Pre/In/Post Houston Dynamo @ New England Revolution Aug. 14th

What?? This is delusion. The guy is the highest paid player on the team, he is a PROFESSIONAL athlete, and he doesn't have the will power to stay at an acceptable weight? That's pathetic, its the type of shit college coaches have to deal with when trying to field partying college kids who aren't being paid...not a guy making 6 figures to play a ********ing game.

Sorry but, Landin's downfall is all his fault, and part of the season being completely lost can fall on his shoulders, those of the front office, kinnear, and other players.

Fact is, we made some awful personnel decisions this year.

 

Ching has not been in it since the World Cup dis. Granted the service hasn't been exceptional, but last night he was absolutely terrible. No creativity, no heart, and NO GOALS!

He is Cam Weaver with a better first touch, and that is not what we need right now. We need someone to create.

 

That's what I've been saying, we need someone creative, someone that can make things happen when there's nothing there, somebody you want to get the ball to a lot. Somebody like Landín, maybe? Ok, somebody like DeRo, Stuie, Rico, Davis before this year, Ching before this year. Or Landín.

 

Ahh...those halcyon days of summers past. Biggest smile I've had thinking about the Dynamo all year...

 

And your sense on this one might really point to the big problem of the entire season. Dom's been throwing the veterans out there all year despite the lack of results. It's almost as if he doesn't even see the "kids" on the bench.

Last night, down one goal on the road in a game where you really HAVE to get at least a point. Dom throws ERob in there toward the end. In a season of WTF's? This was to me perhaps the biggest WTF yet? In what possible way does ERob help the team at that point?

 

I said it before and I'll say it again the season was over the second they said we need a certain number of games to win to be in the playoff race. It's more than time for the youngsters to see their time to play. Appiah showed promise the few times I've seen him play. As for Cobos, if we're gonna invest that much time developing him give him some damn experience. Obodai hustled his tail off last night, I was impressed with him. Cameron was great in the back and hustled up front to create some great passes. I couldnt tell the difference b/t Cruz and Ashe last night and thats pretty damn sad. Hainault really disappointed me. Boswell is at his rope's end tryin to hold it together out back. Mullan had his shining moments. I want him and Brad back on the wings with Obodai and Palmer in the middle. Weaver just isnt in it this season. Hall I think took Onstad's spot for good. Ching is done for the season and Joe is pretty much another midfielder right now. Its annoying to watch us play the long ball constantly b/c there's no passing game on this team anymore. Our touch and our common sense is everywhere but on the field. I get so pissed off seing us push forward and we pass it backwards letting the entire opposing backfield flood the box and killing any chance we had. Counter attack have gone the same way. I dont think they know how slow they are now in their old age and the same flooding of the backfield happens or there's absolutely nooone up front looking to make moves they're just standing there looking at the ball. LETS START THE REBUILD NOW. I was very pissed off at our offseason moves. This thing needs to get started yesterday. I cant stand to see that disappointed look in Dom's face anymore that seems like he's about to cry watching this team sink more and more everyday

 

It allowed us to move Cameron, one of our better players, into the attack. My only issue with that sub is that it didn't come sooner.

And I don't understand the "Dom won't play young players" logic. Was that not Cruz out there starting last night? Do we have a stable of young Messis that I'm just not aware of? Do people really think that Dom (who's job is to win games) is leaving guys on the bench that would help us win?

The only young guys on the team not getting minutes are Navas-Cobo, who from what I've seen just isn't ready yet, and Appiah if you consider 25 to be young. If Appiah getting minutes is the difference in us making the playoffs or not then we don't have any business being in the playoffs to begin with.

If people want to argue that the roster as a whole is too old then they would have a point, but saying that Dom won't play young players is just silly. He's given plenty of opportunities to young players that deserve it (Holden, Cameron, Cruz, Ashe). Amazingly enough though, not all young players are better than veterans.

 

The problem with subbing in a defender to "allow" yourself to move Cameron forward is Cameron is just getting back into shape and had played a bunch of minutes already. So you move a tired player up into attack. Meanwhile your fresh player is on the backline (and your fresh attackers on the sideline gathering dust). Plus, that Dom feels he has to sub in the defender, and not just put in an attacker for a defender, betrays too much caution and tactical inflexibility. We were losing the game otherwise, right? The worst that happens if we go offensive is we lose 2-0 instead of 1-0. This defender-sub is a dumb move that he does year after year, including the decisive playoff vs. LA. If we need offense, put in an attacker, sheesh.

I mean, what it comes down to, to me, is that he could have pushed forward Cameron anyway and gone with three backs and subbed out a tired attacker and improved the offense both ways.

