A lot of teams are using 5-man midfields this season as both Montreal and New England (to a lesser extent) did. We saw the effect of a good 5-man midfield against a 4-man midfield on Saturday. At times the Dynamo were simply outnumbered in the middle of the pitch.
A few observations (from what I can remember...) 1) Great attendance for such a crummy night of weather. 2) 3 points? I'll take it considering MTL created some golden opportunities and didn't convert. 3) Drive home, listening to post game and they said that the "Save of the Match" was Hall on Bernier. Sorry but not even close, not even in the same zipcode as Perkins' save on Driver. That save kept them in the game, even after Bruin's goal. Bernier's shot was very nice but Hall had that one tracked the whole way. Perkins really didn't know a whole lot about Driver's other than something hit him really hard. 4) I don't mind Driver on the right. If he cuts in, he's lethal. However...right footed crossing isn't an option for him and I counted two different occasions where the cross was the best option rather than the cutback. No worries though. A solid performance by him. A few times his touch let him down but not the best night to have to have a precise touch on the ball in terms of weather/field conditions. 5) Horst...again a very good match. Had a few hiccups against MTL that he didn't have against NE but loved his coming across at the very last minute in the first half to deny a goal scoring opportunity. Came from a long long way to get there. Boswell wouldn't have been anywhere close to that. As he and Taylor play more together, that's gonna get better and better back there. 6) Speaking of Taylor. Very rough first half. Could have been easily carded for holding his man, twice. Had a rough time of it. Much much better second half. Remember that he basically didn't play for the last part of last season so getting back up to game speed (no, preseason really can't replicate that MLS level of competition) may take a few matches. His mind was about 1/2 a second ahead of his reactions in that first half and it showed. 7) Sarkodie - My MoM. Solid all night and cleared one off the line. Hall better start giving him a portion of his clean sheet bonus for those saves as they're becoming a habit with him. 8) Kinnear - Good set up and I liked Driver for Cascio. Didn't like him waiting until his first sub. Wanted that sub at minute 60 ish. Tired legs could have given up a goal. Lucky we didn't. Loved that it was Ownby who he brought in to run the flank and defend. 9) MTL - The word is out !!! Press the Houston Dynamo high up the pitch and don't let them pass out of their half. Most of the teams who've had success against us at BBVA are employing this tactic. Yeah, it leads to a few more counter attack opportunities for us (and if we were putting them in the net with regularity, I probably wouldn't mind...) but I don't like it and I'd like for us to find a better way to deal with it, if there is a better way. Someone made a good point that if it was a 95 degree summer match, no team could keep that up. Well MTL kept it up all first half because they could. We were lucky we didn't concede.
I was going to tell you that. Actually there were 2 I saw that had HD in 1st, and another in second behind RSL.
Well well well.... http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...ngs-week-2-no-denying-houston-dynamo-top-spot (Guaranteed loss at VAN now. Thanks MLS Power Rankings !!)
Those ranking are pretty funny.... #1 Real Salt Lake beat LAG and then gave up a 3-1 lead to tie San Jose. #2 Toronto had a bye and then beat Seattle. #3 Houston has earned 6 out of 6 points, has not given up a goal this season and leads the League in Goal Diff (+5). #6 LAG got beat by Real Salt Lake and then had a bye...moving them up to #5 (This has to be the funniest rank) Rankings this early are a joke for any team, but I don't think the Dallas ranker could be more bias.
Hey, On game day last saturday, I was in Venice Beach CA, at a sea-side place smoking a cigar and drinking margaritas, when a family of three walks by wearing Dynamo colors. The father had a Dynamo jersey, mom had an orange dress, even the baby had some orange colors. I was going to run after them, but didn't want to scare the family yelling from far away and running after them all drunk and sunburned. Was it one of you? Was I just drunk and imagining stuff? It was only my third margarita. I don't wear my jersey outside of Houston to avoid some crazy drunk from yelling stuff at me. One time I wore my Dynamo jersey outside of the US, and some guy saw the MLS logo and asked me if I was a fan of the LA Galaxy. "Dynamo who?' he said.
When I wear my Dynamo authentic jersey, Mexican people ask me if it's real all of the time. Very strange...