Houston Dynamo FC vs. LAFC - Recap

 

Can one be both frustrated and relieved for pulling one point out of this game?  This was a really odd and sloppy game from the get-go, the wind was visibly affecting the play and the new turf seemed to be playing like a putting green. Without Carlos Vela, this is a game we should expect to win.  There were good things, there were bad things, and there were ugly things.  Luckily, non of the ugly things came back to cost us.  Let's go through this one and look at what's next. 

The First Half was about missed opportunities, and one unbelievable stop:

Both teams had decent looks in the opening minutes.  After a terrible turnover from Boniek Garcia at the 1-minute mark, Diego Palacios's low cross was deflected by Zerek Valentine.  The ball found Latif Blessing's left foot and he blasted one towards the net.  Zerek deflected that one too and luckily Joe Corona picked it up and headed the other way.  Only seconds later, Maxi Urruti found a streaking Memo Rodriguez in front of the net.   Jesús Murillo was just able to get a toe on the ball and knock it away, but both teams came out very aggressive.  There were multiple times in the first 10 minutes of play that LAFC found a way to get the ball into the box, but the back four held firm and turned almost all of it away.

At the 11 minute mark, after a great turn by Eduard Atuesta and a terrific through ball, Diego Rossi stood all alone with the keeper just outside the 6-yard box.  Rossi got a good foot on the ball, but Marco Maric got his big left paw on the ball and stopped it cold.  Maric was fading right, and the ball was back to his left, and he somehow just snagged it with a big meat hook.  It was a tremendous stop and saved a sure-fire goal. The Dynamo had their first real chance at the 17-minute mark.  Off a corner, Memo placed a terrific ball to Urruti on the back post.  Urruti managed to flub it, and the ball went wide left.  It wasn't the most open of nets, but Urruti had time and space and was nowhere near the mark.  Memo had a really good strike on a ball only a few minutes later.  His left-footed attempt from almost 25 yards out bent just left of the goal.  It was a nice attempt on the run but just couldn't find the mark. On the ensuing possession, Altuesta had almost an identical shot which also missed wide by about 12 inches.  The game stalled after this and got really sloppy. Diego Rossi had us dead to rights once, when Tim Parker's footing failed on a deep ball.  Luckily Rossi couldn't control it and the Dynamo defense had a chance to recover.  Fafa Picault had a really nice run down the left touchline that resulted in a foul and a Yellow on Jesús Murillo.   Urruti had a decent chance (but he should have hit Memo on the run) that sailed about 50 feet high of the net. Just minutes later, after an unbelievable interception by Boniek, Memo had a chance with time around 30 yards out.  That one sailed about 20 feet high and wound up in the Surge.  Corona had a great shot on target at the 41-minute mark that Pablo Sisniega just got a hand on.  We went to the half 0-0.  Other than Urruti's chance off the corner, we didn't have a real serious threat, but we were holding it down on defense.  The back four were holding together well and keeping Rossi under wraps.  

Both teams came out swinging in the second, the Dynamo got the better of the first 15 minutes.

The Dynamo came out really aggressive to start the half, and while nothing was connecting they definitely were the more dangerous side.  Memo had a nice cross 46 minutes in that was caught by Sisniega.  Pasher finally came through and had a solid cross into traffic that was just headed away shortly thereafter.  LAFC broke the scoring open in the 54th minute with a terrific passing display that found Corey Baird completely unmarked on the back post.  Atuesta had a great ball to Mark-Anthony Kaye, who one-touched it to Palacious, who managed to pull it back and fire one through traffic to a wide-open Baird.  The action didn't allow Maric any time to recover, and Baird hit it solid and into the back of the net.  Being there live, I thought for sure that Baird was offsides.  We never found out if this was even reviewed, but Baird was directly in my line and I thought it was a no-brainer.  (I am known to be wrong however lol). It took less than a minute for the Dynamo to respond.  The Dynamo came right back at it, and after a deflection, Maxi Urruti had an unbelievable diving challenge in the middle of the attacking third.  The ball rocketed directly Joe Corona, who fired to Fafa Picault down the left flank.  Fafa put a left-footed cross on an absolute dime to Tyler Pasher who was crashing down in front of goal.  Pasher got an outstretched right foot just squarely enough on the ball to get it past an outstretched Sisniega and net his first-ever MLS goal. It had to feel good for Pasher.  Pasher had struggled early in this game and had a few opportunities in the first half on the run but just couldn't make anything happen.   Pasher has played really hard to this point.  He's showing flashes of being a solid MLS player, and his pressing has been huge for the Dynamo to this point.  

