Who: UANL Tigres v. Houston Dynamo When: Tuesday, March 5 @ 10:00 pm CDT Where: Estadio Universitario; San Nicolás de los Garza, MEX Records: UANL Tigres (7-1-2), 1st in Liga MX Houston Dynamo (1-0-1), 4th in the MLS West TV: Yahoo Sports/UDN This is the second leg of the Quarterfinals of the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League. Tigres carries a 2 goal advantage into the 2nd leg. The winner of the series advances to the CCL Semifinals in April against the winner of Santos Laguna and the NY Red Bulls. The Dynamo are now 15-11-9 overall in games in CONCACAF tournaments and 2-8-7 in road games. Tigres is trying to get to the semifinals for the 3rd time in 5 appearances. In the CCL this year the away goal tie-breaker will be used in most rounds. If teams are still level after two legs then they will go straight to PKs except in the Final where away goals will not be used but extra time will be played before PKs. UANL Tigres are 4-0-1 in their last 5 Liga MX games with 10 goals scored and 1 allowed. In their most recent game Tigres drew Monterrey, 1-1, on March 9. They next host Querétaro on March 16. The Dynamo are 3-1-1 in the last five official games scoring 6 goals and allowing 5. Houston was 2-10-5 in road games in all competitions in 2018. The Dynamo next return home to host Vancouver on March 16 and then have a break until traveling to Colorado on March 30.
what are the realistic expectations for this game? We can hope for a miracle but after half time, should we really keep all of our important players in the game? I hope like hell we win or at least show well but not sure going hard for 90 mnts is the correct thing to do unless a miracle is with in reach.
One goal at a time. Just play your best and see what happens. I think most all the substitutions these first few weeks have been most pre-programmed by the sports scientist to distribute minutes optimally. I think avoiding injury is the highest priority, followed by being as competitive as possible.
You didn't change the date from last Tue. I figured going into this that Tigres was about a 5.5 goal favorite on the aggregate score. Can't see them not covering...
Look, I think they will get crushed but the Tigres may be overconfident after completely dominating us in our own stadium and beating Monterrey in the derby on Saturday. BUT, maybe the coach runs out a bunch of scrubs to give g=his bets players a rest and we get lucky with a bad ref that gives us some calls or a red to a Tigres player and maybe we get some lucky goals against the run of play. Too many maybes to have to happen, but it could... I will make a bet with myself - if they somehow advance from this game, I will buy a half season of tickets for this season. I will give credit that the additions so far have been a plus - especially Figueroa (upgrade over Senderos and Leonardo). Struna had a pretty shocking gaff / dispossession close to our goal that would have been punished buy a better club in the second half that could have cost us the game. Jury is still out on him. Hairston is playing much better than he did at Colorado and has the speed / athleticism we need - he is an upgrade over Gil or Alvarez from last year. It looks like he's actually been coached some. MacNamara is strong enough not to get knocked off the ball in the middle and is an upgrade over Alexander from last year due to being faster paced and more of a offensive threat. I do not like Vera - he is only slightly better than Ceren. Haven't seen enough of Duvall, Junqua or McCue except for preseason and that was not a flattering sample.
of the new signed players, 3 out of 7 seem like they are an upgrade over last year making an impact now Figueroa Positive signs Hairston, Macnamara Shaky Struna Not so good Vera Jury is still out Junqua, Duvall Future consideration McCue, Nelson
These are professional men we are talking about, with very short windows in their life to play this game. I always puke at the sound of "resting players" talk. You can rest when you have retired. Look, ice hockey players play an 84 game schedule and THEN the NHL playoffs which is brutal as fuc{! The physical demands of hockey in each game of their 6 month season is combining the required stamina of association football and the capacity to take hits like gridiron football. They play what is on par with 3 soccer matches each week, for 6 months, then playoffs. Yet the only time these players or their coaches speak of resting players is if they have picked up an injury. Other than that the mindset is start your best players and go out to win! Then move on to the next game. So with MLS men, there is the 34 game schedule, at least one Open Cup match and perhaps these extra regional matches if your club progresses. So that is what, 40ish for an MLS man. Less than half of 90ish for those cavemen of hockey! I sure hope and trust that WC starts our best roster to defeat Tigres. Simple. Then Vancouver and his plan is for later this week. Move on to the next game. Take each of our club's games one at a time. It is the correct thing to do in professional sports.
Say what? The average hockey player goes 20 minutes. That's it. The best go 30 minutes. The rest of the game they are sitting on the bench (or the penalty box). The ice is a fraction of the size of a pitch. It's not quite the same as running up and down a full sized pitch for 90 minutes. I grew up playing ice hockey and soccer as my two main sports. Soccer was far more taxing and required greater stamina.
I get the shift change. The point I was going long on was the amount of games a man will play. 40ish for MLS players and 90ish for hockey players. Plus that small concept of the punishment a hockey player puts his body through cuz of the hitting, injuries and missing games will turn up as the long season progresses. So worrying about resting your best players is odd. Don't our starters want to take the field versus Tigres?!? I know I would. Then if asked to play 4 days later versus Vancouver, put me in coach! Again, take each match as they come.
Professional players are going to be smart enough about rotation and aren't going to risk a long term injury that could severely limit their earning potential, for a few extra minutes.
Sports science has advanced so far, though. They track down to the mm the amount of ground these players cover and the energy they burn and they've got a profile of what the limits are before you risk energy. Like Don Juego said, I'd be very surprised if most of the playing minutes so far are not sports scientist program dictated, especially early in the season (or late in the season) when injury risk is highest.
as an eternal optimist, I am hoping for a miracle. My realistic side.... no ********ing chance is hell
all due respect, but i disagree strongly. He is WAYYYY better than Ceren. Meaning, he's not good; just better than than the worst Also, a freeway diaper filled with toenails and foreskin is better than Ceren so there's that...
Having played both I respectfully disagree. Ice hockey is like indoor soccer. The size of the playing field matters so much more than you acknowledge. Sports science has settled this issue.
McNamara with a couple decent looks he duffed, give us a good strike and don’t kill worms with slow rollers
We played them about even but you could have said the same thing roughly now a week ago, and down 2-0 playing them even is an exit strategy