What.....a.......game. This game had a lot of everything. It was action-packed, back and forth, had a lot of "firsts", and ended in 3 points. It wasn't always pretty, it ended up being a nail-biter, but it got the job done. 15,414 people inside PNC got to see one of the more exciting games in a while. There is a lot to be excited about after this win, and a little to be concerned about as well. Let's take a look at what happened, unpack a few things, and start looking forward to next Saturday vs. Portland.
The First 45 Minutes:
With San Jose pressing high in the midfield, the Dynamo spread out wide looking to build out of the back and make the San Jose front line run. With a backline of Bartlow and Hadebe, Nagamura was utilizing two center backs who have good downfield vision and accuracy in order to break lines and put keep San Jose's backline honest. Mattias Vera was spending time either dropping between the CB's or working his way upfield behind San Jose's forwards and midfield. Starting Pasher, Quintero, and Picault gave the Dynamo enough speed and playmaking that if the ball got through, there was a great chance to capitalize. San Jose pushed high in the midfield and dominated possession through the early parts, as in the first 15 minutes San Jose managed to take 7 possessions away from the Dynamo, many of which before the ball even crossed midfield. Vera fired the first warning shot (5 mins in), a deep ball left of middle that was just beyond a streaking Fafa Picault. The Dynamo were winning the ball back early in their attacking third. Lundkvist got a steal and found Tyler Pasher, which turned into a throw-in. Coco intercepted a pass and got another throw-in. On the throw-in, Dorsey hit a nice weighted pass to Pasher, who centered it to Fafa. The ball was a little to far in front of Fafa and Paul Marie cut him off and knocked it out for a corner. That's when the magic happened.
The setup on the corner was nice. Pasher, Fafa, and Bartlow all pushed hard to the near post. Hadebe circled around to the back post, with Sebas filling in the gap directly behind Bartlow. Darwin had set up just in front of the near post, bringing a defender with him.
Lundkvist hit nice ball that was timed just right off the corner. A low bouncing ball that laid up perfectly at Sebas' right foot. Sebas timed it great and had a sliver of daylight to the near post between defenders. He didn't hit it great, but he hit it just well enough.
The ball tucked in just past a diving J.T. Marcinkowski for Sebas' first goal of the year to put the Dynamo up 1-0. It was Houston's 2nd set-piece goal of the season and looked like it came straight off the training ground. Only seconds later, Sebas gobbled up a loose ball off a bad pass from Cade Cowell and fired it downfield to Fafa on the run again. Fafa cut back inside and hit a shot with his right foot, but didn't get it clean and the ball was an easy one for Marcinkowski to pick up. The Earthquakes came right back, as Monteiro found Ebobise in a nice pocket. Ebobise got a decent shot off that was blocked by Ethan Bartlow. After the goal, San Jose pushed even higher, making it very difficult for the Dynamo to even complete a pass. They were dominating possession (68% possession over the first 15 minutes of play), winning the ball back constantly around the midfield line, and building off runs and direct passes. From minutes 10-25, San Jose completely dominated the run of play. Bartlow, Hadebe, and Lundkvist were doing a solid job turning them away, but you could see San Jose was building. San Jose would hold the ball for long stretches with their backline, swinging it side to side and looking to take advantage of gaps in the Dynamo midfield. They almost hit the Dynamo on a counter (21st minute) when Jackson Yuell snatched up a bad ball from Sebas in the midfield and found Marcos Lopez on a run down the left side. Lopez tried to wrecking ball his way through two Orange defenders (Vera and Dorsey), went down in the box, and got a Yellow for simulation instead. It didn't take much longer for the Earthquakes to equalize, as Cade Cowell found Jeremy Ebobise right in front of the net in a huge pocket. The build-up was decent, but not unguardable. Christian Espinoza had a nice switch across the field to Cowell who brought the ball deep inside the box down the left flank. The back 4 set deep in front of the 6-yard box, the midfield didn't make it back, leaving a huge pocket for Ebobise to settle into. Hadebe reacted a step late and Ebobise hit it in the top corner (25th minute).
For the next few minutes, the game resembled more "Pinball Wizard" than a soccer match, as the ball was bouncing back and forth in the middle third like guys were trying to hit bumpers to collect points. One of those balls found its way through, and Coco found the end of it. He raced past the defense to track down a really nice pass from Quintero, took two good touches on it, and was in a position to get a good shot. Marcinkowski and Francisco Calvo had done a good job walling him up and cutting off any angles, and Coco fired a left-footer right at the keeper.
There was no time to think about it, as Marcinkowski hopped up and fired one downfield and San Jose was pinging passes all over the place. When the ball found Jan Gregus on the right side, Ebobise was set up in his favorite spot again. The cross was decent, Hadebe gave Ebobise too much space and mistimed his jump, and Ebobise beat him to it and headed one just passed Steve Clark. This is part Hadebe giving him too much space, and part poor teamwork by the backline as Ebobise broke through a sliver between them, but there were huge gaps in the back on the ball in. Hadebe seemed to be caught in between two, reacted a second late to this one too, and got beat to the ball. 2:1 San Jose, and at this point, with the way San Jose was holding possession, I was extremely worried about snagging points.
The game didn't change course much for the rest of the first half, as San Jose played high and compressed and was tempting the Dynamo to beat them deep. In my opinion, Matías Almeyda got greedy chasing a 3rd goal and near the end of the first half, it came back to bite him.
