to me this morning saying things like "Beckham is a jerk for what he did to Ricardo" and that Brian did nothing wrong and gets sent off. And that the Dynamo should have won yesterday. And these three people are not soccer or Dynamo fans, they just watched the game yesterday and said they really got into it. I like that (and though in the end, they were wrong about Brian, they didn't know that from watching the game on tv).
Everybody says on tv you can see it was a dive, and some of the people with me at the game said it was one too. The thing that made us mad at the game with the call though was we were all saying that he had no reason to dive, he almost had everyone beat, then he could have walked the ball into the goal. So if he really wasn't touched by a Galaxy player, that leaves two other disturbing possibilities... either it was a dive, and thus an incredibly ill-timed one, which makes him really dumb. Either that, or he's just plain clumsy.
Landin's fitness level is not our problem. Our problem was that LA plays decent defense (fewest losses in MLS) and they have an outstanding goal keeper. We worked extremely hard and exposed them for their overall team slowness (minus Landon) with our speed in Mullan, Stuart, Rico, and Cameron. However our matchup of Houston's slow, tall forwards was negated by LA's slow, tall backline. Midfielders, defenders have to finish plays by putting the ball in the back of the net. We have to be more dangerous with all our free kick opportunities or it will bit eus again.
But then, no one should take anything away from Geoff either, he "won" the game for us. And I haven't seen much about that save. Can it be the save of the week, or does that have to be a goalie play?
I do not think he had anybody beat. Live it was obvious it was a dive and on the replay it was even more obvious. Nobody is taking anything away from him though?
I saw the interaction between Davis and Landin. Is Davis really one to chastise regarding hustling? He needs a reminder of some those penalty shots he's taken this year. He needs to get more lift on those corners as well. With all that said, does he need to be yelling at Landin the way he does, or would some positive coaching/communication be better. I also saw Davis holding hands with Beckham once when they both fell off of a tackle... what was that about? I know it's good form to help someone up after a fall, but not necessarily a guy from the other team.... he was kissing the brit's ass.
Are you forgetting that Pat has made one of the all-time-best MLS careers between the posts through 'positioning himself well'? Credit where credit is due. It surprises me that you went after the Galaxy for a heartbeat after ripping on the Dynamo so hard in this thread.
Damn right!!! Now I'm by no means an expert in the sport, but I thought we kept good possession through much of the game, and during the second half totally shut down the Beckham-Donavon threat. As for Landin being slow --- well all I can say is that is I don't believe it's gonna be a problem, his skill on the ball is going to overcome anything he lacks in speed.
I always thought that goalkeeping was like 80% "positioning"-as least that is what my club coach used to say.
In addition, are we really surprised to see a Dynamo player rip into another Dynamo player? Anyone seen Pat Onstad? And if the GK example seems disingenuous, anybody seen Bobby Boswell? I'd love to see Landin or Ching yell at Davis for playing a shitastic ball. In any case, that just speaks to the overall frustration the team has right now and not necessarily the frustration they have with a given player. Maybe the whole team just needs to get laid.
+2 i have several peeps i talk 'ball' with almost on a daily basis. Davis yelling at Landin was brought up in the conversation. my take was the same as you guys. perhaps Landon, Ching and Stuie should be the ones yelling at the wingers for their recent play. so now as a striker i have to come out and get the damn ball myself because no one can get it into the box? .....must remain po-si-tive....
Ok - now you've gone and done it!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sick and tired of you bloody Yanks badmouthing the country of my birth, the country which invented the game and shared it with the rest of the world (silly buggers should have copyrighted it). This is a practice that has to stop!!! It's everywhere from the movies where the villain has a British Accent, to TV where at 2:00am there's some bloke with a Brit accent trying to sell some worthless crap. And heck - we don't even have Gekkos in England. And "brits" should be capitalized.
Obviously, it is all pure speculation ... but .... if Joe Cannon or whoever LAG had last year was in goal for LAG I think all three of those shots go in. Again -- speculation -- but Onstad probably lets in 2 of those 3 shots if not all three. The Dynamo created about three good chances (corner kick headers in front of goal) and four really good chances. One was ruled offsides though replay showed Davis onsides by two yards when the ball was played. Only one header was put on goal and that one right to Ricketts. Ricketts pulled off very good saves on the other three. We looked a lot more dangerous than LAG did. I just think your being unrealistic here. This is freakin MLS. LAG is a good team -- they are not NYRB. They came in and clogged midfield with a highline and disciplined shape. Robertson is small small field. Stott let them disrupt everything by fouling in midfield all game. Given all that -- the Dynamo did about all you can realistically expect. Ricketts made the saves. Under MLS rules you just cannot have a team that is all that much better than your opponents. And your never really better than other good teams in the league. Go back and think about 2006 and 2007 and how many times games went just like this one.
anyone see the latest Geico commerical? They are all in a board room and someone asks what type of accent the Gecko has, the Gecko starts to explain and it's cut off. Absolutely hilarious. It's not English, it's not Austrialian I heard someone say it's from an English speaker from Madagascar. One of my supervisors is Austrailian, who grew up in England and has been living in Western PA-he's worse than the Gecko. You couldn't figure out where the hell he is from by listening to him.