I doubted it -- but don't deny it after seeing it. I'm guessing Sunday to be a confluence of four things: HH, LittlePea, Hispanic heritage day, and Sunday afternoon (huge traditional family outing day for hispanics.) All combined for a big crowd. In recent years we have seen poorly attended Chicharito games in Houston. We have seen poorly attended HH games. It all factors in. But I admit that Sunday's crowd surprised me and I do attribute some to a Yeti sighting.
you know, you may be on to something. i personally would very much prefer Sunday afternoon games instead of Saturday nights. Houston is such a large city that any Saturday night games will be competing with a myriad of other entertainment options in the city and the burbs.
Naw, as Craig Waibel, Ching, De Ro, Clark and those original Houston players displayed after jersey exchanges, they never put on an L.A. Galaxy top. Ever! So that tradition began with them and any Houston player after them needs to adhere to their standard. If HH wants to wear his buddy's L.A. jersey, fine, super, just don't wear it on our home field. More so after the team just lost to L.A. The optics are just not right. More so to a young player learning about the professional aspect to the beautiful game. Boca n River players know and respect each other but wearing of each other's jerseys in front of their own people just is unthinkable. If our soccer culture is to be authentic then the first step is our MLS pro players to follow international standards respected for generations. Years back MLS launched the league considering winding the goal posts, which woulda been a real shot to the foot move and branded MLS a renegade league in the eyes of FIFA. Thankfully wiser heads prevailed. Yet they still launched the league with goofy color schemes a la the 90's X Games, a clock running down and gimmicky shoot outside to break a tied match. Thus for years many purists in our land just had more ammunition to shit on our upstart league. I just told the naysayers to give the league time to get up to world expectations. Which MLS is now.
i don't care about the jersey swap, but to the contrary would be encouraging him to feel out his other options. how do you like that one? or this one?
re the small sample size, there's that, and then there's also the U parabola shape of our form chart for a few years running where they revive slightly this part of the year. the new coach didn't elevate the team above 1.4 ppg which is right about the red line, and with a negative GD and a lot of GA. the midseason players were duds, and the full season players "made this happen." you should be retained or fired on the oeuvre, and that's 34 games for most. as i have said in previous years about certain pseudo-critics, if you act like there's not enough talent as a whole, that needs to be treated that way when making the individual player decisions and moves as well. if you disdain the whole you need to decline, tear up, or send onwards every parker adam memo fafa quintero etc, you have a choice about. otherwise you recreate piece by piece the thing you dislike as a whole. worse, i think there is a family reaction to some choices, which to me could be tautological. there is a feeling of loyalty to the guys. that will be true if there are new guys. it doesn't really tell you what decision to make unless you let it paralyze and extend everything out. a near last team shouldn't have the band back together next year. that is horrifically naive, particularly when key elements are very old in soccer terms, which only gets worse.
personally i think there is an almost purposeful naivete about, say, dorsey, baird, junqua, some of the mediocrities who got popular again at the end of the year. it's like, did you not watch 2021? or the start of this year? there is a reason their positions were all being shopped even as we started the season "ok." some of that, like with junqua, is how they defend their position. baird for the season was 2G 4A coco 2G 4A dorsey 1G 3A HH 0G 1A junqua 0G 1A memo 0G 3A quinones 0G 0A thiago 0G 0A even the ones who did produce, it's like, should 13G save sebas? 7G 3A for fafa? 8G 5A for DQ? kind of tepid stuff compared to the attacking core at the better teams. i feel like i am stuck back in barnes dancing bear land. 2017 needs to happen. all new and improved faces. quit pretending we can nibble around the edges or that players are better than they really are.