A Date with Dallas

When you're a 13 year-old boy, where's the best place to take your first ever date? A top 5 countdown for summertime Houston:

5. An air conditioned restaurant, particularly a pizza buffet.
4. The air conditioned Downtown Aquarium.
3. An air conditioned movie theater.
2. An air conditioned arcade and entertainment complex.
1. A hot, humid soccer game where the Dynamo continue to dominate their neighbors to the north.

My son chose #1. It wasn't the most comfortable choice, but I think it was the best choice (says the father, beaming with pride). I'm now convinced the young lady is a lucky talisman. We'll have to bring her to all the home games now.

We tried a new section today, Section 107. The sun was behind us and we were even in the shade for the final 30 minutes of the game. Best of all, we had a great view of all three of the game's goals.

In the first half, I couldn't see how well our attacks unfolded near the southern goal, but it looked like we were pretty flat. Dallas didn't look much better, but they were aided by our defensive miscues, which gifted them one goal and almost another (if not more). I wasn't too impressed with our back line in the first half. On the other end of the field, Ngwenya had a good attempt go off the crossbar. In the 29th minute, we had a drive down the left flank, winning the goal line for a cutback pass, but no attackers positioned themselves to take advantage of the ball rolling across the face of the goal.

In the second half, you could tell Dynamo were hungry. They were playing with gusto, despite the high temperatures (which I understand to be about 90 degrees, but feeling like 97 due to the humidity -- Welcome to Texas!). Rico Clark played like a man possessed, as did Brian Mullan. Outstanding goal by Rico in the 51st, shooting from an angle to beat Sala on the near post. After that, the team seemed almost manic in its search for the winner, while Dallas looked befuddled. Waibel had a good left-footed try at one point that forced a save by Sala. And then the speedy and industrious Cory Ashe scoots the ball to Rico, who gets the ball through the FCD backline to Ngwenya, who outruns everybody and the wind to place a nice curling shot past Sala into the nylon. The crowd explodes, Ngwenya is elated, and Dallas are thinking "not again."

Thanks to a horrible back pass by Mulrooney, the happy ending almost didn't come to be. Onstad fouls Alvarez to save the goal, and it's hello roja, goodbye Onstad. With Zach Wells in the goal and only one forward (first Ching, then Wondo), Houston is forced to resort to bunkerball. It a familiar tactic, but usually we're facing it, not playing it. The Dallas desperation provides us with some openings on the counter, but we don't really do much more than weather the storm for the final 15 minutes. Thankfully, we have some veterans (Mullan comes to mind) who know how to kill the clock.

It was a great result, and a timely one. Some general thoughts:

• What happened to the previous stadium announcer? Today's announcer ruined the player introductions and got just about every substitute wrong, as well as the assist (Dalglish?) on the first goal. The only passion in his voice was when he was announcing a vendor's tagline.
• I know Dom has protested mid-afternoon games in the summer, and there was no national broadcast today, so why in the world did the team schedule a 4:00 game today? The heat kills the game. Every goal (for both teams) came about from defensive SNAFUs, and even veterans like Barrett (who has stamina to spare) were making rubbery-legged mistakes in the second half. The soccer is better in cooler temperatures, and the crowd is more comfortable. Everybody wins this way; who wins with the heat?
• Took me forever to find El Capitan. I hope our new stadium has a nook where we can display it proudly during these Dallas matches...perhaps even shoot it after our victories.
• It seemed that there were fewer supporters in the El Battalon/Texian Army at first. It looked like only 1.5 sections were filled instead of the usual 2, but by the end of the game both sections were full. Even so, the supporters were the life of the party from the first whistle, and it was great to see them get under Sala's skin. (At one point he stood with arms akimbo and body draped with orange streamers, and he looked to be saying "C'mon ref! This is ridiculous! I look like a clown!" And he did.)

My son said this was "the best day ever." I think the young lady he was with had something to do with that, but thanks, Dynamo, for doing your part.