Let's REstart this season, yo.

It's a new season and the Dynamo begin yet another "title defense" with its ceremonial Disappointing Performance. Time to shred the season tickets my friends. The season is over. No MLS Cup Championship. No tournament trophies. Our defense can't keep a Twellman-less Revs to fewer than 3 goals, or a J-League Osaka to fewer than 6. That's it man, game over man, game over! Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh?

Or not.

It's hard to take any underlying truth from yesterday's game. Despite having the better, more challenging pre-season schedule, the Dynamo looked to have no chemistry for most of yesterday's match. The first half saw little rhythm, plenty of disorganized defending, and absolutely no offensive production. Great free kick by DeRo in the closing moments though.

The second half saw better play, but little in the way of solid opportunities. Much of our success might be due to switching to a 3-5-2 late in the first half. Though the half saw improved play, our defending was still shaky and we turned the ball over too often. And we had only 3 shots on goal to the Revs' 13. Sheesh.

The only thing we can definitely take away from this game is that none of this means anything except that the parity of the MLS means any team -- even so-called top-tier teams -- can and will lose. (Did you see DC United's loss today? They're still one of the most talented teams despite losing to KC 2-0. Did you see the sexy LA Beckhams lose? Broke your heart, I'm sure.) Sure, we've got to do better. And you know what? We will. Yes we need to get better rhythm in the midfield. Yes we need to get more creative up front. And, yes, we desperately need to get better organized in the back -- for the love of all that is holey (holey like your back line was yesterday), help out your GK, guys!

Besides the blithe "one loss isn't that bad," is there anything good that came out of the game?

Why, yes...
Dom is disappointed and will likely work on solutions. "We deserved to get beat tonight," he admits. E-Rob, the heart of our defense, is also not a happy soul; and he will work on the locker room solutions, no doubt.

Stuart Holden looked sharp for the most part, I thought. DeRo didn't command the game, but was dangerous. Ching didn't get hurt.

The ref was incompetent enough that we can complain about someone other than our defenders. How was Stuart's tackle, the one that resulted in Steve Ralston's departure, a foul by Stuart? I believe that call lost us the game right there. Or something.

Pat Onstad made some outstanding saves, including the two shots that rebounded to our defense. But wait! Where's our defense? It doesn't look like they're interested in getting to the rebounds? What are those blue shirts doing getting to the rebounds first? That is OUR penalty box, right? Aaaand, there's two goals right there. Game, set, match. Thanks, defenders. Oh, sorry, this is supposed to be the list of good things, which is that Pat did well and...uh...LA lost 4-0. Word.

Another good thing: Dick's Sporting Goods had an amusing commercial. Nonetheless, it'll be overplayed by next weekend, I'm sure.

There's no reason the pain should linger. The best way to move on from this loss is to win versus Saprissa at Robertson on Wednesday. We must win that one before we head to Costa Rica for the second leg. Also, and this is important: we host the vile FC Dallas in between the two CONCACAF matches, and we simply canNOT allow them to get their first ever win -- or even a draw -- in Houston. And that is the gospel truth, y'all.