Pre/PBP/Post Vancouver Whitecaps v. Houston Dynamo, Sunday, June 10

Surely the Houston Dynamo must win on my birthday, right?!

I would like to point out that on my birthday we are undefeated with a record of 2-0-1. That's 7 out of 9 possible points.

 

Calling a tie, or win/loss within 1 goal. Without 4 of our players, I'm looking at a whole lot of chances for both sides.

 

So you're calling a Win, tie, or loss? Damn, going all out on this prediction huh?

 

It'll be a pretty makeshift defensive scheme. Let's see if Boswell and, I guess, Sturgis can work well together in central defense. It's tough. The two central defenders are a team within a team and that relationship usually needs time to develop.

Although I don't think that outside backs should be evaluated primarily on their defensive abilities, Creavalle may need to spend a lot of time defending on the right side. You'd expect most teams to go after the least experienced player and he's it.

I think I saw somewhere that Bruin may also be out for this game? And Ching on FieldTurf is never a good thing. The surface at BC Place is new and supposedly pretty good by artificial surface standards. We'll see how that goes.

 

So that would be Creavalle v. Salinas down our right side. Me thinks Creavalle could use some help with that. Salinas has been looking pretty damn fast and slippery to me.

 

That's what she said?

 

100% sure this will be a loss.

A point would equal a team victory considering what we are missing.

Three points would do miracles and just might turn our season around completely.

WOULD THE REAL HOUSTON DYNAMO PLEASE STAND UP?

 

Not trying to get overly argumentative, and I know I'll get accused of being "sunshine police" or some other derogatory term. But I'm real happy with how the season is going so far, Here is why:

- 3 Home games for 7 points. 2.3 points/game. Still early, but no reason to panic over those numbers. 39 points from 17 home games would be just fine.

- 8 Road games for 9 points. 1.1 points/game. 19 points from 17 road games would be quite respectable.

- Current form is for a 58 point season. That could well win the East and give the Dynamo a shot at the SS down the stretch.

- Team has looked good even when the results were not good. Compare that to last year.

- Team has dropped points because of stupid mistakes. Far easier to reduce mistakes than it is to overhaul a poorly performing team and raise the overall standard of play.

As far as I am concerned the Dynamo are performing at the level needed to compete for the Championship.

 

And then we add OBG.

 

I don't think this is "Sunshine Police-y" at all. It seems pretty much spot on to me. We've given up some brain fart goals, which cause concern. But generally this team looks better at this point than they have in several seasons.

 

I'd be happier if OBG can get some goals. In this sport it's the only thing that matters offensively. I'm liking how the Dynamo have been using the midfield though as opposed to long ball style. It's much better to look at.

 

I would love to see more of Ownby. I enjoyed him for the few chances he got against Valencia.

 

he has the coolest hair on the team-I tried the kid and play do back in college and came out looking like MC Search before it fell over.

anyone remember Kenny Walker from the Knicks in the 80's-now that dude had some hair.

in all seriousness, he's getting better, he just needs some PT

 

It'll be interesting to see how much playing time Gumby gets the rest of the season. I think he has potential to be a very good player and I think he has bought into Dom's philosophy of relentless energy and work rate. Dom did very well in the supplemental draft with Ownby and Gumby.

 

I'm excited for this game because it marks the restart of the season after this short break (at least for the Dynamo). The season will really get going for the Dynamo with 23 games left plus four CCL fixtures.

I expect the Dynamo to win as I do everytime they play -- but it won't hurt their season if they lose. This is a tough road game because VCW is much improved and has no one away on International duty.

However, should the Dynamo win it will be a tremendous boost to the season. Three more road points would relieve pressure to be perfect at home -- provide some margin for error.

A draw would be very positive as well.

 

Why are we donating to Canada's national team and Vancouver isn't? That doesn't seem fair. In a show of respect, they should sit one of their best players out.

 

Soccer By Ives:

 

Brahma, was that you?

 

Hehe, no, I had nothing to do with that. Actually, I didn't want anybody hurt, I just thought they should be good sportsmen and pull someone out for the game.

 

I had plans on attending this game, just wish my schedule would of worked better.
Should be an interesting game since the team is in better form than last year but missing key players.

 

We pretty much have a game or two every week/10 day period from here on out to the October. No more bye weeks, if you look at the MLS "week" as each Wed-Sun. So the rest period is behind us.

I watched a good deal of the Portland-Vancouver game a few weeks back and really wasn't that impressed with Vancouver (sadly with kids and a family, the ability to watch Eastern Conference games has been diminished due to family duties prior to bedtime). They were probably a little lucky to get a draw based on about 5 seconds of magic from Darren Mattocks. For as many forwards they have, they don't score a lot and I think Joe Cannon is well past his sell-by date in goal. Defense seems sort of slow.

But they have 5 wins already this year, they strike me as a 2012 version of the 2011 Philly squad - not that impressive, has some talent, seems more lucky then good for their record.

 

The Whitecaps have also suspended Long Tan, a Chinese forward, after he tweeted about his frustrations about not playing: