Pre-game news and discussion here: 1836 Ready for FC Dallas Match (Houston Chronicle, 2/18) Here's the MLSnet.com game report: FC Dallas win first Texas tangle Anyone have any first-hand reports?
A little unfortunate for the good guys, the end result. That must have been crazy out there on the pitch with that cold wind blowing like the above story reports. Am I the first to offer congrats to the Super-Hoops?
Thanks. You guys will have an awesome team, with D-Ro, Onstadt, and company... And you have a genius of a coach. The jury's still out on our coach.
Allright, back and warm at the hotel. I'll try and give a game report but I was so cold, my mind might have blocked some of it out. The first half was our first team vs. their first team. Onstad Waibel-E Rob-Cochrane-Barrett Mullan-someone I don't remember-DeRo-Davis Moreno-Cerritos We had the run of possession (plus the wind advantage) and I counted a time where we had about 7 corners in a row. We finally scored off one of those headers, but it was a weird goal where the ball was bouncing around and Moreno put it in (We actually didn't even know the ball went in, so there was a delay in celebration. ) Halftime score Houston 1-Dallas 0. Second half was our reserves against their reserves. I have no idea who was in goal (it didn't look like Zach Wells), but the Dallas reserves scored twice on us (plus again they had the wind advantage for this half). Story stood out as being super fast and then the rest of the half was spent dancing around trying to keep the frostbite out of our toes. (an aside, it was oh my god so cold out there, you have no idea.) Fulltime score Houston 1-Dallas 2. Though I count it as a win for us, because at least our first team could score.
I don't want to read too much into the picture in the second article, but it looks like they'll be sporting a uniform color combination similar to Valencia's. Looks nice, and hopefully I'm right.
Unless I'm mistaken, Dallas is still wearing last year's uniforms in that picture, and those uniforms that Houston is wearing look like the training jersey template for most of the teams in the league. Throw in the fact that they haven't had a grand debut of the jerseys and I bet that's not what Houston ends up with.
Our Coach is absolute class. After the game he said the loss was probably his fault for not having the properly warmed up. That shows humility and the ability to step up for the team. Remember guys, we have a HELL of a team. We are going to win alot of games and we are going to see some high quality football. Personally with a Gaffer like Dom, I think we could see alot of silverware and have a hell of a rivalry with LA. BTW, Credit to Dallas. Well done in some nasty conditions. Good Luck to our Mighty Men of the US tomorrow.
1836 gets chilly reception in Dallas (Houston Chronicle) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/soc/3670016.html
Re: 1836 Firm: 18 & 19 February - Frisco - BE THERE http://www.3rddegree.net/thirdindex.cfm?page=article&show=1128 game report
Hi, there was also 6 really die hard Houston fans who braved driving in ice to go out there and get no mention.
Brave indeed. I was not so brave. Wish I could've been out there at both games. Would've been a fun weekend. Though it was still pretty good because of the US/Guat. game today.
How can Houston lose. Honestly I thought going into next season the former quakes would perform almost as well as the 05 season. Hopefully Dominic was right and that the reason they lost was because the team wasn't warmed up enough. Anyways I'm almost sure that by the time the season starts this team'll go back to their rutine and start winning like hell.
It was also bone chillingly cold out there and we got the wind advantage in the 1st half. Our reserves had to play against the wind in the 2nd. There's no need for panic here. It's just a preseason game played in miserable conditions with all of guys seeing alot of playing time.
Here was the Houston lineup for that game. Houston 1836: Pat Onstad (Martin Hutton), Wade Barrett (Aaron Lanes), Ryan Cochrane (Kevin Goldthwaite), Eddie Robinson (Mike Chabala), Craig Waibel (Andre Schmid), Brad Davis (Marcus Storey), Dwayne De Rosario (Stewart Holden), Patrick Ianni (Mpho Moloi), Brian Mullan (Chris Wondolowski), Alejandro Moreno (Julian Nash), Ronald Cerritos (Josh Fender) Is Stuart Holden trying out for Houston? And anybody know who Martin Hutton and Josh Fender are?
Martin Hutton graduated from St Louis in 2004 and spent last season on a dev deal (can't remember where) and is currently on trail with Houston. He's a good young keeper but like so many at that position it's hard to catch on and get playing time in MLS.
Schmid played outside back? He was a forward at St. John's so this is an interesting development if accurate.
Hard to tell if much should be read into it - first, just because he was listed as going in for a defender doesn't mean he played defender. Second, Houston is very short handed on defense right now, with Aloisi and Gray injured. Also, at defensive midfield Clark and O'Rourke are also injured. So, in order to get the top guys some playing time they may have played out of position. Aaron Lanes is a midfielder, not a defender and he is listed as substituting for Barrett. Of the guys listed as playing the second half, only Goldthwaite is a true defender. Maybe that's why Dallas scored twice!
Josh Fender was drafted by Houston in the supplemental draft (fourth round). Josh Fender Drafted by Houston On other threads it was reported that Stuart Holden is likely to be signed by Houston, he has been in training camp with them.
Here's the game report from Gustavo Rangel in today's Rumbo: Los titulares del 1836 se vieron mejor que Dallas "The starters for 1836 were better than Dallas" Highilghts: Houston was "muy superior" in the first half when the teams were playing their starters. DDR dominated the midfield and controlled the pace of play. In the second half, Kinnear put in his reserves but Dallas kept some of their best players in the game. Both Dom and DDR mentioned that the cold affected the teams' play. Dom says that the cold affected play too much to draw many conclusions about anyone. Among the reserves, Marcus Storey was most impressive. Story says that there's no doubt that it'll be hard to win a spot on the team because the internal competition will be fierce.
Thanks for making the trip - hope you had a good time, weather not withstanding. (All in good fun warning). If I were still just a fan, I might make a comment about how the Houston fans weren't noticed because they didn't cheer for their team, but since I'm not, that probably wouldn't be right of me. Seriously, glad to have met y'all.
Hutton was with the Wizards last year. He is also a local product of Klein High School and the Texans. Interestingly all three of these locals played for the Texans, Storey and Hutton for the same coach although different years (I think).
Two roster spots we shouldn't forget about. Lest we forget, Wells and Ching were on USMNT duty. Ching will probably start in lieu of Cerritos, and Wells' cap indicates he should be at least the #2 keeper, if not the starter. If I were Cerritos or the other two forwards, or Mr. Hutton, I wouldn't be getting excited just yet. If you start bumping these non-USMNT players down the depth chart with this in mind, 45 minutes in a scrimmage in freezing February may be their season's highlight. Then again.....the league will be playing during the World Cup. They may need every fit body they can find. I didn't see the game, but.....the news reports and MLS story say that it was not just cold but the wind was blowing with Houston the first half. While I still think we're better than Dallas, that has to be accounted for, playing with the wind on a freezing day.....after all, Dallas scored two, once they were headed the same direction, albeit apparently with reserves.
Just to be accurate FCD played w/o Ruiz and Nunez and played no more than 2-3 starters in the first half. I guess Clarke and Kinnear should spoken before the game if they wanted starters versus starters. Take the scrimmage for what it was try not to read too much into it. If either side had taken it seriously only 11-15 players would have gotten on the pitch instead of the 24+ that got an opportunnity for both sides.