All of this is correct. Though whether he's 81 or 18, he still sh^t the bed. He indeed made a mistake and that mistake was not executing a regular clearance inside the box. He has all the makings of a solid MLS player but he doesn't get a pass for missing such a simple play no matter his age. I think he, his team mates and his coach would all agree with me.
Was also going to mention about Landin being injured in a car accident in a fast food drive thru but that’s even more obscure. does anyone get Landin vibes from Sebas? Like we all know this isn’t gonna work out
Juego view: - 2:1 is not a bad score line for the Dynamo at all. Overall, I thought the Dynamo played pretty well. Road game. First game. Etc. - I still think the Dynamo are a little naive against STL. Playing the ball out on the ground via your outside backs is playing into STL hands. I think they need to come into games against teams like STL prepared to abandon their normal approach and either switch more, or go up-back-and-through. Don’t mess around with the ball at the back. Your possession in your half is what they want. They feast on turning the ball over in your half and transitioning. I’d rather defend throw-ins in their half than try to play through their pressure. Sometimes you just have to buy field position. - The second goal. While Raines must do better there, and nothing I’m saying relieves him of that, his was the third failure. The first was Dorsey & Steres having no idea who was covering whom so both covered no one on the throw in, leaving the guy down the line open. Second failure was Steres then recovering on that guy and giving him the end line rather than going hard and forcing him to turn back into help. The guy crosses right to Raines who doesn’t handle it. - Schmidt looked good. Raines looked good for his age. A little lost at times in the STL crowded central midfield he struggled to figure out how to impact the game but I can’t blame an 18yo for that. Lots of experienced central MF’s struggle in that situation as well. Let’s see how he learns. - Kowalczk looked good. - Dorsey had a nightmare. Turnover machine in possession. Often caught out leaving Sviatchenko exposed and/or pulled out of the middle. If he is forcing STL to not attack his side because they are defending him then that is ok — but that was not the case. STL found lots of joy down their left. Overall: Again, 2:1 is still a good result for the first leg road team. I like the Dynamo’s chances to prevail at home. Too bad it will likely be an empty stadium.
re raines, you're misdiagnosing the issue. that's a sloppy first touch on a reaction play followed by a weak leg tackle. ideally he clears it on the fly but that ball's coming in quick. the way that mess gets cleaned up is he slide tackles that ball and gets STUCK IN. the StL guy then has to try and extract the ball from a mess of legs and can't quickly get off a shot. more than once on the highlights raines just kind of ran by a play and leg poked at the ball. that's U16 stuff. fwiw they had a general problem clearing the ball from the back third under pressure, or winning headers. (amusing no one mentions our half million dollar man scoring on us)
re sebas, i thought relying on him for offense this year was lazy and silly but why isn't your only "productive striker" -- whether i think he can do it for us in scheme or not -- not in bubble wrap on the sideline for a cup game? i know they have ambitions based on last year, but based on the roster actually is and how the offseason went, they should be milking this thing until summer, and given the injury issues, protecting any core guys they have in games like this. let's be real, this is a handful of decent skill guys atop a bunch of journeymen. depth is paper thin at best. as it is this outplayed the roster last year. you get the wrong people hurt this is over before it starts. and you can't control sh*t happening but you can control who plays in a cup game. to underline my critique of this whole thing, last year was magic with an ok roster. expecting lightning to strike twice is naive. you should see the limits of this roster and manage them, as opposed to assume we just show up and go on some more cup runs, so go all-in some more.
interesting side note-- I can't/won't be able to make the game tuesday night due to it not starting until sometime after the nightly news is over. I'm old and have to be at a real job in the morning. So I figured I would sell them. I can't After struggling to put these tix up for sale because there was no "sell" option for them on the app or the website, I called my rep to help. Apparently, the tix for Tuesday night were a "gift" to us members and therefore can't be resold. We didn't buy them therefore can't sell them. Now, you will never convince me that part of the ticket increase price didn't go towards paying for this game so I find it a bit contrived and slippery for them to take the sell option away from me. I can't ever remember being "gifted" tix before to where they were ineligible for resale so this is a new go to market strategy to me. PS Jokes on them, I ain't going so they lost all their money "giving" me the tickets.
Not a gift type memory from our FO but in the same mindset of midweek Cup ties and low attendance an issue. In our very first U.S. Open Cup home game our FO had to utilize Carl Lewis Track and Field Stadium, our guys training ground on the U of H campus those first seasons, and the opponent that very first season was Dallas. Our FO struggled to market the Cup clash with Dallas and as well had some odd concept of only permitting season ticket holders to purchase tickets to that midweek encounter. I would guess only a few hundred were in attendance. Way to think that through guys. Sigh. Us supporters did make our way to stand behind the goal, where the high jump surface is and had a great time that night. Stuart Holden did well. Marcus Storey actually played in that game. We won 3-nil as well!
didn't they play some games up at A&M on a similar concept? STH only and 2 hours away? but that was defensible as the TAMU women's setup holds 3500 these days, max.
Yup. We played Puntarenas up in Aggieland in March of 2007 due to midweek issues of parking st The Rob for night classes. We went back up there a few other times since that first trip. Cup fixtures only.
Just to be clear, it is possible to transfer tix for Tue's game in the SeatGeek app. I misunderstood you, and thought that wasn't possible. I have seen a friend give his tickets for Tue. away on Facebook. I suppose if you wanted to be paid for it, you could get someone to Venmo you the money.
correct. you can give them away for free but can't sell them on the seat geek app. as you mentioned, you have to go through extra steps to get any compensation for them which severely limits your options to who you can sell them to
game talk-- Do we have the scheme and players to break the bus that St. Louis is about to park?? Hard to find some one who can break an opposing player down 1v1 and create their own space. Hard to find some one who can get a consistent shot on goal from distance. Hard to see Ol Ben getting away from insisting we play out of the back with at least 20 passes before crossing mid field. Hopefully we can somehow find joy down the sides and then put in a good cross that finds a positive result but that's gonna be a tough road going against 9-10 behind the ball. If we don't score early, we may just pass ourselves to death looking for that perfect entry lay off that never presents itself.
Good point, our guys do have a road goal to bargain with so St. Louis has to as well think that if we do get one st home, they have to shift their mindset and go score. So do they set themselves up right after kickoff in the prevent D formation or look to have a go for the first 60 to 70 minutes and then go park the bus?
I view STL as a team with little tactical variance. They have their thing. Midfield block, trap against the sides, win the ball and race you to your goal. I'm guessing they don't bunker until maybe late if they have a lead. Dynamo manage a shutout then we go through. I think 2+ goals is far less probable.
One thing to be considered: Olson said he is going to rotate the squad for this match. We don't have a lot of depth at the moment, so could easily interpret that to mean a weakened side. Makes me wonder how interested they are in remaining in this tournament, particularly when it has kind of lost its luster for the fans what with playing against MLS sides. In any event, I'd guess Segal starts at forward, Gregus and maybe Bassi in the midfield. Bartlow/Steres in the back. Not sure what other changes are feasible - do we maybe see one of the draft picks play?
Hope Dorsey isnt hurt significantly - looked like an awkward stress on his leg and ankle - and fixture congestion could be an issue but they are off a bit after the 6th