What are we doing?

The First 5 minutes were all Colorado needed:

As far as bad starts go, I don't know if there's been a worse one all year.  In a game where we start super defensive, with 5 players in the backline, it took The Rapids about 15 seconds to fire a pass 40 yards downfield and get in behind the defense.  Tim Parker recovered well, made a nice sliding tackle, but conceded a corner. Corner, clearance foul free-kick -> Corner.  On the corner, the refs missed both an offside and the ball was out of bounds before Maric touched it, but whatever. We got a makeup call as soon as the ball came into play.  We won a free-kick, Maric dropped it off to Parker who made an inexcusably bad pass that was supposed to be to Jones, but wound up right at the feet of Cole Bassitt.  Bassitt found Deigo Rubio in a pocket just outside the 18.  Rubio fired a shot that Derrick Jones got a foot on, and the Rapids had another corner.  Jack Price delivered a tremendous ball, Lalas Abubakar was the first up, and beat Maynor Figueroa to the header.  Maric was leaning with the flow of play, and Abubakar delivered a ball from 5 yards out that Maric had no chance at.  1:0 - 4 minutes in.  It wasn't a bad start, it was an awful start.  The Dynamo managed to possess the ball for less than 10 seconds and managed one pass in the first four minutes.  

Tab had to change tactics quickly:

For the next 5 minutes, Colorado simply played keep away.  With the Dynamo sitting back in a five-deep formation, Colorado simply played the ball back and forth in the backline for the better part of 10 minutes.  When Michael Barrios found his way to the back post completely unmarked, Tab made a switch, pressing Junqua high and moving Maynor Figueroa to Left-back.  The move actually worked beautifully and Houston dominated the run of play for the rest of the first half.  Houston was winning the ball in dangerous spots, firing off beautiful combination play, and getting tremendous opportunities inside the box.  Urruti, Dorsey, and Mattias Vera all had dead on chances inside the 18, and none of it found the back of the net.  Finally, in stoppage time and right before the whistle should have blown, Maynor Figueroa controlled a loose ball off a corner, took an extra touch inside the box, and won a penalty in a beautiful veteran move.  Fafa put it home, and we had a good feeling going into the half with the score tied 1:1.  The Dynamo were the better team for 30 minutes of that half, and you had to feel they were going to pull this one out. They had created 13 chances in the first half, with 4-5 really good ones.  

After the half, Tab brought on Ariel Lassiter for Maynor in an attempt to get more attack-oriented.  Moving Junqua back to left-back and pushing Ariel up, and the second half began much like the first half ended.  The Dynamo came out controlling possession, spraying the ball around, and moving with purpose. Lassiter won a corner in the opening minutes of the half, blasting a left-footer into the box. The corner went long and out of bounds, but the Dynamo immediately stole the goal kick and went back on the attack.  For the first 5 minutes of the half, the Dynamo were completely outworking, out hustling, and outplaying the Rapids.  But, in a common theme for the year, most possessions ended in a cross into the box that didn't get past the first man, or a blast that wound up in the legs of the nearest defender. That began to change around the 51st-minute mark when Bassit fired a 25-yard shot that Maric easily grabbed.  It was a warning shot, but Colorado was beginning to find gaps in the Dynamo pressure.  Immediately after, Vera found Urruti on a great pass into the box, Urruti drew a penalty, but it was called back for offsides after VAR overturned it. While it was definitely a turning point in the game, it wasn't THE turning point in the game.  That'll come later.  The game turned back and forth, Andre Shinyashiki found Bassit right in front of the goal seconds after, Bassit hit the woodwork with a header and the Dynamo went on the counterattack.  Lassiter fired a left-footer to Ryan Yarbrough who managed to knock it wide.  Andre Shinyashiki found a crease to just miss the far post a little later.  

