Between Quake events, and After the Hurricane

I hope Hurricane Ike has had as minimal of an impact as possible on you, your family, and your property. As for me and my household, we lost several tree limbs but had no property damage. We are still without power, but we have water and gas, so we can cook on our gas stove and take comfortable showers with our gas water heater. If the cool front hadn't come through, we'd be absolutely miserable without air conditioning, but the weather has complied to make for pleasant evenings. We count ourselves very lucky and hope you can do the same.

(One of my neighbors stated that God gives us these challenges to help us grow and to test us. I replied that God must have a low opinion of my character under duress, because He went easy on us this time. Or maybe He thought we already had our hurricane test since we lost everything to Hurricane Andrew when I was a newlywed young Ensign stationed on Homestead AFB. Either way, I'm grateful for the minor inconvenience we've experienced this time.)

Still no power at home, but at work we have power. You might surmise that this means that I'm spending work time on personal blogging. I will not confirm or deny that.

I missed the Dynamo-Earthquake match this past weekend. (Official Recap.) We had no power at the time, and while I could've listened to it on the radio, I was actually asleep on the couch having stayed up most of the night watching the storm and spent most of the morning keeping our street gutters free of debris to prevent street flooding. I watched the highlights, though, and they suggest that we were lucky to leave San Jose with a point. We may have had better possession (I can't tell from the highlights) and may have been unlucky to not convert a few more of our chances, but the Earthquakes had several 1-on-1 shots on goal that weren't converted. After a botched header by ERob, Onstad made two desperate point-blank saves in a row in the first half. Not long after, Onstad displayed more heroics on another point-blank shot. In the second half, a point-blank header found Barrett's chest at the goal line. In fact, Ronnie O'Brien's goal that opened up the scoring in the 50th minute -- a blistering shot from just outside our box, taken from Onstad's left and ending up in the far right netting -- was more difficult than these four shots that Onstad and Barrett saved.

Of course, we had our chances too. And how about the spunk shown by Ching after he scored the equalizer, when he ran over to remind the feisty Earthquake fans where their 2 stars came from? Reading Ives' blog, at least one Quake fan thought that was a classless display and has decided to instantly despise his former hero. I think Ching was merely responding in kind; it was defiance to counter spitefulness and it was only directed at the fans who were spouting vitriol, not to the fans who were merely supporting their (new) players.

ERob got ejected yet again, this time for getting two yellow cards. From what I could see, though, ERob's second yellow came when he was fouled from behind. Either I missed something or the ref completely blew the call. Or both.

We now have 39 points, 6 points away from the Supporters' Shield that I want so badly. We only have 6 games to make up the difference, and the next match is versus the very same Earthquakes this Saturday. With the generous post-Ike deal sponsored by the Dynamo and the University of Houston (free parking? free tickets for kids under 14? $10 adult tickets? Wow!) we hope to see a big turnout to root for the Dynamo, hope to equalize the Quake series (now at 0-1-1), and hope to get to 42 points (10 less than last year's final total, only 4 less than 2006's final total).

UPDATE: No game and no deal this Saturday, at the request of the City of Houston. This is going to really cram the Dynamo's remaining schedule, and the make up date falls on a FIFA World Cup Qualifier match day for the US and Canada. The media notes that the postponement could hurt the Earthquakes' momentum, but do we care?

Go Dynamo! (And take care out there, fellow Texans!)

Time to rebound in the Rockies

So tonight we're in Commerce City to face the Rapids on the biggest field in the MLS. (BTW, the bigger the better in my way of thinking, so I like the pitch at The Dick.) The worst news about tonight's game is that it's not on TV except for that mystical HDnet. I don't know any places on the north side of town that have HDnet and that would be willing to devote a TV to a soccer game, so it looks like I'm stuck with the radio play-by-play. Not a bad thing, that; but I prefer the visuals of television.

