Sunday, July 9, 2023

Positive Result, Negative Performance - Houston Dynamo 2:2 Sporting K.C.

 


On a night where the Houston Dynamo dominated a game for long periods of time, they also committed several crucial mistakes that led to the 2-2 scoreline.  While the Dynamo mauled Sporting K.C. is almost every statistical category, both goals conceded came directly from horrendous Dynamo mistakes.  On a night when they needed 3 points, the Dynamo cost themselves both in the scoreline and the standings as this team fights to remain above the playoff line for yet another year.  Let's take a look at the positives, the negatives, and everything else from last night's draw in The Shell. 

Bartlow set up S.K.C.'s first goal.

Peter Vermes' side came out playing the passing lanes between The Dynamo back 4 and their midfield 3.  Leaving the wings open, SKC was allowing the Dynamo to hold possession in the back line but forcing them to pass the ball deep and diagonal.  
Bartlow tried to force a pass through the middle, and Gadi Kinda's positioning forced the pass to be a dangerous one.

It wasn't just Bartlow, but his pass started a chain reaction in which SKC was quicker to the ball, quicker to space, and left the Dynamo chasing Pulido and the game for the rest of the half.  But the goal seemed to settle the Dynamo down.  Bassi and Quinones started dropping into that space on the left wing, which began to open space in the midfield for HH and Artur.  Over the final 20+ minutes of the first half, Ben Olsen's side held almost 70% of the possession and fired off 5 shots to none.
When the Dynamo finally did connect to tie the game right before half, it was one of the prettiest team goals I have ever seen in #ForeverOrange.  Hector Herrera led a matriculation of the ball down the field and through the middle of the SKC defense that was brilliant, perfectly timed, and perfectly skilled by all involved, and was soo great that I couldn't do it justice with a diagram, you just have to watch it.

The Ugly part 2: Artur's missed tackle.

From the opening kick of the 2nd half, the Dynamo were on the front foot.  Artur found his way through the defense and put a good shot on target (47:31) that was deflected by goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh and knocked out for a corner.  On the ensuing corner Thor got a mysterious Yellow (seriously, does anyone know what that was for?) and Erik Sviatchenko got a good head on the ball but unfortunately directly at the feet of Daniel Steres who was standing offside.  The Dynamo high press, Aliyu and Nelson running the channels, the Dynamo were completely controlling the run of play. But even though they were the more dangerous team, the Dynamo simply could not connect on the final play.  Nelson's run down the left side and low cross (54:07) was just knocked away.  But that high pressure came back to bite them when Baird missed a tackle in the attacking third and Andreu Fontàs found Kinda on the left flank.  The pass seemed innocuous enough, but when Erik Sviatchenko had to come up and stop the ball, SKC had numbers forward, and Sviatchenko in a blender. 

Kinda hit Erik Thommy and raced down the left touchline.  Thommy placed a perfectly weighted ball down the sideline, and it was Artur racing back who slid over to pick Kinda up just outside the box.  Late, trailing and on an island, Artur quickly got put on his heels as Kinda took him on direct with what seemed like 500 stepovers.  Artur, who has been one of the best off-season additions in MLS this year and has barely put a foot wrong, put a step very wrong and knocked Kinda to the ground.  

Pulido calmly tucked it past Steve Clark and put SKC up 2-1.  But, once again, this goal seemed to energize and re-focus the Dynamo.  #Naranja buckled down and fired off the games final 9 shots pushing everyone (including Sviatchenko) forward.
Despite obvious attempts at time wasting (which went completely unchecked) by Sporting KC, the Dynamo put the throttle down.  Holding 77% of possession over the final 20+ minutes AND 10 minutes of added time, Ivan Franco finally found the back of the net to tie the game at 2.  While Franco made a tremendous effort play to get on the end of this ball, credit has to be given to the people that set this up starting with 60 yard dime from HH, to the headed ball from Thor, everything was set up for this goal to go home.  When Sebas dummied the ball through to Franco, it left SKC pants-less and Franco did the rest of the dirty work.  

Sebas ridiculous yellow:

My thoughts on this are: (1) It should have been a red (2) It was absolutely ridiculous (3) I kinda love it.  Sebas, who has been in the dog house all year, actually showed a little fire and passion and refused to allow SKC's blatant time-wasting to go unchecked.  I'm not condoning the action, but I appreciate the fight.

Notables:

Hector Herrera: Was literally everywhere and played a hand in both goals.  Touched the ball 105 times in this game, and without Coco Carrasquilla was literally the architect of everything that happened last for the Dynamo.  Despite Peter Vermes' game plan of doing everything possible to take him away and not let him have an influence on the game, SKC simply didn't have the ability to hold him down for 90 minutes.
Hector continued to flash that he may be the best dead ball striker in MLS, and he had Erik Sviatchenko are a dangerous pair on set pieces. While there has been a lot of concern about HH by some fans since he arrived from Madrid a year ago, there have been 0 signs of him slowing down this year.  This is now his team.

This team desperately misses Coco:

We haven't seen him in a Dynamo uniform since 4-0 win against LAFC on 6/10, and while the Ben Olsen and Co have gone 2-2-1 without him the attack is missing a much-needed element without him in the lineup.  Coco wins balls and gets them upfield through the middle third as well as anyone in MLS, and while his play is missing in the final third, his work over 2/3rds of the field helps free up attackers to simply get forward and create.  He balances out the midfield and gives the back 4 another option to simply give the ball to and let them go to work.  He also allows the defenders to defend, without them having to creep forward and join in the attack.  While he's gaining notice in the Gold Cup, he's also been very much missed here.  Being that he won't be here again for Wednesday night's matchup either, Ben Olsen might need to look for some depth here or a slightly different positional situation in order to maximize this squad.

Next Up:

The Dynamo really need 3 points from this game.  Coming off the first win against a team that dominated them recently, on short rest with lots of weary legs.  

Until Then.....

Remember to always #HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange,
Brian

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