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

Within Dom's 442:
My understanding is Onstad has been reannointed starter, so that's off the table. Perhaps I disagree: the difference between them statistically is down to a tenth of a goal per game, and Hall now has the better save percentage. And I think he's pretty much the keeper of the future.

Ching and Oduro is probably the best functional frontline. Ngwenya's the better soccer player and finisher but Oduro offers more wrinkles to a team that needs wrinkles.

Obodai at a-mid, Palmer d-mid, Davis left, Ashe or Mullan right. Give Appiah some shots off the bench.

Unless you fix the backline you're fixed for the season. Though inserting Cameron in the middle stabilizes that issue, we've been shaky down the wings, too. I'd consider putting Cruz, Ashe, and maybe even one of the new center mids in the back. But that, like pushing Onstad to the bench, would be perceived as a slight against Hainault, who is a Coach Favorite, so it won't happen. But if you can beat us to the endline so easy the best we can hope to be is the mid 90s Crew that played 6-4 games, and we don't have McBride or Cunningham, et al.

We might also consider tinkering around:
352

Ching Oduro
Ashe Palmer Davis Obodai Mullan
Chabala Boswell Cameron
Hall

343

Ngwenya Ching Oduro
Davis Obodai Palmer Ashe/Mullan/Cameron
Chabala Boswell Cameron
Hall

If the defense is this shaky, why emphasize it (like the Rockets went small when they lost Yao)? Try and win games 4-3. Better than sitting back in a 442 that almost forces you to field bad players, at least gives you a chance to win by simply outscoring the other side. I once won a club game (outdoor) 6-5 where neither team seemed to care to play defense. In the end, all you have to do is score one more than the other team.......and this team can have some offense when it clicks......

[Only other choice is 532 and try and pack the defense and make us impossible to flank or through ball.]

 

Good point, this is exactly like your rec soccer league.

 

So you think we should just sit back there in a leaky 442 and pray we pitch a shutout, Trust in Dom, etc.? Ain't working this year. Or were you making a point other than a weak ad hominem?

And the basic point stands even if we're talking about the Crew beating KC 6-4 back in the early MLS years, that you don't have to pitch shutouts to win if your offense is strong enough. Since this is not one of Dom's airtight defenses, if he's not going to experiment with some of our tougher-minded midfielders as backs, and is just going to run the same basic defenders out there, why not drop a lousy defender off the field and throw numbers forward?

And you might be surprised, maybe if we have Obodai and Palmer helping clog things in a 5-man midfield, or three decent attackers up top, that we magically get where we can possess the ball and create chances, and perhaps even give up fewer counters and goals because they have to spend more time defending against us.......if you feel obliged to start Cochrane or Mulrooney to keep your formation, why not change the formation to suit the roster you actually have instead? It's kind of like when the Texans insisted on running the ball a la the old Broncos even though all they had was Slaton running two yards and falling over. But you have this great set of wideouts.......what's the point.....use what strengths you do have....

[For what it's worth, 6-5 was EDDOA league play and there were a couple of future MLS draft picks on the field...."rec"? Ha! Haven't been in that since about age 9........]

 

With Cameron back, I think our defense is going to start looking a lot better, provided he stays in the backline (which I'm not saying he will). So how are we going to win 4-3 when we can't even get a shot on goal?

Our defense wasn't our problem against the Revs.

 

Hahahahahahahahahaa!!!!!

 

You are right. Appiah looked great against the Fire.

 

you are right. what this team needed was more gauchos (of course i mean UCSB's David Walker not Argentines).