The Lords of Soccer are Cruel

To punish me for my latent cynicism, the Lords of Soccer conspired with the Fates to keep me from the game tonight. Thankfully, The Tube provides a local broadcast of the game. Charlie Pallilo does a decent job (he knows sports, even if he's just learning soccer) and Glenn Davis is always insightful. The camera work is as good as Fox Soccer Channel's local crew, if behind ESPN's professionalism. I didn’t have any complaints except for the camera losing the ball a couple of times, and the replays were a bit frustrating (replaying the wrong play in question, for instance).

Some things about the game:
Davis Chevrolet needs to check their commercials for typos, unless they really are at 610 and Kriby.

The commercial pronouncing that the Dynamo had 51 goals last season but have only one goal this season is supposed to indicate how focused the Dynamo are on winning it all again. Instead, it is a bitter reminder that the Dynamo have only one goal this season. One goal after 4 games. That puts us behind everyone except for Toronto FC. Yes, even RSL and the Crew have more goals.

DeRo had a much better game. In fact, this is the first game this season where I thought the team played well for a majority of the game. For that reason, the loss wouldn't worry me if it hadn’t been preceded by the first three games that we've ambled through. The first half was all Dynamo, and DeRo was working the ball and taking chances. But then: what happened at the beginning of the second half? The first 15 minutes, we were completely flat and let the Fahr dictate the game. And once the goal was scored, we faced the bunker; and we know how hard it is for the Dynamo -- or any team, really -- to find the net on a bunkered team.

As for the goal, I was surprised to see Wade Barrett mistime his challenge. That's unlike him, and was an unfortunate mistake. Also, I wonder if the other back (Robinson, was it?) shielded Onstad from the ball, because the shot looked a bit soft yet easily beat a delayed Onstad.

Dynamo let go of the throttle at the beginning of the second and had to pay the price. And despite carrying the first half and the last part of the second half, Dynamo lagged behind the Fahr on shots, shots on goal, and of course the most important stat: goals.

Next week we play Colorado. Dynamo prefers the narrow confines of The Rob, but I wonder if their style of play wouldn't be better on a wider field. If so, then maybe they'll fare better in Colorado. One could hope. Lords of Soccer, can you help?