We have not won a league game since May, as a poster indirectly noted by mentioning we were 5-4-1 at one point. Long ago I started disbelieving that our bench players must be worse than that. The only question, as I posted last week, is whether Dom is purposefully dogging it by playing veterans (chasing draft position) or just knows no better. If he is really trying to win he should have figured out by now the defense "as is" cannot stop most MLS teams for 90 minutes, and that he needs to cobble together the players with the best defensive skills if he wants to try to win (even if they are nominally MFs on the roster). Similarly, he needs to play the most productive attackers, even if they are named Oduro, Navas, or Appiah (which, amazingly, might motivate some people named Weaver and the like to either sink or swim). But if he's content starting veterans, losing, and being way up the draft order, keep after it, insanity is trying the same thing and hoping the result changes. There is no amount of hard practice effort, drilling, or pre-game speeches that can help some of our players.

 

Well, there's the season. Time to ride it out and get ready for the expansion draft in November

 

I was sitting there thinking "you know, going 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 for the last 5-10 minutes of a must win game isn't that hard to do". Bring Oduro on just to see if he can run by someone! What does ERob bring on at that point, other than a potential heading threat on a corner?

I know Dom doesn't have the widest of tactical boxes (4-4-2 'til I die), but we're kind of getting to the "think outside of the box" portion of the season where we are in the standings.

I'll agree with *rey* on this - starting Mullan & Ching up top is neither creative nor threatening to opponents.

I sense that Dom is still stuck believing that this is just a rough spot and if we break thru the flood gates will open - but I have seen 90% of all Dynamo games since they are in Houston and this is not like the beginning of 2007 & 2008 where we were playing good soccer but the goals and results weren't coming. We were domininating teams for an entire half but just couldn't score - this team can't even get the ball on net cleanly.

 

There are a few explanations for our prior slow starts. You know, we "made do" at forward a couple years until the summer window. We seemed slow out of the gate some years, like Dom had eased them through preseason (we did have to play CONCACAF in spring then). And there were occasional games where we seemed to go through the motions and be content with one point. Perhaps that's why Dom thinks hard work by hard workers is enough for a tie.

But I think the talent level has dropped significantly over the past couple years, there was no summer cavalry coming to our aid, and we have a few too many bad defenders and hustling mids. What we need are defenders who can stay with a man (all due respect to Hainault, but he's too slow.....and a few more of them, too); and a few more technical midfielders. We could get away with Mullan when we had DeRo Davis Clark Holden. Now we're trying to get away with Cruz and Ashe in a depleted midfield.

And I still think we are misusing Obodai, who shows me flashes of talent on the ball. Palmer is more like Cameron, a guy who runs the ball straight up the field and shoots hard. What the team needs offensively is someone who can hold the ball under pressure and move it side to side in the center (and, well, for that matter, everywhere.....too many clumsy ballhandlers).

And I'm at a loss upfront because Oduro should not be the most productive forward, but he is. He is a technical mess to behold, but his speed is a wrinkle teams struggle with. What this team needs is some wrinkles (in theory, Weaver could be our tall Jaqua-type, but it's not working that way), some sheer technicality, someone who can actually hit a cross, that sort of thing.

If he keeps starting veterans and they continue to suck, he better throw every underperforming vet overboard offseason. I can only hope this is evaluation/giving them their last chance and not just perseveration. Otherwise playing Mulrooney, ERob, et al game after game makes no sense.

 

Absolutely this.

In a nutshell. The entire season.

 

It is gonna be a write-off for next year as well. This team will take at least 2 years to rebuild throught the draft and trades. Making the playoffs is about to get even more tough. 2 more teams added next year, and then 1 more the year after that. There is no more sneeking in the back door to the playoffs. You have to have a good season, and then follow that up with a great run in the post-season.

I will say this about Dom though... If he doesn't start dropping baggage immediately after this season to start looking for new talent, then I don't think he makes it through half of next year. He has a lot of say in the personnel on this team with the organization the way it is structured. He has deserved that up to this point. He has put together winning teams and is considered one of the best coaches in MLS, and I think he is still that.

Hopefully, he has the balls to cut guys that have been through thick and thin with him. It is time for the "player's coach" to take the bench, and time to put in the hard-nose manager that will do what it takes to get the right guys on the field starting in 2011.

 

You're just being dense here and arguing without really reading my original post clearly. They could move Cameron forward without subbing anyone! Simply shift formations. They could have shifted Cameron forward AND substituted an additional offensive player like Cobo or Appiah with fresh legs. There were several options to add offense, and literally no need for defense at that point. Losing 2-0, 3-0 or even 5-0 rather than 1-0 was meaningless. They needed a goal. And this is not even mentioning Juvechelsea's point about Cameron's fitness. (although he looked great)

The other thing about "kids" and I put that word in quotes originally because I know Appiah isn't really a kid. But the other thing about unknown players is that they just might take people by surprise. If you notice Danny Cruz scored twice in his first few games. His speed and willingness to fire caught defenders off guard. Now everyone has seen him and he's pretty ineffective.

Personally I never said Dom "won't play young players." What I said was the guys who he has been playing (and I'd include Cruz here) are the usual suspects. The usual suspects are not accomplishing ANYTHING. Throw the "kids" out there and see what happens. I absolutely agree that younger players are not always better, but that's not the point. Right now, the point is that the younger players couldn't be worse. So get them some minutes.