Chances became a little harder to get shortly thereafter.  The ball stayed in the midfield for much of the next 30 minutes, other than Altuesta's knock at the 63rd minute.  Fafa had a right-footed blast cutting in minute 82, and the doors opened back up. Danny Musovski had a right-footed blast moments later that landed right in Maric's lap.  Maric fired the ball out of bounds, and LAFC came directly back at it.  Alutesta found space at about 40 yards, and fired one well high of his mark.  Shortly after, after a good defensive stand, Vera picked off a pass and fired one from just outside the 18.  It was on target, but little trouble for the LAFC keeper. At the 94th minute, Diego Rossi gave the Surge another souvenir, and the game finally ended as Joe Corona fired downfield to Ariel Lassiter, who completely overran the ball.  The game ended in a 1-1 draw.

This game was hard to get a feel for:

Although LAFC dominated possession (61%-39%) it's hard to say they controlled the game.  When the Dynamo found their way through, they did so on the express train.  The deep ball was there, and the Dynamo fired off 78 long balls throughout this game.  While the quick hitters and the combos weren't necessarily open, the deep balls down the flanks gave LAFC problems all game.  The ball seemed to have a mind of its own sometimes, however.  If you looked at the corner flags, the two on the west sideline were blowing in opposite directions, and the two on the east sideline weren't blowing at all.  You could tell everyone on the pitch was having trouble, especially in the first half.  Memo fired several free kicks well off the mark, which is unusual for him.  With LAFC selling out to take the middle away, the Dynamo were relegated to lobbing deep balls and crosses.  It was a good game plan for LAFC, and we were solid in our approach.  While we were lucky to come away with a point (mostly because of Marco's miraculous save), the game definitely could have gone either way.

The new grass plays extremely fast:

The ball was skipping like it was on ice at times, especially on through balls. There were many times when you could see the ball spinning like a top in place after a first touch.  I actually think it helps our style of play, but we need to spend more time on it.  It's definitely a different surface than the turf we've been playing on the last few years.  Not sure if it was just short, or wet, or both, but we need a little time to figure it out.

Game Notes:

Teams have figured out how to take Urruti completely out of the game: Urruti managed only 19 touches the entire game.  He wasn't a significant threat in the vast majority of them, and I can only really think of his nice pass to Memo in the opening minutes and his shot he fired 50 feet high in the second.  Memo utilizing space behind him and the wing combination of Pasher and Picault should help open things up for him, but right now he's having trouble finding breathing room. I think the shot he fired up was simply out of frustration of not getting the ball.  This is two consecutive games where we have had problems finding him.  This is something we need to solve.

Ludkvist played his first solid game of the season:  While there were a couple of awful passes, he was taking less touches and distributing the ball much better.  He was solid defensively as well, and actually put up 4 interceptions in this game.  He got several good breaks on the ball, and you never even noticed Opoku was on the field.  If he can play like this more often, the Dynamo will be alright.

What is going on with Quintero?  While he picked up more minutes than we've seen from him this year, why is he not in the starting 11 yet?  Is he hurt?  Is he unfit?  I haven't seen or read anything on this anywhere.  I'm actually wondering where he fits in in the starting 11, because ideally, he'd be playing Memo's role behind Urruti.  I'm not really sure how all this fits, but we can't leave our DP as a super-sub all year.

We are finding multiple ways to attack:  This is a work in progress.  With all the new guys in tow, we have seen several different forms of attack and have had somewhat successful runs at it.  The quick hitting combos, the downfield passing from the back, and the midfield picking off passes and turning them into quick offense.  It's nice to see that we can play multiple styles, especially with the varied landscape of MLS.  

Our midfield is really good defensively:  The combination of Mattias Vera and Joe Corona have been extremely solid so far.  Vera has been excellent at playing passing lanes and winning balls.  Corona has been a bully in the midfield, and both have been excellent in the passing game as well.  Vera is sitting deeper and connecting the ball up really well.  I'm actually really excited to see these guys solidify as the year continues.

Final thoughts:

It was great to see the crowd as it was.  As people started to sneak under the awnings to escape the rain it made the crowd feel bigger than it actually was.  The Supporters were hype as always.  Great showing by all of you.  Let's keep it up, and let's stay #Forever Orange.

Thanks again for reading.
Brian.