Who: Colorado Rapids v. Houston Dynamo When: Sunday, June 1 @ 7:00 pm CDT Where: Dick's Sporting Goods Park; Commerce City, CO Records: Colorado Rapids (5-4-3) 3rd place in the WEST Houston Dynamo (5-7-2) 4th place in the EAST TV: CSN-H+ Radio: 1560/850 This is the 15th game of the year and the 8th road game. The Dynamo and Rapids drew, 1-1, on April 28 of 2013 in the most recent meeting. That game was here in Houston. The last game out in Colorado was a 2-0 win for the Rapids in the regular season finale of 2012. The Dynamo played mostly reserves in that game. Colorado's most recent game was a 4-1 draw at home against Montreal on Saturday, May 24. The Rapids are 3-2-1 in home games so far this year with a +3 g.d. Colorado is 2-2-1 in their last five games overall with 7 goals scored and 6 allowed. Their next game after facing Houston is on Wednesday, June 4, when they host Chicago. After that they play FCD away on June 7. The Dynamo are 1-5-1 on the road with 5 goals scored and 14 allowed. Houston is 2-3-0 in the last five games scoring 4 in those games while allowing 10. The Dynamo return home for a game on June 6 against Kansas City in league play and then host an Open Cup game on June 11 before the World Cup break.
Dynamo @ Rapids, all-time: 04/29/06 COR 0-1 HOU 07/26/06 COR 1-0 HOU 05/05/07 COR 1-3 HOU 08/11/07 COR 1-0 HOU 06/21/08 COR 0-0 HOU 10/04/08 COR 1-3 HOU 08/30/09 COR 1-0 HOU 08/28/10 COR 3-0 HOU 07/03/11 COR 0-0 HOU 10/27/12 COR 2-0 HOU That's 3-5-2 with 7 goals scored and 10 allowed. Just on a personal note, I think I've seen 4 Dynamo games in Colorado. I've never seen us score a goal.
Thin air, cooler temperatures, road form. It all points to a loss. I hope that the squad surprises me with a goal.
Just in case you didn't realize how long it has been, below was the lineup the last time we scored a goal in Colorado: Houston Dynamo -- Pat Onstad, Richard Mulrooney, Patrick Ianni, Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett, Brian Mullan (Corey Ashe 64), Ricardo Clark, Dwayne De Rosario, Brad Davis, Brian Ching (Chris Wondolowsi 84), Kei Kamara (Nate Jaqua 72). Substitutes Not Used: Tony Caig, Geoff Cameron, Mike Chabala, Craig Waibel. Almost makes me want to cry knowing we had rosters that good (and Holden was out!!!)
I could probably write a full manifesto, but to keep it short: - MLS quality advanced to where you can't live off of American college players only (plus more college stars bypassing draft for other leagues so overall depth is down) - poor decisions in signings of internationals (Landin, Koke, Lopez, Camargo) who didn't consistently contribute but are up salary - MLS budget and salary cap rules that lead to parity (our playoff success ironically hurt us each year) - zero homegrown talent (in fairness, many other squads don't have any either) - ownership commitment/Dom buy-in to spend on top tier DP (not a technical DP at $401,000 or whatever) - complacency and figuring we will always pull it together for the playoffs. Which we generally have done so not sure how much I can complain but I think it has allowed the FO to overestimate how good of a squad we are.
Injuries and a bunch of moves that did not work out. Plus two big negative trends: 1. Zero - none -- zilch -- production from the academy. Not one home-grown product producing for the first team. The rest of the league is ahead in this area. Home-growns stretch your salary cap. 2. International scouting is somewhat behind many other teams that consistently find more talent abroad. Injuries/Moves not working out: Rico's concussion is devastating. Your most influential player gone. Poof. Cascio, Injury, gone, Poof. Lopez, not working out. Cummings, few minutes despite being top paid player, injuries and struggle to find form. Bruner, injury, gone, Poof. Rookie striker shows promise. injured. gone. poof. Lack of sufficient draft picks in recent years due to trading them away. Right now, over 1/3 of the salary cap is unproductive due to injury/call ups. Its a perfect storm of crap leading to crap soccer. Having said that -- I don't completely understand why the Dynamo are always under such salary cap pressure while other teams can make moves and bring in quality. Beyond the DPs which I understand -- how are the Galaxy managing their cap compared to the Dynamo? I would love to have that new Brazilian striker the Galaxy have. Or Peguy Liyundala from NYRB. Forever Orange. Go Go USA!
