Houston Dynamo v. NY Red Bulls , Saturday, March 2

I'm struggling to name a player on NYCFC. What a cliff they've fallen off of.

Even with our recent work load, I gotta believe we win this one without getting into too much of a dog fight

 

I wish we were playing NYCFC since many commentators say they are down. RBNY however, our actual opponent, is rated by the brainiacs at MLSsoccer.com as above the Dynamo in power rankings. I guess I understand an away draw being a much better result than a home draw.

RBNY has a shiny new DP in Swedish International Emil Forsberg who is being presented as the sign that RBNY are wanting to change their ways and make deeper investment in personnel.

Home game. Got to win.

 

The old MetroStars come to town!
Always special to play one of the league's original 10 teams from the initial launch of MLS.

VAMOS HOUSTON!!!

 

ugh...these late nights are getting to me!

 

They have a college baseball tournament at Minute Maid Park this weekend - are Astros parking lots available for Saturday or is this one of those conflict games

 

I will always remember this game at Robertson. Even though it was only the end of July, it felt like our playoff chances died that day. Was the first season Hou would miss the playoffs. Mullan scored a late equalizer that felt utterly meaningless, since we needed 3 pts from pretty much every home game at that point. A couple of morons jumped onto the field during the game to hug bleepin' Thierry Henry.

 

I'll never forget the only time I was able to sit in the "actions" seats that are on the field.

It was a game at Robertson against the red bulls (i think it was the playoff game in 08?) and this giant kid kept blowing past our D. He seemed huge up close and was way too fast for his size. I thought "damn, I wish we had one of those".

It was Jozy

I also will always remember Dane Richards torching us at Robertson as well. An absolute speed merchant.

 

That playoff nightmare still haunts me. We were so damn good that year we should've smoked them.

 

Dynamo in trouble one point from the first two games at home against opponents that you probably would’ve said are very winnable even with people out with injuries.

you’ve got to find ways to accumulate points in the early part of the year to stay in the hunt. It’s still early but it’s going to get late quick. If this team doesn’t get some wins before the month of April.

 

Has anything good actually happened in those purple drank kits?

 

My 6 year old was so confused by the purple uniforms. Such a weird decision. Like, I am imagining a bunch of higher ups sitting around a table, and someone goes, "I know, purple uniforms!" Then everyone was just amazed by the idea. But, people are buying them for some reason.

The game sucked, the ref was in love with his whistle, which always makes the game slow.

 

Unrelated, but I love how Miami has like half of Barcelona's team, and we are all just supposed to smile and act like no rules are being broken.

 

Exactly. And no media person asks any questions. Also, LAFC signs a world cup finals goal keeper, Hugo Lloris, for a 80% paycut and we are supposed to accept that as reasonable. Right.

 

There is no doubt that rules are being broken, fine, whatever, but spread it out. There is no reason why Miami of all places should get all the benefits. Alba, Sergio, Suarez, and Messi on 1 MLS team! Give me a break. It's simply not possible. Personally, I hope their old asses get hurt and the whole scheme collapses.

 

At least LAFC has some significant amount of outgoing players. I forget the exact number but from Taylor Twellman’s most recent podcast I think it was >10.

 

I wouldn't say no media person asks questions. Remember the Athletic (I think it was) broke the news that Miami was over the cap and was going to have registration issues without shipping out players. This is a mediocre piece written by someone who I'm not sure understands MLS rules but touches on the couple of things they did to supposedly get under.

https://clutchpoints.com/inter-miami-news-barely-fit-mls-salary-cap-using-clever-loophole

 

richards burned us because barrett was playing hurt

 

Agreed. In this case, Lloris was on $6.5m/yr. at Tottenham. Reports say Tottenham bought out the remaining six months of his contract for close to $2.0m. Thus he is willing to play for LAFC for only, $350k per year. Even if you accept that logic it only covers until June. It still leaves the proposition that he is accepting a 95% paycut come July. Further, the LAFC roster gives him no DP designation or International designation. No amount of LAFC superior attractiveness accounts for that. That is a totally incredible story.

 

Ok. I get your point. But The Athletic piece was short on details and failed to recognize any questions about the Alba contract, and failed to layout the maths. All it did was report another team official saying "they are screwed." Which turned to not be the case because here they are. Reading the clutchpoint I fail to understand how the math about the suggested moves work. I've yet to see a report where a journalist asks Garber and/or Miami: "Credible questions exist regarding rule compliance of the Miami International roster. Please provide information that shows the roster is indeed compliant."

Not that an answer would be forthcoming -- but that is the news. "Garber refuses to explain how Miami roster complies with rules." Its not a short-term answer to anything. Some will say it is meaningless. I see it is reporting of significant news that constant low pressure on MLS.

 

Please understand I take my soccer opinions, especially when they disagree with professional managers and players, with a grain-of-salt. Having said that ...

I still don't understand why an HH-less Houston Dynamo is playing out of the back through pressure, with a one-goal lead, against a team that wants you to have the ball deep in your half so they can take it from you and ram it into your goal.

 

Again, not defending Miami or suggesting they are definitely under the cap, but selling Gregore cleared out young DP cap space and gave them a chunk of GAM to use to buy down salary. Free buy out of Jean removes a max cap hit salary and saves GAM/TAM as he was on $800k. Those two moves have a combined cap impact (between salary and GAM value) of ~$2 mil.

They've just opened up more cap space. Word is Yedlin is going to Cincy. So that's another max salary plus avoided GAM. Sounds like they are getting GAM in return too, so that's probably another $1 mil+ value. I fear that may be to open the room to do the rumored Escobar deal.

 

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the Yedlini move (which is confirmed) in The Athletic this morning. Me thinks they are getting ready for Escobar. OR, they needed to create space for Redondo.

 

By the way -- Bogert has a curious part to his report on the Yedlin deal. He says Cinci is cap constrained, thus the 172k in GAM they are shipping to Miami. I find that a curious way to report it because absolutely nothing about that deal, either taking on an above cap player or shipping out GAM, helps Cinci with a cap constraint. Sure helps Miami as you note. The only way it makes sense to me is that he is implying that the amount of GAM would normally be higher but that Miami had to accept below market value for Yedlin to move him off their books. But I didn't think older high-salary veterans have much GAM value. They are almost always as much a burden on your cap as they are benefit to your team. No one gets much value for older-high salary veterans do they?