Dynamo vs. Frisco - Recap

 

So, to all the readers out there, I have a confession to make.   I'm not a lifelong Dynamo fan, I was late to the bus.  I grew up in North Richland Hills, nestled in between Dallas and Ft. Worth, and I'm a lover of (almost) all things Dallas.  Growing up, it was all Cowboys, Mavericks, and Rangers, then we latched on to the Stars when they came.  It was also the Dallas Sidekicks of the old MISL, and we all wanted to be Tatoo. I was super excited when we were chosen to get an MLS team, and I fired up the popcorn and turned it to whichever UHF channel the Dallas Burn were playing the San Jose Earthquake on.  What I saw, was terrible and boring soccer. I tried really hard to get into that team, but I just never could.  

When I moved to Houston in March of 2009, I decided I needed to latch onto a team from here.  There was no way I was giving up my Mavericks, the Cowboys, or the Rangers.  I had spent 32 years of my life loving these teams, and too much time (and money) in those stadiums.  Around 2001, I had completely stopped following MLS except for the occasional check of the box scores.  When I got married, I needed something to connect with my stepsons about as well.  One was a big Dynamo fan, so I chose to give them a try.  It wasn't love at first sight, but it was love at first sight of Alberth Elis.  I know I talk about him a lot on here, but I loved watching La Pantera play.  I decided to start getting tickets and start taking my stepson to some games, and I completely fell for this team.  The point in all of this is, it's hard for me to hate Dallas-based teams, but I gladly support the distaste for Frisco coming out of Houston.  I may have been late to the party, but now I wanna be in this party like Frank the Tank.

Anyway.....ON TO THE GAME!

Before that....

Is it too much to ask that we get a game broadcast on an English channel?  I have an SAP button, it for some reason never works.  I understand 3 languages, none of them are Spanish, and it's extremely infuriating that we are playing any game, much less playing against FC Fisco Burn, and I can't understand a single word of the broadcast. I finally found it on Twitter, but why do I have to watch the game on my phone to hear the English broadcast?  It's a Saturday afternoon game.  Why isn't this on Quest?  Why did Fox only pick up El Traffico (trash by the way)?  Also, to all of MLS, is it too much to ask that we start the game relatively on time?  It says the game starts at 2:30, it's currently 2:48 and the game still hasn't started.  As a person who stresses over punctuality and is somewhat OCD, this wears me out.  I totally don't understand.

Ramos Rotates the squad.

Not many differences in the lineup today.  Maynor Figueroa gets the start, Derrick Jones gets a start at the 6, moving Joe Corona as a quasi-10 and moving Memo right wing.  With 3 games coming in 8 days, Ramos had to give some guys a break.  Boniek can't play the minutes over that side, and Figueroa is a nice move.  Would have loved to see Ethan Bartlow here, but I understand how Tab wants a left-foot dominant player on the left side.  Bajamich and Bizama made the squad, and Pasher (the only player who's had a hand in all of the Dynamo goals this year) was left out.  It seemed like the Tab was trying to play clean sheet ball here because I don't know why else you'd push Joe Corona up behind Urruti and leave Darwin Quintero on the bench.  I don't like Memo on the wing, but I like him more than Ariel Lassiter, and at this point, all I can think is that if Mateo Bajamich is this much worse than Ariel Lassiter, we wasted $1.2 Million in the transfer market.  I'll chalk it up to James Harden money.  

The first thirty minutes were ug-uh-ly:

It seemed like the game was going to go gangbusters from the kick.  With both teams coming out aggressively, and Maxi Urruti winning a foul deep in Dallas Territory 0:19 in.  Maynor blasted it, and it wasn't a serious threat, but you felt like that was going to set a tone.  It didn't. Seriously, the first 1/3rd this game looked like a pee wee game.  There were packs of guys running around turning the ball to each other.  Even Eddie Robinson said during the broadcast "it's just kind of been ugly and boring.  Tanner Tessmann's lobbed through ball to Andrés Ricaurte at the 27-minute mark began to open things up.  Ricaurte got a good head on the ball, and Marco Meric made a nice diving save.  

