Pre/PBP/Post: Houston Dynamo v. New England Revolution, Saturday, March 8

Whatever lineup scores us some goals for a change is fine with me...

 

I voted for a draw even before I saw our record against them here. That said, so far 8 have voted for a win and the rest for the third option. No one voted for a loss and I'm the only one voting for a draw to date.

I guess I'm not as optimistic as the rest of you when it comes to how we're set up so far (no pure goal scorer) and where we're set up in back (is it Horst or Brunner?)

I honestly think we'll be lucky to get a draw against this bunch. This team was good last season and looks like they've improved a bit this season with the addition of Bunbury.

Meanwhile, in Houston....

That said, I'll go with 2-2.


...but don't be surprised if we lose this 1-0 or 2-0.

 

Will someone please get this man some Orange Kool Aid!!

 

gonna give this a try and see if it works.......

stumbledore does NOT suck!!

also, i wrote this after nearly every game last year so gonna get a jump start this year:

Rico = MVP/MOM

 

Hey man, get in line behind me! But seriously, I have the same concerns shaky CBs, no improvement to the starting FWDs and I'll add no suitable backups at the RB & LB positions.

Hoping for the best in 2014 but expecting the worst. Can you imagine if one of our 2 key players go out (I don't want to jinx them but you guys know who they are), but those 2 provide some major defensive cover at midfield.

 

Always the worry wart

 

I'm not sure if anyone else listened to Kinnear this evening on Sirius XM FC radio. He was interviewed, and said some interesting things. He says it's going to be tough making the playoffs this season because the East is getting stronger. He also hinted at Bruin/Barnes being a good pair.

 

Kinnear wants him to defend a bit. Dom wants him to be a box to box mid.

That's why Alex has been playing like a DM in preseason. Get him accustomed to that area.

 

Cascio is the wild card here. Young and badass. This could work.

BTW at least on first look, the draft was very good. IF... IF Bruin is not "it", Sherrod can eventually move in. AJ will be a starter sooner than later. Heck, it's not out of the question that they could see the field in MLS THIS year.

 

Well that sucks - a guy who has great passing skills and a great shooting touch should be up towards he opponents goal.

We already have 3 guys who can play more defensive midfield that are better in that area of the field by a wide margin (Carrasco, Clark, And Creavalle). He would be 4th on the depth chart as a 'deep lying midfielder IMO which is a big waste of money.

It doesn't make any sense for Rico to play higher towards the goal with Lopz behind him when Lopez has limited skill and less potential right now as a defensive midfielder. Same situation with Rico as he has limited skill ad potential as an offensive midfelder as opposed to Boniek and maybe even Brad or Lopez (I guess we will never know if Lopez isn't played there - I mean that's what the front office and Dom said when the acquired him as an AM).

Rico is only at AM out of necessity as Brad and Boniek like to be wide. Creavalle facilitated this use of Rico in this way due to his ability to cover well in the defensive MF.

I love Rico and what he brings but the fact that we spent over a million bucks and still don't have an attacking midfielder that's at least top half of the league really sucks.

 

Dom knows what's up.

 

Not every system needs a CAM. There are plenty of very good squads that do not use a CAM.

Rico, Creavalle, and Carrasco are holding defensive midfielders. Lopez is a center midfielder with attacking responsibilities, that can play in a holding role, that does not necessarily need to get stuck in (think Pirlo, Alonso, etc). In the modern evolving game, this is common. You'll hear Dom speaking about the diminishing importance of formations in the modern game. He has said that formations don't matter. Positions on the field are not as important as the skill each player brings to the squad.What teams are doing these days, are putting specialized players on the field. Box-to-box midfielders are not important as they were in the 80's and 90's. Fullbacks become wide players in the midfield on the attack (especially with Houston's speedy defenders). The holding midfielders are now splitting responsibilities, CF's play as pure attacking players, certain players have special roles such as Davis and his set-piece service, or Boniek, and his playmaking.

A player like Lopez can easily fit into a system that needs a midfielder with the vision, and passing abilities that Lopez has exhibited. It only depends on what type of squad Dom wants to put together.

 

He specifically mentioned DC United being better. But this makes sense. It has been a battle getting in the playoffs recently, and with virtually every team in the East improving (Union, TFC, DC etc), I think that the points will be even harder to earn in our division.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that Dom's insistence on "box to box" players might be part of Bruin's problem?

He often wins or receives balls very close to the center stripe. Whatever skills he does, or does not possess, I don't think anyone expects Bruin to pick up the ball 50 yards away from the goal and create a useful opportunity. I certainly appreciate the "everyone plays defense" concept, but it seems to me that it draws Bruin far away from any place that he can be effective. Not to mention that the running might affect his shooting if he's running on dead legs by the end of a 95 degree day in Houston.

 

Bruin is frustrating, this is enhanced by the fact he gets all uppity on twitter with Dynamo fans but, I've come to the conclusion that if we want him to do well again we're going to have to support him in an "unconditional" way. I mean that no matter how angry or frustrated we get with him we've gotta show up with signs reading "we believe in you" and such. If we continue to call him out he will likely just keep pouting(i'm sure he's not actually pouting and is working hard) and whining on twitter(which Dom should ban him from) which all might be affecting his form. In my opinion this makes a difference because we've seen that he is capable of producing and we know the psychology of forwards needing confidence to turn it on. The confidence part is elevated in Bruin's case because he doesn't really have great technical skill set to fall back on and he has instead relies on his emotions to keep up high energy play, thus elevating his need for emotional stability.

 

I'm also super stoked we signed Sherrod.

 

I agree that Bruin is frustrating because he can't beat the keeper, or hit the net. I can't agree that he isn't technically skilled. I think he has a great skill set, but that doesn't matter if he can't get goals for extended periods. I think he is physically and technically better than the average MLS CF, but cannot finish due to whatever reasons. He can only get better at this point, but wouldn't be totally surprised if he doesn't. Goal droughts happen for strikers at every level, and am willing to to bet he can look better this season.

 

My seat mate suggested we show Bruin game tape of Chicharito's goals at Manchester United. No need to be hanging out on the defensive side, you can actually play defense high up by shutting off the opposing teams safety valve passing lanes.

Instead just sit right at the offside level or slightly south then time your run appropriately. He did that very well in that infamous Colombus game where he had a couple one on ones.

So glad I'm not on twitter!

 

These are the kind of things that I always wonder about with the Dynamo coaching staff. I think this is a great comparison...Bruin to Chicharito. Not in every sense of course. But Chicharito doesn't score Ronaldoesque goals. He's kind of a worker bee, poacher like Bruin should be. Doesn't anyone on the staff ever tell Bruin to stop running back into the defensive half?

Same thing I wonder about Tally's improved, but still not great goal kick mechanics. He approaches the ball in an odd way. Why doesn't someone break him of the bad habits?

 

To further Heft's point, it is part of making him a more complete player, one that can actually see the field in this league. I seriously doubt he is going to play the position of one of our D-Mids. Dom doesnt want to make him in to a Rico, but wants to make him into a Stu Holden.

 

Disagree on this point. Having a healthy Omar is a huge improvement over last year. We saw a glimpse of that in the playoffs. Hopefully he stays healthy and we see the Omar that terrorized the league a couple years ago.

 

I'm hating this stupid weather. They never said it would be THIS cold tonight and tomorrow night, and the forecast for Saturday keeps going downhill too. Tonight WU is saying temps Saturday night in the 50s and 70% chance of rain. Booo!

 

That's Texas' weather for you.