The Turning Point:

After some back and forth action, Derrick Jones lost the ball at midfield and Colorado was on the move.  Aaron Trusty hit a switch to Shinyashiki, who blasted one right off of Sam Junqua's face.  The carom was taken in by Mattias Vera, who had his pass downfield to Fafa hit the back of the head of the defender in front of him.  That carom was chased down by Shinyashiki, and as Junqua was trying to shake off the ball to the face Barrios raced past him to the back post for a goal.  While the goal put them down on the scoreboard, it's what happened next that didn't make any sense. Down 2-1, with 30 minutes to play, Tab subbed in two defensive players and took off two of our better attackers.  Switching Derrick Jones and Fafa Picault for Joe Corona and Zarek Valentine at this point in the game was dumbfounding.  Neither Corona nor Valentine really offer anything going forward, and with other options on the bench AND the fact that he had to move Griffen Dorsey to Right Wing was just completely confusing.  Not Bajamich, not Memo, We didn't sub off Vera or Dorsey, but we took off Fafa and Derrick Jones, two guys who can get forward.  It was only minutes later that Dorsey came off for Memo.  Tab's use of subs is often a mystery, but in this case, I completely can't understand it.  Junqua was obviously phased by the ball to the face, he stays on.  Fafa is the best wing player we have right now, he goes off.  About the only thing Valentine offers going forward is punching it down the sideline to Fafa, there's no Fafa on the field.  Jones is winning the ball in the midfield and those balls are being turned into chances, and we pull him off for Corona. 

Jones had 6 tackles + interceptions and had connected on 33/34 passes. Fafa had been taking on defenders and actually winning.  He won 3 out of 4 times he took someone on.  The Dynamo attack sputtered until Coco Carrasquilla had a Colorado pass come right to him at the 68-minute mark.  Carrasquilla charged hard, and dropped a perfect slip pass to Vera inside the box.  Vera blasted a right footer that found a diving Yarbrough.  The shot deflected back to Carrasquilla, who headed the ball back towards Vera but Yarbrough jumped in front of Vera to snag that too. The Dynamo created plenty of opportunities, none of which found the back of the net.  Carrasquilla twice found the Heinekken deck, and Urruti had a great opportunity right in front of the box that found the waiting arms of William Yarbrough yet again.  In the 80th minute, Brian Galvan officially ended it with a perfect bender to the far post.  Junqua was late, failed to get pressure, and Galvan had all day to line up his shot.  Maric had no chance as the ball nestled into the far side.  Over the final 10 minutes and the 6 minutes of added time, the Dynamo failed to put any real pressure on as Colorado sat back.  After an embarrassing moment where we had to pause play for homophobic chants, the game was quickly over.

A familiar display:

Tab tried a similar tactic the last time we played Colorado, starting with 5 in the back against Colorado on May 15th.  The result was the same, losing 3-1 in Denver.

Sam Junqua: 

We haven't won a game in which Sam Junqua started all season long.  We have a goal differential of -9 while he's on the pitch.  He's not helping us score (6 goals), he's directly responsible for too many goals (2/3 last night).  Junqua has made strides this year, and it's not his fault completely by any means, but the team has performed much better with Adam Lundkvist on the pitch. 

The Attack:

25 shots, 10 on target, 0 goals.  Over the last 7 games the attack has generated 3 goals from open play.  One of those was a Goalazo from Mattias Vera, another was created solely by Fafa Picault at the end of the Austin FC game.  Over the 7 games, the attack has totaled 90 Shots, 28 on target, 3 goals.  During this span, they've also had 45 corners and not a single goal to show for it.  The problem with this team isn't chance creation, it's chance completion.  

Anti-Voodoo needed:

I hear you Fire Matt Jordan and Tab Out fans......but for now can you just get your anti-voodoo mojo working?  It's apparent that at this point in time we need something supernatural to actually win a game.  If we could all just sit aside the intentions to raze this organization to it's very cure and instead try to rid it of it's demons for a week, maybe divine intervention will occur and 3 points will happen.

 After this game, even I'm ready to burn it all down:

Parker, Hadebe and Carrasquilla, you can stay.  Jones, you can stick around too.  Pasher, we'd like to keep you too but you can't seem to stay on the pitch. Vera, Memo, and Corona, we'll keep one of you for depth.  Everyone else, thank you for your service and your effort.  Please accept these nice parting gifts. Everyone else who gets a paycheck from the Dynamo (except for the wonderful stadium employees), please clean out your offices in a timely fashion.  Have a nice day though!

Next Up:

Wednesday - August 18th vs Real Salt Lake.