Here's the game preview. It says we still don't have DeRo or Onstad. That's not good. We also get a ref who's officiating his first MLS game tonight. That's not good either. We do have Ching back. And Barrett. But no Mulrooney. We also have the opportunity to break the deadlocked record at The Dick: in four meetings each team has won twice. Overall, we've beaten the Rapids 5 times and tied them once in 8 matches. Not bad. But what counts is tonight's result. We need 3 points in order to stay at the top of the conference with LA. At the moment we're in third place, with two teams one point behind us and a third two points behind (at the moment).

The Dynamo website has an article on Ricardo Clark and one on Caraccio. I've heard some fans voice concerns about how The Dom is not playing Caraccio, but I think coach is doing the right thing: forcing Caraccio to show improvement and desire before being allowed in the starting 11. In the end, I think it'll make the Argentine a better player and the Dynamo a better team.

DeRo might not play tonight, but he got the job done for Canada on Friday, scoring two goals and getting an assist in a 4-1 victory over St. Vincent AND the Grenadines (both countries at the same time!).

Here's a pre-game article from The Chron. The big news (according to the article) is that Ching is back with some zing. Let's hope so!

Vamos Dynamo!

Caig Mans Up

I like to think of myself as an independent thinker. A guy that doesn't jump at the latest trends. A guy that isn't stuck in the childish phase of needing to have the latest toys. In other words: I don't have HDNet and couldn't watch the Dynamo last night. Some might say that makes me more of a Luddite than a man of principle, and really the truth does lie somewhere in between.

I also was unable to make the trek across town to the known viewings of the game. That's due to me being a boring family man.

But I DID get to listen to the game on the radio. Steve Mark, the "Voice of the Dynamo" (VOTD), isn't the best play by play guy. He doesn't use natural soccer terminology. He doesn't keep up with play. He leaves painful gaps in the monologue while he figures out what's going on. So listening to the game through his eyes isn't the best way to enjoy the game, but I still managed to enjoy the experience. It seems nostalgic to listen to a game on the radio, particularly with a local crew and local perspective, and I rarely do it anymore. It's how baseball used to be followed by fans before cable, and how the English followed their football teams before the EPL made televised broadcasts ubiquitous. The game took on a sentimental flair for me.

You know what else was nostalgic? The clean sheet. You remember those? You just have to look back to last season to see our calling card of clean sheets and defensive dominance. The clean sheet was particularly welcome after we've been conceding three goals per game.

Hats off to the the defense and particularly to Caig who made some solid saves, intercepted some crosses/passes, and didn't make any howlers. I wish this was the Caig who played vs FCD, but beggars can't be choosers and I'm just glad that the Caig that Dom knows made himself known to the Orange faithful.

I hope this means that the defense is beginning to get in sync. We'll need them next week at the Toolshed when we face the LA Beckhams. The LA defense, which is fundamentally pathetic, should also give our forwards plenty of opportunities. I hope our attack makes the most of the chance. They scored in spades versus FCD, but not in any other MLS match yet. Let's reverse that trend next.

Media mining:
Dynamo recap. The overall summary: "Both teams played smothering defense in what was a well-played match. Each side tried to make opportunities on goal, but it was a struggle for both throughout."

The MLS recap from the KC side.

Another Dynamo summary. "'I think overall we dominated the game,' Caig said."

Quotes from both sides. Curt Onalfo says the Dynamo are "hard to play against. They're very direct. They compete, they make you stay in every single play. I thought our guys did a good job of that. We had some good chances to score and we didn't, and they did as well. Overall I thought it was an evenly played game."

Barrett made his 200th consecutive start last night. He is the ironman.

Kansas City Star's recap. "But there are also times when you settle for hard-earned draws. You can probably count playing against the two-time defending MLS Cup champions on a windy, freezing night as one of them." Here's a factoid: "It was the first scoreless draw for the Wizards since Aug. 9, 2006, when they played New England scoreless at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass."