Monday, March 20, 2023

Houston Dynamo 2:0 Austin F.C. - All Around Team Effort

 

It seemed like forever.  The eternity that existed between losing to the Revs and their first home game of the season against Green Tree F.C. had all of the #ForeverOrange faithful in desperation mode.  We got to see the fresh new Shell Energy Stadium with all its updates and some fresh tactics by Head Coach Ben Olsen.  In an up-and-down performance for much of the game, the Dynamo managed to do two things we haven't seen in some time: (1) keep a clean sheet at home. (2) Take control of the game and not relinquish the lead.  While there are some differing opinions over which new food vendor was the best, if the East Side Club was cool or not, and whether this was a boring game or not, one thing we can all agree on is that it feels good to win, especially against Austin F.C.

The First 45 minutes:

The starting lineup saw a couple of notable changes.  Daniel Steres at RB, Amine Bassi at LW, Ivan Franco at RW, and Corey Baird got the start at the #9. Defending with 2 lines of four, Olsen mostly had Coco playing up top next to Corey Baird.  The plan to start the game was simple, sit deep, pack the box defensively, and ping it deep to stretch Austin F.C.'s backline.  Early runs by Baird, Coco, and Ivan Franco paid dividends on the back end of some beautiful deep balls by Teenage Hadebe and Hector Herrera.  Even though the ends of these runs and passes were normally sloppy and disjointed, you could see #Verde's backline creeping further and further back with each change of possession.   With Bassi tucking inside behind Baird with Tate Schmitt running the left flank, Coco was making darting runs between Leo Väisänen and Žan Kolmanič opening up the right flank for Ivan Franco.  You could see the gaps widening in the midfield as the game progressed.  Bassi began filling these gaps from the left flank, and taking much of the space that Coco normally fills.   Dropping deep to defend, Bassi was helping progress the ball down the middle third as well as making runs to stretch the left flank. He found his way through first, although his left foot cross went seriously wayward.

While they were defending with two stacked lines of 4, going forward Daniel Steres never left going forward.  He stayed back to protect the left flank from Diego Fagundez on the counter and in transition. With Steres staying home and HH, and Artur paying heavy attention to Driussi, they were able to hold the two to 1 shot total over the first 45 minutes of play. While the Dynamo had shut down Austin's top two attackers, they were being exposed on the other side. John Gallager and Emeliano Rigioni were dominating the run of play, combining for more shots than the entire Houston squad.  Rigioni nearly broke the game open twice, and Maxi Urruti should have had the games opening goal.  Off a nice cross by Sebastian Driussi that was badly misplayed by Tate Schmitt, John Gallager managed to flick one back toward the goal that found Urruti's head right in front of the goal.  Luckily for the Dynamo, Urruti couldn't get it down, but it was a point-blank chance that should have made it 1-0.  While Austin controlled the run of play over the first 35 minutes, Houston began to find cracks over the next 10.  They ended the half with the last 4 shots.  

The next 45:

Houston came out firing.  Hector Herrera's stop-start-right-footed blast off the end line (47th minute), Ivan Franco's flying overhead off a deflection, and Coco's outside-the-box blast all ended up directly at keeper Brad Stuver, but Houston was beginning to find their way through.  Houston completely controlled the first 25 minutes of the second half.  The turning point came midway through the second half right after Adam Lundkvist checked in.  Ethan Bartlow's header gave Lundkvist no time to react and caught in an unnatural position the ball struck right off of his waiting hand.  Although the entire refereeing crew initially missed it, after review Drew Fisher pointed to the spot.  Amine Bassi put it home to put the Dynamo up 1:0. 
15 minutes later, Hector Herrera made it 2:0 by punching a left-footed punch that beat Stuver to the near post.  It was a crafty goal that just saw HH outsmart and out work the Austin backline.

While Austin tried to pull one goal back over the next 4 minutes but Houston was able to hold on.  The win was much-needed and nudged Houston above the playoff line.  

Notables:

While I could mention basically the entire team, and don't mean to leave anyone off, we'll look at a few of the highlights.

Hector Herrera: 

HH was tremendous from opening to close.  In the first 30 minutes, he was pinging bombs on the money to Coco, Franco, and Baird on the run.  From the opening of the second half, he began to work into the box and wreak havoc. On the night he had 91 touches, 60 completed passes, 2 key passes, 5 shots, and 1 very big goal.  He was touching the ball all over the field, hitting passes at all levels, and working on both sides of the ball.  Had one terrible turnover when he tried to spin his way out of a challenge, but luckily Teenage had his back.  He had several dangerous corners, and his blasted free kick (42nd minute) almost beat Brad Stuver.  It was a continuation of what we saw vs. Cincinnati, although a little more progressive.  Great bounceback game after a rougher outing vs. New England.

The Backline:

The backline of Steres, Bartlow, Hadebe and Schmitt were tremendous all night.  A few cracks opened up on the right side, but each time Steve Clark was right where he needed to be.  Not only did they make every defensive play they needed to, they also made several key plays going forward.  Bottling up Fagundez and Driussi is no easy task, and the two managed 0 shots on Target for the entire game, and only managed 66 touches for the game.  

Steve Clark

Steve Clark was on point for 90 minutes.  Although he wasn't spectacular he didn't need to be.  Shook off a nock on the knee in the early minutes of the game to post a clean sheet.  Although it was a team effort, Clark was where he needed to be when he needed to be.  Solid performance in this game.

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Thanks again for reading,
Remember to always always #HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange.

Brian







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