I was actually watching Albright during pre-game warm ups at our last home game. I was very excited to see him and he was moving quite well. I (again) wonder if by the time the Toronto game rolls around if we'll have Beckham, Xavier and Albright available. And again I say...if we win in Houston with the same line up 4 times in a row, do we really want to mess with that? (I know that's a HUGE if.)
Probably not, but it increases the quality of our subs tremendously. We'll have some depth for the first time this year, which helps on how you can approach a game.
Completely agree with that. That was my original thought, but then again there's this nagging thought behind that saying "How the hell do you not start one of the best players in the word, and one of the best U.S. defenders?" Nag nag nag nag....
How do you beat Houston? Killer Defensive mids (or, be named the "Charleston Battery" snicker snicker) We are in trouble. I hope Yallop shakes things up a little. This would be the game to come out with a surprise. PS> The Houston stadium is sold out for the first time ever. The Dynamos will be up for this. Dammit.
Yeah, now that I think about it, if they're ready to go 100%, you've got to put them in no matter how many games we've won in a row. Especially Beckham. He just makes us so much better. It's a little more difficult, I think, to mess around with the defenders, though.
I don't often post with speculations for the lineups, pregame predictions, etc, but here's a wildcard . . . What if DONOVAN shows up with his BIG game? We know he can change a game when he's really on . . . wouldn't he relish this? Could we play this one up at Spartan, for old-time's sake?
well i'm going to continue my doom and gloom outlook and say we'll be extremely lucky to grab a point from houston. our last three games came against considerably weaker opponents. i don't think we played particularly well in those three games either, rather we took advantage of our chances and defended well (and let's face it rode our luck). a loss wouldn't be a disaster. a tie would be a great result. a win would be huge. a win coupled with a chicago and columbus loss would probably make us a favorite to make the 8th spot. i still think it's too, little too late, but at least we're acquitting ourselves well down the stretch.
Yeah. We should lose this game. Houston's the better team, no question. But sometimes the ball bounces funny and the breaks go your way. We definitely need our big players (Donovan, I'm looking at you) to step up this game and our defense to lock down and not give up the early goal. And then we need some of those lucky bounces of the ball. Let's see if our guys can rise to the occasion and knock down Houston. If they do, then we can start considering the possibility of a run for the playoffs...
Isn't this what we're always hoping for? For the wins and for the entertainment value. But Houston will be keying on him. Let's hope he's up for a big game, and the refs don't let Houston hack us to death.
I think we're going to need more than Donovan to step up - there's got to be more than one. I seem to recall him stepping up vs. Chivas USA and trying to win the game all on his own....and we still lost 3-1. Houston, at Houston, is every bit as tough as Chivas USA. Our defense has got to be solid. Our midfield - no give-aways in midfield, please Pete. It's imperative. And then we need some magic from LD and Cobi.
Donovan's been good at hard work on both sides of the ball lately, and he's had some quality passing for opportunities, and his game management has been an asset to the team. (I haven't seen any threads lately about his lack of leadership!) I've been impressed with his set pieces, although I know I'm in the minority. To me, he just seems to be getting better on them all the time. If he adds some shots on goal, and maybe one or two times beating a defender one-on-one, it would be the next step. He's still a breakaway threat when playing up top, too, but there has to be a midfielder or forward to send the ball through. I've seen him get in position & start his run behind the defense, but then the through ball doesn't happen for whatever reason. That's where having Beckham come back will be huge. Only a very few defenders in the league (Ugo? anyone else?) can keep up with Donovan, so if the defense keeps a high line, and the ball comes through in the right spot, it's a guaranteed quality opportunity.
Starting XI anyone? My guess is Frank uses the exact same lineup as the past two games, with Glinton in for the injured Gordon. Frank's been talking a lot about finally having some continuity the past couple of games, so I could see him going with the same guys, especially since they all get a full week of rest before the game. But if Harmse and Xavier are fit and ready to go, it's hard to see him leaving them off the field to start the game. But I think he will -- That then makes a decent sub bench: Xavier, Jazic, Harmse, Kirk, Buddle, Pavon and Cronin
Well yes, we always hope for that, but this is special maybe. He's been under pressure for underperforming, and most opinions are that Houston is primed to wail on us before their big crowd. But he has game-breaking ability which hasn't busted out in dramatic fashion recently. This is his old club . . . I'm saying maybe he's due, how sweet would it be for him to strike a couple blows despite all their advantages on paper?
Very sweet. Think late season vs. DC last year. I'm going to miss this game 'cause of vacation. My thoughts will be with LA!
That's JUST what I'm thinking, or San Jose playoffs 2005 . . . when he plays like that, he's a killer. It's a wildcard, but it could bring us the result.
Yes. The first three wins were not dominant. Two were due at least in part to a man-advantage; the third had a sort-of-lucky goal, and we were lucky to keep the Crew and Kamara's crossbar blast out of the net! Hey, don't get me wrong, we deserved the run of good luck after some of the crap we've endured this summer, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking we don't need X and/or Albright on the back line, and are not a better team with them. Becks is a different story; others have made good points about why he really should wait until the medical evidence is conclusive.
=====Glinton======= ======LD========= Tino===Tudela==Cobi= ======Pete======== Randolph======Klein== ===Harden==Roberts== Does that make sense?
Clark is out for this one. He's suspended for 9 games.\\ http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/5189464.html
You beat me to it!! Nine games and 10k! Ouch!! By the way ... is there a clip of this anywhere? <Nevermind ... found it on youtube!!>
WORD!!! There's a nice morale booster for them, things have to be pretty upbeat in that dressiing room, you know the way Kinnear is always so positive about things . . .
9 games is pretty excessive. One would have been sufficient for our purposes. Hopefully it doesn't give them even more of a chip on their shoulder than usual. Losing Clark is a blow for them, but Mulrooney will be enough of a handful for us.