For this game: Brian Ownby Houston Dynamo 6/1 vs. COL Red card - violent conduct Also, Houston J. Taylor 4 yellows 2 games away from good behavior incentive
Ownby had to sit two games? I thought the straight red was harsh, WOW. http://www.mlssoccer.com/video/2014/05/21/red-card-brian-ownby-takes-swing
The lesson MLS teaches is instead of handbags, just try a leg breaker instead. Like the Portland back who came in on the Columbus guy a few weeks ago. Seriously, just control your rage for a few minutes then try to end his career, you get less of a suspension League officiating and DisCo is a complete joke
Statement of the year! Indeed, i am glad i enjoyed the glorious years, as it is clear to me that the owners wont invest on the team. They want us to be orange cones for the darling teams of MLS that are based out of pretty glamorous cities. Question of the year! Post of the year! Two thumbs up! Manifesto of the year! Good job! Observations of the year! ********* Indeed, we have serious problems, problems that have been more and more evident as the old Dynamo team started to age and retire. As long as we continue buying season tickets, nothing will change, no matter how much orange koolaid you drink. Write Canetti and let him know you expect the Dynamo to address the issues identified above, or you wont renew. Put pressure on the organization. All they care about is selling tickets, and if they fear they will lose the 5k or whatever season ticket holders, they will do something.
So Colorado tied Montreal 4-1? Joey must've asked his dad to bribe the Commissioner to make that adjustment.... I think @newtex had it right in the poll: pain.
If Bruin ever scores 30 goals in a season for a European first division team, I'll wear red hoops and watch every second that FC Frisco plays the following year.
I sort of agree with you. I'm not completely convinced they are so calloused that they only run the club by spreadsheets. This seems like a Stockholm Syndrome effect, but I wonder if STH figures went down that they would actually spend less money not more to lure fans back. That budgets would be cut further and no DPs. A problem with this is that probably 50% of STHs renew automatically or just don't care either way. So the swing STH who looks at performance, fun, cost, etc. is probably about 20-25% of the base (total guess). It took several years for the Astros to erode their base by putting out a minor league product at major league prices. I do think the Dynamo value their fans and STHs (well, with the exception of a founder's plaque), I just don't know if they will deficit spend to keep folks happy. With a corporate owner on one half (with no more Leiweike) and some thrifty owners on the other half, just seems like if Chicharito or someone became available that we would not even think about it.
This reminds me of that scene in Moneyball when Brad Pitt is in the interview with the owner and is begging for "just a little bit more" so he can actually win something. The owner just leans back and says "What else can I do for you?"
revised: stumbledore is to dynamo as altidore is to USMNT PS altidore scored 1 goal this year for his first division european team. he stumbledored his way out of the starting line up. both are similar in expectations vs output department. I think you are safe from buying a Frisco kit
I can see where you're coming from, but I still don't agree with the comparison. Jozy is a great physical talent who excels when he's confident. When he was on that great, year-plus run of form in Holland, he was a freaking man when he put on the Nats' shirt as well. Stumbledore just isn't very good. At all. By the way, as soon as I started to hear rumors of Jozy to Sunderland, Stoke, etc. I said it was an absolutely horrendous idea. I wish I could document that, but I wasn't posting at all around that time, so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. He was never going to succeed at a middling to bottom prem side, where he would be starved of service and support. It turned out even worse than I thought, I probably would have set the over-under for his goals around 7.5. There is a long list of great goal scorers from the Eredivisie who made similar moves and completely flopped. Unless it's strictly for a pay day, I can't understand why any attacking player would sign on for the ridiculous crap that passes for soccer in the bottom half of that league.
winner winner chicken dinner! I think most of the city's casual fans think we're a helluva lot better than we actually are or have been -but then again, Newtex had that stat last week about us having the most regular season points over the last 8 years so who knows. damn-and we didn't even need the Plague, I mean Caig.