Qs and As and oy veys

PLAYTHERAPY: Okay, who's is going to post about yesterday's game?

Was Caig as bad as he looked on TV, gifting Dallas with 2 goals?

WTF happened to the DEE during Alvarez's breakaway counter?

Did Morrow gift us with a draw by subbing Toja and Alvarez who could have better utilized Oduro's speed?

Thoughts?


MISTER3D: If onstad was in goal for the whole game the dynamo win, simple as that. Caig looked horrible early on. After he gave cooper the second goal the crowd sarcastically cheered/jeered Caig whenever he touched the ball without letting it in the net. Prior to the first dallas score, the dynamo were dominating and the second goal was hovering slightly out of reach but surely to be had. The scent of fcd blood was in the noses of houston spurring them on and dallas was floundering...then.... rocha sent a perfect floater into cooper's run that split boswell and erob. I'll give caig a pass on the ensuing cooper lob but I do think onstad would have positioned himself better. The second goal was all arturo alvarez. He sucked two dynamo, barrett and ?, with him to the right sideline and then just embarrassed them with an amazing dribble, juke and run down the right that sucked more dynamo players into his vortex, (erob), then toja filled the space receiving the ball that then attracted boswell and waibel. Toja left it for cooper who was not marked quickly enough by cameron and even after all that, all would have been fine if not for caig's impossible bungle. It can't be stated more clearly, caig was shit on that play. The crowd was not happy with him following the lob goal but were willing to let it go but after giving cooper his second score, it was bad. Random screams of "you play for the dynamo now caig, those are two stars on your shirt, you fuck!", and the previously mentioned sarcastic cheering for corralling a simple back pass rained down on him until he made some important later saves.
alvarez' goal was set up by a horrible cross field back pass by dero that pulled boswell to the sideline that stretched the "D" out of shape. I can't remember but boswell's pass must have been picked off, but I distinctly remember thinking what the fuck dero, and then with boswell killing himself to get to the ball before it rolled out of bounds saying, this is not good. I think morrow's bringing on of oduro should have paid off but oduro's forte is speed not finishing or seeing the field and all its options. Many similar emotions from the saprissa match, domination without 3 points. The defensive brainfarts would have been cleaned up by onstad for a nervous win. Dallas deserves credit for not folding after the first goal. Ching was fantastic, mulrooney good, dax mccarty was amazing and so limited ashe's second half effectiveness but corey still was good. Mullan's subbing in looked like it was the move of the match after he juked serioux at the top of the box and was running free he inexplicably tried a far post cross to the 5 foot nothing Ashe. mullan needed to shoot low to the near post for the score, no defender was in front of him!!?? Sala was very good all day. Alvarez is deroesque, he sort of disappears for awhile then magic! how nowak kept him off the olympic squad is beyond me. Dero was active and menacing all day, I can't see the team having much left for saprissa. It was hot and they worked all over the field and chased the game until the bitter end. Robinson and onstad are not going to costa rica!

here's a well done, nothing needs to be added roundup of the game with all its pregame ceremony--sounds first rate. ( this is from the site http://hawksportusa.blogspot.com/ )

MARTEK: I watched the game last night when I got back in town and had a few observations. But simply:

1. You're right 3D. Onstad in goal all day = we win. However, I must say that Caig got better as the game went on and his two saves in the second half on 3 vs. 1 breaks by dallas quite simply saved the game. As a goalie, I would think you hope to not ever see those but figure you will once every few games or so. But to have two in the same half AND save them both kind of eases the sting of his first half screw-ups. By the end of the game, I saw enough of Tony Caig to think that he at least has something going for him. I'm not ready to condemn him just yet. It's a long season.

2. Rocha's tackle on Robinson at the end of the game makes me think that when we play them next, ol' Andres had better watch his back. Butcher. We need to get one of our total benchwarmers (Chabala? this might be the time for you.) to give him the Rico Clark/Carlos Ruiz treatment, then start a fund to pay the fine. Not that I would ever actually advocate kicking someone in the liver. I'm just making a point for literary purposes here.

3. Geoff Cameron?!? Holy crap. The kid looked pretty good out there. How good is he going to look by season's end? Mr3d, you famously said that this year was going to be the year of the goon, but you may just have to switch the "goon" label away from Wondo and over to Cameron, as Kinnear so obviously has. Wondo getting all those minutes in preseason, but in the two MLS games and Saprissa match so far, how long has he been on the field, 10-15 ticks? But Cameron starts, assists and scores. Not bad. First trade to be made this season is Wondo for ?????

4. Saprissa without Onstad or Robinson. Well, that has me dialing down my hopes. Right now, I just hope we don't get embarrassed and instead put out a good accounting of ourselves. I still think the game is winnable, though it would be the height of homerism to expect such a win. That's for a later post as we get closer to the match. Let's just say we've all seen things more impossible than that get done.

5. Davis looked great at the end there, as did Mullan, though I agree that Mully's cross would have been fine for normal-sized humans, but hobbits like Ashe just can't climb that ladder. What is a middle of Mullan, Clark, De Ro and Davis going to be like? Full-time fuh-reakin' awesome is what's it's going to be like. With Robinson out of Costa Rica, who plays center mid? Ianni? Hmmm.

6. How great was it watching the candystripers slump like they were beaten after Cameron's goal? Like kicking those bastards in the teeth. I can hardly wait to go get them again. Similarly, how nice was it to have Ching's goal be in effect a Drew Moor og? I will never forgive Moor for screwing up my first US-Mexico match (Jonny Magallon? Twice?!?). So it was nice to see the Flyin' Hawaiian abuse him like that.


PLAYTHERAPY: Condemn Caig... no, but he's on the watch list. Consider this a 1st write up- definitely going in the work file. Is he a professional or not? True, he somewhat redeemed himself with some sure handed 2nd 1/2 saves but the reactions have tended between over-reactive (crucify him) to under-reactive. He's a $$$ player, he's in a position where he must be called upon like a reliever, and he totally muffed it.

We're still in the evidence collecting stage but the scale is tipping negatively though it could right itself or even sway the opposite way.

But as Mr3D succinctly put it, if Pat was in, we win. Unfortunately, that was not the case.