 

Isn't ELvis off our books cuz he got signed in FMF?

 

At that point subbing Robinson in wasn't going to change anything, and putting in Oduro or Appiah in wasn't going to change anything either.

I guess in my denseness I forgot all about the "don't mark a player you haven't seen before" creed that most defenders play by. I'll be sure to keep that in mind in the future. Hopefully for the Chicago game Dom will have the team switch jerseys with the kids that escort them onto the field at kickoff, that'll really throw them for a loop.

You're far from the only one getting your panties in a wad about Dom playing the "kids" so don't feel too special about it being your post that I quoted. And it's kind of convenient that you changed your argument from veterans to "the usual suspects".

 

We are where we are.

NE vs Hou was a contrast in athelticism and size, and quickness.

We can never really threaten a team when we can't break out of midfield without being caught from behind.

Defense played good enough to win but our central midfielders don't push up forward with the ball quick enough to loosen up the flanks our even give the outside midfielders a through ball forward option. We have alot of guys that are basically better suited as defenders or defensive midfielders.

We had better overlapping from the outside backs (Hinualt? ) at the beginning of the game but then it disappeared for the rest of the game. Compare our backs in support of the attack when we had Wiabel and Barrett in 2006 or better yet the LA galaxy now with their outside backs.

Our forwards have always had a tough time with NE because they really keep bodies back and play disciplined for a pretty boring defensive battle but they got alot more turnovers for counter attacks than we did because they were quicker to the ball and gave us good pressure in our back field. We aren't very capable of that any more.

We have to blow up this team and bring in alot of new faces.

Our biggest mistake that we are paying for now was not making DeRosario our DP and paying him the money to stay when we had they chance rather than letting him go (for nothing in return) and wasting money on Landin. Heck, maybe Dwayne would have been the difference maker for us in the LA playoff game last year and we would have been in the cup final. This year, if we had Dwayne I bet we would be making the playoffs and enjoying another good season.

I hate looking back like that.

 

Oduro's been a thorn in other teams' sides -- even when he shoots the ball to Row Z -- and Appiah has already scored a well-placed goal in about 30 minutes of playing time, so it's not like people are just pulling it out of nowhere.

Predictability is a defender's friend. If I know that if I hold my ground on player x, he will turn around and pass it back, what do you think I do? But sometimes you figure that out right away, other times it takes a game or two. Cruz, like Mullan, has a very straightforward game that does not surprise. But like the guy said, the first time he stops and goes on you maybe a slower defender gets caught with boots of clay. He needs to work on some of the footwork Ashe seems to be finally picking up.

I think the veteran versus usual suspect distinction he's making basically goes to the fact that we have some favored young people (Ashe, Cruz, Chabala sometimes) who aren't any better than the struggling veterans. I think Dom has his favorites and in this bad of a season it's undercutting accountability. Bluntly, I think Ashe, Cruz, and the veterans as well need to prove they should be around next year, and we ought to see what the unplayed kids can do as well. This is the Catch 22 Dom creates, which is that Navas et al have played so little there is no concrete answer on what they offer us, and his seniority system favors not only ERob but also people like Ashe who aren't setting the world on fire. To the extent he's suggesting pretty much no one should be immune, I'm with him on that.

 

What really frustrated me about Saturday was them putting us under pressure with 3 or 4 guys late, while we couldn't get numbers on their end unless there was a free kick. We had a manic energy but in terms of actually getting positive subs in and people forward, I didn't see it.

 

Every time I read one of these post-game threads I start feeling the need to post something logical or common sense based; but inevitably someone like Dr ludicrous, or maybe even *rey* occasionally, beats me to it. We do not see everyone play on a day to day basis like the coaching staff, and I HIGHLY doubt that they do not put out the best 11 players come game time. Whether our best 11 are good enough is totally up for debate.

It says something when it appears Brian Ching is our most creative passer on the field. At least he's changing his game with his age to compensate... Thanks national team camps.

 

Bingo, that is the major problem I have with jc's fixation on Appiah's 1 Goal. Yup, he scored a goal in limited minutes in MLS but when he was on the field for extended minutes in the Open Cup he did and showed little. Of course jc did not see it since he was not there but he still argues the 1 Goal side of the coin.

Agreed as well that the best 11 are not necessarily good enough or better yet compliment each other cohesively on the field.

 

I tend to agree that our best 11 are quite simply not good enough. In fact, in a different thread I may argue that only 6 of our starters should be starting in MLS. That being said, when we are mathematically eliminated I want to see Appiah and Cobo on the field so we can evaluate for next year.

 

No doubt, to not play them under those circumstances would be counterproductive. Let the player gain some experience and the coaches may be able to evaluate the player under game conditions.

 

At one of our recent home games, a fan yelled to Dom as he was passing in front of our seats to "put Cobo in the game." Dom responded "sure, but you didn't see him in practice."

 

idwt