That all changed with a fortunate pinky:

The Dynamo were trying to answer back after Frisco had found their way through.  After some ping pong action and a decent build-up, Memo fired in a cross to Joe Corona who had found space directly in front of the 6-yard box.  Corona's header deflected off Bressnan's hand, and the Dynamo had won their first penalty of the season.  Phelipe guessed wrong, Fafa Picault hit it true, and the Dynamo were up 1-0.  The Dynamo really pulled back after this.  Urruti, Memo, and Fafa sat back in their own half and allowed Dallas possession with their backline.  Tab basically dared Luchi Gonzalez's side to build an attack, and after seeing Franco Jara trying to finish I don't blame him.  The problem is we lose all opportunities to attack when we play this way.  Without Quintero, we can't build an attack either.  Dallas began finding cracks and Jáder Rafael Obrian's chance with just under ten minutes left in the first half went just off the side net.  Houston immediately knocked back, as Mattias Vera found a wide-open Urruti inside the box.  Urruti fired a left-footed banger that was deflected by a Frisco defender, and Memo fired the rebound back only to it turned away as well. Derrick Jones eventually won this ball back and a foul from about 25 yards out.  From minutes 32-40, the most exciting moment was when the Announcer screamed "PENALTY GIVEN.....oh, no wait.....that's offside." on a corner that was called off because the ball went out of play.  

Then things changed.   At the 40 minute mark, Vera had given away a free-kick at the 30-yard mark.  The free-kick and the following shot were no threat, the Dynamo had posted a wall of eight men in front of the goal, and Valentine put a good block on it.  The rebound found  Ryan Hollingshead, fired a diagonal across the field.  Lundqvist didn't see him a streaking Freddy Vargas who completely blew by him.  Vargas fired one across the goal and Meric just barely got a hand on the ball. Nobody chased Obrian on the back side, he was the only man to the ball, and the game is now level.  It seemed like Meric was the only person who was fighting to keep this ball out of the net, and both Fullbacks got beat on this play.

The second half was a sloppy snoozefest:

I actually went back and watched it to make sure.  I was right the first time. Outside of a few decent chances, the game never really turned. Urruti had a nice run and a decent strike on a ball early in the first half, but there wasn't much here.  This was a disappointing and frustrating game because it didn't seem like we were ever pushing for a goal.  Not only were we sitting back, but in a game where we are struggling Tab's first sub is.....Darwin Ceren? At the 72nd minute?   Then we don't sub again until the 84th minute?  What in the world Tab?  Like serious man (I know he doesn't actually read this, I'm venting), we'd like 3 points here.  Can we please put on the only guy we have on our roster that can break a defense down?  I don't understand why Quintero is on the bench in the first place, much less on the bench until the 84th minute against a really poor FC Dallas team.  This is a game we should have won, but it seemed like Tab was more worried about wearing the guys out for Wednesday than he was about winning today.  We can't take games for granted like this.  I've been really excited about Tab being here, I've given him plenty of credit, but I was really disappointed in him today.  This wasn't a winning lineup or mentality.

Derrick Jones' first start was decent, but he has to improve his passing:

Honestly, at first glimpse, I thought Jones was terrible.  I was focused on the couple of times he fired balls into the sideline while generally under no pressure.  At second glance, he won some headers, drew some fouls, and got his feet on some interceptions.  He's big, he's athletic, and he's a solid defender.  Should be a decent mix with him, Corona, and Vera.  Not saying he was terrific, but he was decently solid.  Was actually the Dynamo's highest-rated player according to WhoScored.com.

Meric secured the point.

He did it last week, he did it this week.  He's playing really well in goal, and his distribution began to look better when he was throwing out instead of booting it into the stands.  His distribution is suspect, his goaltending hasn't been.

https://twitter.com/HoustonDynamo/status/1391142983467212802?s=20

After being encouraged for two weeks, and confused last week, I felt like we moved backward this week.

This game was just bad.  It looked bad, the attack looked sloppy, and we just didn't look crisp.  I felt like we should have sat back less, and sought out the second goal.  Despite all their speed, the Dallas Burn don't have much in terms of quality finishers.  Darwin Quintero should have come on much earlier, and we need to find ways to get him the ball in space.  At this point, I don't care if that's on the wing or behind Urruti, just get him the ball in space.  Fafa played well, it was good to see Maynor out there and he held up, but I was really disappointed in today.  

That being said, never turn down a point on the road.

Thanks again for reading, 

#HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange.

Brian