So with Brad Davis's groin injury, Houston is now without 3 starters from last year - Waibel, Mullan and Davis. According to Bernardo: But I haven't seen anything on Waibel. Has anyone heard anything, or been at the training sessions to see if he has started to practice at all? It will be interesting to see who Dom starts in the tournament - with subs limited to 5, it will be much more like a real match than a preseason match, and you'd expect him to try to start the strongest lineup. With no Mullan or Davis, I don't see how Dom can move DeRo up top, so here is what I would expect: Onstad Mulrooney -- Boswell -- Robinson -- Barrett Holden -- Clark -- DeRo -- Ashe Ching -- Wondo On the bench: Ianni, Caig, Hayden, Chabala, Ustruck, Wondo2, ??? The only other real option would be to play Ianni or Boswell at right back and move Mulrooney to the midfield. That would give an option of putting DeRo up top instead of Wondo. Actually, it would probably be good to give Wondo (and Ashe) some time playing forward to see how they do, so the team knows what the options really are for a second/third forward. Maybe Waibel will be ready by the PPC, which gives the same options of having Mulrooney in the midfield. In any case, with the number of games the team has this year, starting off with 3 key players injured is definitely not a good thing.
Houston Dynamo are deep...don't worry about it Mulrooney did an awesome job at multiple positions last year including RB. Boswell will have an outstanding year if he really wants to go to Europe and need I say more? DeRo may switch it up back and forth with Wondo....I know Wondo wasn't much of a scorer on the 1st team last year, but he did hold the ball ok.
didn't know mullan was out too damn man, seems like its gonna be a tough start for us especially with all these international games we'll definitely see what happens when the games start
i would move C Ashe up front to play with wondo and put ching on the bench in Hawaii Seems ching played better last year when his starting job was on the line. Another reason he lost his spot on the USNT. Plus i think Hawaii plays on astroturf? so Ching might not play too hard..since he might get hurt!
Aloha Stadium has FieldTurf, not AstroTurf, although that may be what you meant. Ching is being promoted as one of the tourney's big draws. He may not play all 90 mins of both games, but he'll definitely play.
wasn't beckham promoted so much that it filled stadiums and he only played a few games.. so i don't think Ching will play more then 45 minutes each game.
There seems to be good news about Davis and his injury, although you never know with groin injuries. From the Houston website today:
So who all is injured? Davis, Mullan, and Waibel? I never even heard of the Waibel injury until this thread. It looks like from paper talk that Davis will be back shortly, but Mullan's knee surgery, ehh, those are hard to know about. Davis was out last year with knee issues.
The more scary thing about Davis is that he has a history of groin injuries the past 3 years, starting with the last year in San Jose. That year they thought the injury wasn't too bad, and then he came back and reinjured it and had to miss over half the season. Hopefully it really IS just a minor thing. I haven't seen anything on Waibel lately, so maybe he is ok now. There was something in the Chron about him the first day of training not taking part because of a hamstring injury.
I think you've seen the link on the training camp thread to Bernardo's blog post re it was a hamstring injury on Waibel. However, on Mon at the Stag's Head for the Glenn Davis show, someone said they heard him say it was either an adductor or abductor strain (sorry, I couldn't hear anything most of the night there). Adductor is inside of thigh, abductor is outside. So certainly in neighborhood of hamstring. You could check the podcast, I believe he was on pretty early in the show.
Regarding suggestions of playing Corey Ashe up front: Does not the Dynamo system require the two Strikers to hold the ball playing with their back to the goal? Is not Corey Ashe physically incapable of ever meeting that requirement?
Ngwenya didn't do much holding up of the ball last year. He was only like 160 pounds too so no I don't think the system relies on two forwards holding up the ball. In fact I can't think of a single team that has two target men starting: Chelsea 1) Drogba (Target) 2) Anelka (Speed) Liverpool 1) Torres (Target) 2) Kuyt (useless Speed) AS Monaco 1) Jan Koller (Target) 2) Insert French striker here (Speed) Aston Villa 1) Carew (Target) 2) Agbonlahor (Speed) Inter 1) Ibrihimovic / Suazo (Target) 2) Crespo / Cruz (Speed)
Hmm, not sure I agree with this. I do think that Dom expects all forwards to be able to hold the ball and play with the back to the goal. Ngwenya was able to do that more than I think you are implying. Ngwenya is 6'1" and weighs 175, that is a good sized forward. Ashe is 5'6" (according to the website, although I think he's shorter than that) and 140. There is no way Corey could hold the ball like Joseph, but he could learn to use his body better over time. Having said that, Dom could obviously change his tactics if he wanted to put Ashe at forward. When Mullan or DeRo play forward, they don't hold the ball as much (although Mullan, for his size, is pretty strong with the ball). In general, though, I would expect Mullan or DeRosario to be moved to forward, and to play Wondo there, before Ashe moves up. In addition to holding the ball, Ashe has not yet proven to be a goal scorer at this level (or even at the Reserve level, where he only scored one or two goals). If Mullan or DeRo move to forward, then Ashe could fill in at midfield.
