True Colors shining through: Dynamo 0:3 Real Salt Lake

 

Thank goodness there's a break.  After the last few weeks' up and down roller coaster ride, both the Houston Dynamo and their fans need a break.  Losers of 5 out of their last 7 in MLS play, the Dynamo have struggled to find consistency (with the exception of L.A. Galaxy) and at the tail end of a heavy road schedule mixed at the tail end of an extremely compact schedule (8 games in 35 days), the Dynamo have faltered.  A lack of quality depth, passing, and finishing have bitten this team over that stretch, and the ugly head of switching off defensively at the worst times has reappeared.  Saturday night's loss was a combination of all three of these ingredients, with the added layer of Pablo Maestroeni pinpointing the weaknesses in the Dynamo defense. After an encouraging start to the season, the Dynamo are showing their true colors.  This team is exactly what the standings say they are, a team that can occasionally pull off a win, a team that can look really good at times, and awful at others.  As I've said all along, this team simply isn't good enough.  The reality is, however, that this team lacks depth, persistence, and consistency.

The game against Real Salt Lake was a game of "inches" and "ifs", both of which the Dynamo repeatedly came out short on.  Zach McMath was good, Michael Nelson wasn't and the Dynamo were chasing the game for 60 minutes.  If Tyler Pasher, Thor, or Memo just finish.....if Michael Nelson just covers the post.....if Michael Nelson just stays on his feet.......For #ForeverOrange and the Dynamo Faithful, it's been about a five-year process that we are trying to reset, and this is an extremely frustrating loss. But, despite the scoreline, the game was closer than it seemed. This was a very back and forth game that easily......with a little bit of "moxie", could have been a very different game.

RSL Repeatedly exposed the Dynamo Defense's biggest weakness:

Paulo Nagamaura wasn't helped by the fact that the two biggest additions of the offseason were unavailable for this game.  Steve Clark, celebrating the newest addition to his family, was out of the lineup.  Sebastián Ferreira was also a scratch from the start, with what Glenn Davis announced as a stomach virus (although, later it was reported by Sebas' national team he tested positive for COVID). You could see Maestroeni's plan from the start as on RSL's first possession they built down the wing, sent both strikers to the front of the net, and fired in a cross.  Justin Meram's cross found Bobby Wood's head just :34 into the game.  Fortunately for the Dynamo, Wood didn't get a good head on it and it went over the top of the net.  RSL was attacking repeatedly down Zeka's over the first 20 minutes of play, even though the ones that eventually found the back of the net came from the other side.

All in all, RSL simply overwhelmed the Dynamo with their passing into the penalty area.  Salt Lake got into the box almost at will. 16 Crosses went into the box, 10 of them were completed (to the Dynamo 3), and the Royals completed a total of 16 passes into the 18 (to the Dynamo 7).   Justin Meram found Sergio Córdova (11:25) right in front of the net, and immediately on the other end, Corey Baird (with tons of space) crossed one that no NBA player could have gone up and gotten.......to Memo.  Of RSL's 16 shots, 7 came within 8 feet (5 inside the 6-yard box) and 2/3rds of their goal tally came off wide crosses.  Justin Meram, although he didn't connect on one for a goal, repeatedly lobbed balls up to Wood and Córdova (3 Crosses Completed inside the 18, 3 other passes completed into the penalty area) as RSL took advantage of both their size (Meram - 6'1; Córdova - 6'2"; Wood - 5'11"; Chang - 5'10") and the Dynamo soft defense on the wings.  The first two goals came from the right (Lundkvist) side to the left back-post (Parker & Zeka).  Credit to Real Salt Lake for putting in accurate crosses, but as we've said before you can't let good teams pick and choose what they want to do with the ball.  

While the first goal opened the scoring, the second one broke the Dynamo's backs.  After subbing on at the half, Darwin Quintero and Tyler Pasher were pressing hard for the equalizer.  Quintero was really active for the first 15 minutes of the second half.  Pasher came out and went right after Real Salt Lake's defense, and while it looked good, nothing ended up in a goal.  The Dynamo really dominated the run of play from minutes 45-57, when Cordova scored the second goal.  Thor's header (50th minute) was just slapped away by McMath.  It was a tremendous header to the post, but McMath was about to read it and get a hand on it. Lundkvist almost found Thor on a header again on the very next possession. Pasher got in behind (54:24) after a steal by Coco and a tremendous pass from Quintero.  He had McMath dead to rights, but rushed the shot and fired it wide to the back post.  Zeka and Lundkvist had pushed all the way up to the opposing corner, really leaving the backline exposed.  It came back to bite them, and in the 57th minute the game was essentially over.

Difference Makers

Two things (in my opinion) changed this game.  (1) The absolutely ridiculous Yellow Card on Beto Avila.  It was the third time in the game Beto had been tackled from behind, none of which resulted in a card for RSL. It was the second time that Real Salt Lake weren't punished for hitting Beto from behind. The first hard challenge from a Dynamo defender in a similar situation (Coco-24:32) goes to immediate Yellow.

(2) Bobby Wood scoring the first goal.  The play actually started with a deep run by Zeka, who cut back into the middle of the field and laid off a lazy pass to Memo right on the edge of the attacking third. It was a slow build by RSL, but it seemed like the run took some wind out of Zekas sails. The Dynamo opened things up trying to score the equalizer, but couldn't find the net.  They eventually got caught in transition for the second goal, and at that point, the game was over.

There were actually a series of mistakes on the play.  (a) Lundkvist is late getting out the ball. (b) Teenage gets caught too far towards the near post, and doesn't pick up either forward leaving Parker to mark both.  (c) Zeka is late getting back. The two runs in the same area held Nelson for a bit, the ball took a weird deflection off of Bobby Wood's own knee, and just tucked into the corner.

The second goal was avoidable, and also saw a back trailing back late after pushing up, this time Adam Lundkvist.  Hadebe came out to cover Chang, who found a wide-open Cordova at the top of the box.  Zeka struck at the ball and missed.  Parker deflected the ball back to Cordova, and Cordova managed to put one in the net after several deflections and hitting Nelson's hand. 

Ramblings

No ramblings this week.  It's hard for me to point to any particular player that I thought was impressive, but the three that stood out to me where Thor, Memo, and Darwin Quintero.  Pasher made some great runs, but just couldn't hit it square in the end.  Thor had two tremendous chances (54th-minute header, Flying kick 66:09) that could have easily netted a goal.  Memo had 18 challenges on the night, was really active, and had the best chance of the first half.  Overall, the scoreline was worse than the Dynamo played.  While it's no excuse or consolation, this was a better performance than DC United or Austin FC.  Let's hope they have some time to regroup in these next few weeks and get back on the training field.

Thanks again for reading,

Remember to #HolditDown and stay #ForeverOrange.

Brian