Manotas had his moments but rarely showed to the ball. Boniek played well. Maynor played well. Vera was pretty useless. Memo was pretty useless. The wings in general struggled to get separation and get clean crosses off. How about hitting a ball first time? The offense was really better when we went at them and combo balled it through them. Given a rare chance to play Hansen didn’t do much. We seemed to play closer to a 451 today so it will be interesting how we line up with healthy wide speed.
I was only able to watch the first half. During those 45 minutes, my reaction was: Pros: Generally much more well organized than the last few seasons. Press was effective against the Galaxy, though will be more interested to see if they can keep that up on a humid July night. Cons: Dynamo had at least 60% possession in the first half and never (for me anyway) felt like they might score. There was a clear gulf in talent to where the Galaxy only need a few opportunities in the Dynamo final third and picked up a goal, hit the crossbar and looked dangerous with their chances. In fairness to the Dynamo, with no Elis and Quintero it is hard to judge. Separately, I see a lot of celebration over getting a point off the Galaxy. The Galaxy barely made the playoffs last year and personally, I think they are worse this year. To me, they are a non-playoff team. Backline is still bad, mediocre keeper (except with his feet, that ball to Pavon to set up the goal was something to behold. I laughed later in the half when Maric tried the same thing as McNamara was streaking down the right touchline and he hit it straight to a Galaxy defender). Chicharito is a big step down from Zlatan who was a threat to score every time he touched the ball. Chicharito moves well off the ball, but he needs a lot of help. Midfield is okay but obviously better with dos Santos. Love Pavon, Katai is nice but Alessandrini was better. So you dropped two points at home against a non-playoff team in my book. Back to how Ramos had them playing. High risk approach, especially pushing the outside backs so high. Don't think the Dynamo have the midfield or the center back pace to do that against better teams and not be made to pay for it. Guess we'll see. At least there was some organization, spine and fight but it's a lot like the scrappy relegation candidate going up against teams with better players and making a go of it.
I think we might be more interesting offensively with Elis and Quintero wide but yeah it did feel like an organized team hustling around trying to keep up with a superior expenditure of money (and not a particularly good one). And doing so at home. Where we have had some upset win luck lately against them fwiw. Telling to me is when I am talking to Ms JC pre-game it's like well A and B are/used to be USMNT, C and D are international stars, there is no comparison. We were also simply smaller too. And without the wings kind of slow. Couldn't get space to hit crosses past the first man. That to me was very "trying hard as we can," Memo and Hansen whacking balls into the first defender.
What was and has been frustrating since last year, is our inability to put it in the net or at least develop quality chances. We rarely get dominated, yet it seems that the other team needs one or two attacks to score and we need 6 or 7. Hopefully Quintero can help with this but how badly is he injured?
Manotas did his job Figeuroa still looks good The Slovenia CB is ok but still too slow Martinez produces nothing and should not be in the middle or biggest deficiency in this team Boniek and Vera were good except Boniek made some hash out of some very good opportunities in the box that could have given us a better chance to win the game Valentin was good Too much going through Memo on the left and LA dropped a lot of players back to hep with him on that side I agree with others that LA looks worse without Zlatan and hasn’t improved enough without him. A certain dropped two points at home. Nice comeback without our best offense but again a soft goal let in by the defense. Not sure about newcomers still yet. But the glaring defiencies at Outside back CB and attacking midfield never addressed will continue to hold back this team.
The sentiment isn't wrong though. There were a lot fewer of his fans there than I thought. Certainly less Galaxy shirts then last year. In fact, one lady was wearing his Mexico jersey and turned around and high fives me when Manotas scored. So I can get supporting him for his National Team accomplishments but still being a Dynamo fan. Like for me, my hero is Nolan Ryan. If he were to have pitched for the Yankees against the Rangers I think I could have still cheered for both sides, chalk it up to one of those strange sports moments.
The strike certainly wasn't soft, but going end to end without being touched and no real defensive effort to stop him was soft, though.
We'll see where we go from here, but the games against the Galaxy last year were full because of Zlatan. Didn't necessarily mean everyone is a huge Zlatan fan and wearing Zlatan shirts, but it's Zlatan. I'd be shocked if the same thing wasn't at play. Big question is do these folks come back or is that their one or two games for the season?