I'm 6'1'' 170 pounds and trust me when I play my coach doesn't expect me to hold up the ball. Do you know how skinny that is? Yeah Ngwenya is probably all muscle and about 3% body fat but he isn't strong enough to hold up the ball like Ching can (who is much stronger.) I don't recall Ngwenya really holding up that much, when it was to feet he was either fouled by the defender... But most of the time he would do like Crespo for Inter and use the sides as channels for his speed.
I hear ya, but nobody holds the ball up like Ching, so that's not a fair comparison. But I am convinced that Dom prefers forwards who can do that, and that's why he stuck with Moreno so long (Moreno is not very tall at 5'9", but he's 170 pounds and very strong) and why he liked Jaqua. Even Dalglish, who was much more of a slasher, make runs off the ball kind of player, was called on to hold the ball when he played. You are equally convinced that it's not the case, so we can agree to disagree on this. I also tried to point out other reasons why Ashe is not likely to play forward (lack of finishing), but that's just my opinion. We'll start to get an idea of what Dom is considering next week when they play in San Jose. My overall point is not that Ashe couldn't play forward, I just don't see DOM playing him at forward.
i agree, he's a fast player and all, but seems to do better on the wing.. would rather see someone else up at forward i think our midfield should stay the way it is, because they are solid.. Clark Mullan De-Ro Davis (and holden and ashe substituting for mullan/d-ro, davis) (mulrooney coming in for clark) even if we moved DeRo up to forward, there would be too much of a change in our midfield.. i dont think holden is quite ready to fill DeRo's shoes just yet
If Waibel is healthy, then I would actually think we would be more likely to see Mulrooney and Clark pair in the central midfield if DeRo moves up top. Dom played Mulrooney and Clark together a couple of times last year. It definitely hurts the offensive creativity, but might make up for it in the ball possession and defense that those two would provide in the middle. And Dero would provide the creativity from the forward spot. But, if Waibel is not healthy, I don't think Ianni, Boswell, or Robinson would be very good playing right back. All 3 seem much better suited to central defender (although I haven't seen Boswell play as much, perhaps he would be able to play right back). Anyway, my point is that if Waibel is not healthy, then Mulrooney would seem to be the best choice at right back, so that eliminates that option of moving him up to central midfield.
I think you underestimate our CB's. While they wouldn't be optimal on the right, they are defenders and can adjust fine. Ianni would probably make the most sense as I see him as the fastest of the three and he has some work at CDM as well from earlier in his career from my understanding. Not that it is ideal obviously, but Ianni could easily fill in a pinch and be more than adequate on the right allowing Mulrooney to be moved to central MF. I think we will see Dom give Wondo a big rope during the PPC as his opportunity to try to claim a starting spot. After that we will either make a small move for a forward because Wondo really impressed (Corrales for Kamara or Glinton e.g. plus allocation depending on which player), or more than likely bring in a forward because he didn't.
Bernardo just updated on his blog that the team confirms that Mullan did NOT have microfracture surgery, that it was normal arthroscopic surgery. That is definitely good news on his prospects of returning quickly.
Well at least we got all these new guys in the offseason to pickup the slack, oh wait that was the other teams in the MLS. Not looking good guys. With the busy schedule, we are doomed.
That's not giving a fair shot to the guys that are busting their butts in practice. The season hasn't even started, so we don't know what the Men in Orange are capable of yet. Afterall, we're talking about the back to back MLS champs. We are not in danger. The only danger is the house will be felt by San Jose tomorrow.
We still have a great team, we really need a forward yes, but man look at our team. 6 guys that play for their national team, this is an awsome team! We just need one more forward........................
I'm not denying we have a great team. Every game you are at risk of losing players to injury. So having possible 13-15 extra games only increases the risk. Now it is not like we are starting at 100%, we already have injury problems. I'm not blaming anybody but AEG. And once the season goes south, so will my money. I have been a season ticket holder for three years and I regret buying them this year, but at least they won't get my hotdogs, beer and parking money.
I am sure other Dynamo "fans" can buy your season tickets. Several BS bloggers would love to take them off your hands because of financial situations. The Dynamo doesn't need bandwagon fans, esp ones that jump off when things look bad; we haven't even gone 1-5 yeat!! You are denying they are a great team by saying that you "regret buying them (season tickets) this year." That is blaming the team, not AEG. Some "fan" . . .