- 39:30 - The Dynamo finally break through, Vera hits a pass that gets Pasher through, Pasher fires a right-footer into The Texian Army
- 42:00 - Immediately after San Jose pushed bodies forward deep in Dynamo territory, holding possession and winning every second ball. Darwin Quintero steps in front of a Cade Cowell pass and finds Vera. Vera plays one back to Steve Clark. Clark punches one deep that finds the chest of Calvo. Calvo's control was sloppy and Quintero raced in to scoop up the ball. Quintero hits a perfect ball to Pasher who is in a foot race with Marcos López. López did just enough to knock Pasher off his path, Marcinkowski rushes out to knock the ball away. The ball seemed to bounce for an eternity. Quintero chased it down and snuck one into the lower right corner - 2:2.
- 45+1 - Bartlow fires a tremendous ball 60 yards to Quintero. The ball holds up just a bit, and Quintero tries to lob it over Marcinkowski. The San Jose Keeper doesn't bite, and the ball comes right to him.
It took the Dynamo the better part of 40 minutes to really start hitting on these, but they had found cracks and were really threatening.
The Second 45 Minutes:
San Jose came out hellbent on getting that third goal. With the frontline stretched, San Jose was finding huge gaps in the midfield in the early parts of the second half. Christian Espinosa (twice) and Jan Gregus managed to find openings and fire off fairly dangerous shots in the first 6 minutes of the half. Houston found its way back on the counter after Teenage tracked down a bad pass at midfield. After braking hard on a soft pass, Teenage collected the ball and hit Quintero on the run. Quintero weighted a pass to Sebas who tried to touch it past the defender, but the touch was a little too aggressive and Marcinkowski managed to get out and get wide. The shot deflected back off Sebas for a goal kick. As fatigue started to set in from the frantic pace, the game got pretty sloppy. Glenn Davis and Eddie Robinson both described the game as "pinball". Both teams were having problems getting it out of the middle third, with the occasional run. Finally, in the 55th minute, Coco corralled a pass and fired one 40 yards on a rope to Fafa on the run, Fafa slowed slightly to control the ball, and the shot was deflected out for a corner. Lundy put a good foot on it, it found Fafa's head but deflected back inside the box. Hadebe hit the rebound back into the goal, 3:2 good guys.
With Pasher and Fafa now sitting higher to look to counter, Hadebe and Bartlow had to be a lot more active to keep The frontline of San Jose from breaking through. Finally, in the 67th minute. They hit again. Dorsey intercepted a pass and immediately fired one to Fafa on the run. Fafa took it, cut back inside, and found Sebas about 12 yards out. Sebas had plenty of time, set it, and blasted one that Marcinkowski managed to deflect but it went past him into the goal 4:2. Paulo tried to settle the game down at this point, bringing on fresh legs (Memo and Thor), but you could tell that Coco and Vera were wearing down. Ebobise's 75th minute chance from 8 yards out came after Eric Remedi roasted Coco to the touchline. Seconds later, Tommy Thompson found the back of the net after the ball wound up in his lap after a corner deflection. Nobody marked Thompson, and although Memo tried to rotate over he was late. That was the end of the scoring, but nowhere near the end of the drama. San Jose owned the final 15 minutes of play. Baird came on (76th) for Pasher, freshening up the frontline even more, but San Jose was overwhelming Forever Orange for the final stretch. San Jose managed 8 shots over the last 15 minutes (plus added time), 3 of which were on target. Ebobise's 84th-minute header was just soft enough that Clark was able to snag it on a dive. His 87th-minute shot came after he took on the entire backline by himself. Clark had one more save up his sleeve to secure the win after Gregus' free-kick found its way through the wall and was bouncing to the near post. You had to hold your breath for the last 20 minutes of play, but in the end in earned 3 points.
Game Notes
Coco Carrasquilla
It's hard to be critical of a guy that made a lot of really good plays, but Coco was up and down all night. He had some tremendous downfield passes and made several plays with the ball at his feet to keep possessions alive. He had an excellent run early in the game that led to him being in a good goal-scoring position. He picked up 6 tackles + interceptions, had 5 recoveries, and was extremely active in the midfield. But he also gave the ball away several times in horrible positions a lot. He (4) and Vera (4) accounted for half of the Dynamo passes that were intercepted. He wasn't great in the short passing game (71%), and was part of the reason the Dynamo couldn't get the ball across midfield for much of the game.
The Possession Game
The Dynamo possession game wasn't on point Saturday night. Part of that was because of the pressure being applied by Monteiro, Gregus, and Yueill, and part of that was because San Jose was doing a good job playing possession with their backline. The Dynamo rarely found ways through and were relegated to rely on deep downfield passes most of the night. San Jose leads MLS in possession % by a pretty good margin, and their 67.4% possession (WhoScored.com) on Saturday only padded that stat.
Dorsey was all over the place. He picked up 14 loose balls, had 3 tackles, 3 interceptions, and was up and down the right line all night. Dorsey and Lundkvist seemed entrenched at the backs, and outside of a squad rotation here and there I don't see either coming out of the lineup much.
Next Up
Saturday 4/16/2022 vs Portland Timbers
Last 6: Portland owns the series recently, got 4-0-2 over the last 6 and outscoring the Dynamo 13-5 over that span.
Hope to see you there.
Until then, remember to #HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange
Brian
