It was great to see the Dynamo in action again (CONCACAF tourney aside). The night grew chilly, and the soccer wasn’t too flowing, but it was good to start the sophomore campaign.
The evening (though not the match) began strong, with George H. W. Bush on hand for the ceremonial first kick, a dramatic video showing highlights from the past season, another clever video showing players and celebrities passing along the MLS Champion ball, and a flyover by what looked to be the Commemorative Air Force. I think the MLS Champion flag needs to be either bigger or on another pole; it looked puny and sad next to the large, proud US and Texas flags. Also, I didn’t see the rings get passed out; did I miss it? (I do think that pre-game is not the place for such ceremonial back-patting though; makes for an embarrassment if one loses the subsequent game.)
The match, as I said, was erratic. Kinnear faced his former mentor, Frank Yallop. The Galaxy, and ex-Quake Donovan in particular, seemed to have the best of the first half. Onstad looked a bit shaky at times in the opening moments, but made some spectacular saves to keep the clean sheet and was deserved in his selection as MOTM. His 1-on-1 save vs Donovan in the 13th minute was brilliant. It was good to have him back from injury. He’s the only MLSer who is older than I (though not by much); so I can identify with the old man.
The second half -- as seems to be the standard so far this year -- was much better for the ‘Mo. Ching came close to one of his calling card headers in the 48th minute, but it sailed high. In the 70th minute, DeRo had the best chance for the ‘Mo when he stole a ball just outside the box, drove in and unloaded a shot that bent the wrong way from the far post. From my seats, it looked like it was on its way in.
About 6 minutes later, Ryan Cochrane continued his shaky play. He was red-carded after he was beaten by Findley and he “playfully tugged” on Findley’s jersey as the forward drove towards our box. Findley made hay out of the tug, and Cochrane was sent off. Kudos to Joe Cannon who came out of his goal to shake Cochrane’s hand and wish him well as Cochrane trudged the lonely walk off the pitch. Cannon is all class; I noticed that in how he carried himself in the Colorado (his team last season) loss to the Dynamo in the Western Conference Championship last year. I do wish that the 2007 season opener would have begun like the 2006 opener, where we pinned 4 goals into Cannon’s net.
After the red card, Kinnear took 2nd half sub Dalglish out after Dalglish had been on only about 15 minutes. This was a bit of a surprise, although I understand the intent of moving Mullan back for Cochrane and needing another winger to replace Mullan. The only alternative would have been to take off Ching and keep the fresher Dalglish in…which might have been a good idea, not because of Ching’s performance, but to limit the wear and tear on the guy. Hometown hero Stuart Holden was inserted for Daggers. Holden was gung-ho and got some spirit into our attack, but it was hard to get anything substantial going, being a man down.
We sat way up high in Section 219. This was a new perspective for me, and not too bad considering that we were used to being close to the field (Section 118). We brought my sister and brother-in-law who aren’t much into soccer. Hopefully they found something to appreciate despite the draw. I’ll have to post pix tomorrow maybe.
You know, I really hate the Galaxy. I also hate the tradition we had last year of finishing games a man down and settling for draws. Lets stop both those traditions now. We're the only team that gets to practice and play with the silver Teamgeist ball; we should have a familiarity with the ball that leads to nothing but wins at home. Finally: we need DeRo to find his mojo again. Has anybody seen it?
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3 comments:
It was a boring game, no, forget that, it was a very boring game.
My grandfather had a saying "you have to attend all the bullfights to see the the good ones".
The same applies to football, the beauty of football is that every game will be different, the beauty of it is that you will have bad games, average games, good games and great games, and sometimes you will get real art, but you have to attend all the games to see the good ones.
Having said that, Dynamo games have never been full of technical football, we don´t have that kind of players, we have warriors, they won a championship because they never give up, not because they play better than many teams in the league (that and the fact everyone qualifies in the MLS and the playoffs require just great football for a few weeks).
We will see more games like the one yesterday, nothing wrong with that, as long as you know what to expect.
Something I disliked was the attendance, 1not a sold out game for the season opener?, for the champion?, for the only team that has won something in the last 20 years in Houston?
Don't worry about the rings; that ceremony is NEXT week vs Chivas. Dynamo better not lose to the Goats on the night they receive their rings.
Also, Dynamo scored 5 on Cannon (not 4...Ching alone did that) in last year's opener. One would have done the trick last night.
I don't know that we'll miss Cochrane next week.
El Jardin,
I like your grandfather's wisdom.
As for the style of play exhibited by the Dynamo, I think it fits their system, and has just enough creativity (with DeRo, Clark, and the wingers at times) to add flair to what could otherwise be a drab affair.
I wondered about the attendance too. Perhaps the low number was due to Easter family activities? Or maybe the crowd was searching for the real, full-size Championship flag.
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