He didn't go end to end. Bingham absolutely nailed the feed. I just don't see that as anything less than a great strike by a great player.
definitely some highlights and things to positively build on from the game. we clearly had less talent on the field and stilled showed smartly. getting our multitude of injured starters back will only help LAs midfield is POOR!! like really bad. Sasha was an absolute no show Chicharito is still a crying bitch who got used by Kiki all game. he seemed to be on an island all game with no plan to get him involved. came close on a few headers though and he clearly still has skill. Kiki was MOTM. HIs vision and passing is tops in this league from the CB position. I really loved the adjustment the last third of the game where we constantly had him in the box. i submit the fact he was running into the box on the goal sucked a CB towards him and kept Mauro from being doubled. He also single handily saved a goal. Ceren is the hottest of garbage. i will no longer speak his name. he is now known as "dumpster" Next week will be a serious test and i look forward to seeing how we improve PS LA fans suck a bag of d^cks!!
When you won’t even say what happened, that doesn’t exactly support your case Why do you need to know— El Batallon Houston (@BatallonEb) March 1, 2020
Not Pavon, the Galaxy went end to end. Vera and Struna were both between Pavon and goal and were completely pantsed.
It was certainly a great strike by Pavon but it was poor, soft defending by two players who should have done better, especially Struna - who did not provide cover for Vera and overplayed inside and did not account for the simple cutback to the middle (more dangerous position). Two defenders vs one - should have been handled but Struna has a slow first step and is liability in the middle with the majority of strikers in MLS (wasn't quick enough for Serie A either). He is who is, not a technically bad player just a slow one. You get what you pay for. I like Struna's passing and Aerial game also but THE TEAM NEEDS TO SPEND MORE AND GET UPGRADED W DOMINANT PLAYERS IN THE SPINE at least. then we may make the playoffs. Figueroa is the faster, better player but he will get injured if we try to play him 20+ games and then we will have an even worse situation w two slow CB's. This LA is much less potent w/o Zlatan. I am sure they will end up spending more to upgrade as early season results accumulate.
Vera is the help defender who gets burned on Pavon's cut back. I thought we got outplayed in the midfield and he got beat on more plays than that. We miss a real clean up guy. I agree with Ace, as a defender, with a double team, you pincer the player in between you and close the space down to nothing. They instead both overplayed a run down the line and left the middle open. Even if he doesn't immediately shoot he has acres of green space. I assume they overplayed the wide run because at that point LAG was getting all sorts of wide runs at us. I also assume that some of the instinct to concede depth and run alongside the threat reflects a lack of foot speed. More than once we kept backing off almost to our 6, no one stepped to ball. Things only tend to snowball if no one steps.
the reason kiki is up in the box was likely a lack of height options to chase the win. i thought we were getting outheaded for most of the game with the exception of the CBs. it undermines winning all the corners and trying to make crosses if there's almost no one to knock that in. to me we were better off playing wall ball through the middle -- as on the goal -- because there is so little height and aerial ability.
the issue i had with manotas is he tends to run away from the provider and not to them. don't know how many times i'm like "show to the ball." even on the goal i am yelling it because i'm not sure if he's going to just stand there or make the run into space.
in terms of chances, we need to learn if you're not tricky or fast out wide consider hitting the ball early and first time. i thought we missed the elis element wide, sheer speed. you need something that creates separation. too much crossing into the gut of the first defender or trying to take them on and losing the ball. unflattering to memo. or, they looked better hitting worm burner crosses to feet than lofted balls. when i think of a ramirez goal it's a ball played to his feet, turns, slotted in a corner. when i think of a manotas goal he's played into space behind the line. neither bring ching to mind.
I had a great time out! The hinchada was rocking!!@ DALE DYNAMO!!! Correct. Spot on! I am as well yelling at him to show! Demand the pass be played to you flaco! If Ramos is going to play Manotas in that classic, up top #9 role than the big trait for said role is to show, receive the ball, hold it up, and allow the rest of the midfield to advance up in the attack. Distribute the ball to whomever is making a run and open. Heck even old Ale Moreno was good at this for us!