This team is a mess. I saw someone post on Facebook that this season is akin to the Rockets...wasting a talent laden roster. I disagree. I don't think this team has near enough talent and depth and it's being made worse by piss poor coaching. It's the same old story with Clark. All of his constant misgivings are forgotten because of one nice goal (and it was a very nice goal). Meanwhile, he continues to put the defense under pressure that isn't necessary because of bad positioning and even worse skills with the ball.
Deric didn't use up the subs. And the red, outside the box, was a good play...better than being down 4-1.
Hey they got a win. Just 1-0 but it could've been more. It's amazing what the offense looks like when you put the playmakers in. Torres is just a much much better player than Bruin. He missed one that should've been off great cross from Horst. Torres did everything right...actually too well. He headed it down but it bounced over. Nice to get a clean sheet and not blow it in the end...but they sure as hell tried. RSL had a very good chance in the last minute only to choke it.
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Cubo is just so bunch better than Bruin, it's amazing how much better they look with a forward who can actually make plays and be involved in touches Alex I thought was great too. It's amazing how much ground he can cover when paired with an absolute nobody like Clark, imagine if he had a more competent player next to him. I'd still like to see a few tweaks, notably Clark and Wenger. Wenger just plays lazy defense and has lacked hustle lately, idk if he is tired or this is just the player he normally is. I'd like to see boniek on the wing to start the game, he's more creative and plays defense, it might at least help with midfield possession. I do like Miranda and his speed coming off the bench late in game, it really puts pressure on the defenses Going down the stretch.
It makes such a difference with Cubo because the opposing team actually has to mark him. Defenses do not mark Bruin. They let him roam which does account for many of his goals. There's no reason to mark him because he if has the ball at his feet outside of the box, he's going to give it away.
Beasley looked hurt when the game started and gave up and easy goal almost immediately Taken off in the 12th minute
Only caught the firstbhalf, but big drop off for the offense since the hot start. It looks like they have no chemistry on either side of the pitch these days. Ugly early concession of a goal against a really good defensive side.
The MLS is in a weird spot right now. They've done enough to establish themselves financially and looking to grow. Yet, they're still shat upon for the perceived lack of quality. I'm not saying that they're 100% wrong but they're not 100% right, too. The quality is still behind the big leagues of the world but it's improving. At the same time, the MLS needs to do things to keep itself in the news and that means bringing in some big names to help with the tv ratings. Attendance isn't much of a problem at games, IMO. It's the ratings for games outside of the markets where teams currently reside. But...it then gets ridiculed for being the retirement home of aging stars. There will come a time when the players will be coming over at much younger ages. The quality is improving, along with the money. But it ain't there yet and is likely still at least a decade away. Also, while I'm not a fan of Pirlo, he is exactly correct. It's been the American way to out hustle you, out run you, out work you...at the expense of technical ability. Again, this is something that is slowly changing. When I watch youth teams play, the quality of their play is so far and away better than my youth days. We didn't work much on technique. We were much more focused on conditioning and tactics than we were on individual abilities. One friend I had that made it to the MLS was a very good player...but his special ability was his conditioning and work ethic. He played 8 years in the MLS...mostly as a starting defensive mid. In those 8 years (155 games played/150 starts), he took 31 shots and scored 0 goals. He, IMO, is the epitome of a MLS player. Great conditioning, fantastic work ethic, no technical ability on the ball...well, at least not the kind of ability you would expect out of a professional midfielder. Klinsmann isn't helping things. He's going with the players that fit this mold and doing nothing to inspire more creative players. Brute force works in CONCACAF but not outside of it.
Well it makes sense when it comes to preparedness and strength of competition. You can get away with that playing friendlies but not the Euro
I'm not hopeful that soccer in the US will improve anytime soon. There's a theory that the kids growing up nowadays will change soccer culture and bring it to a new level. This theory involves people like me who were born here in the US and played soccer as our first sport, then having kids and our kids growing up with it in their homes and loving the sport like kids loved baseball when we grew up and how kids love basketball and football. The idea is that these kids will be superior athletes who play soccer instead of one of the other sports even though they can achieve at high levels in the other sports. It makes sense, my kids can go outside on any given day and play soccer with other kids in the neighborhood who play. When i was growing up i could only play soccer when i was in a league and we had a game or practice, but i could walk outside and play any other sport any time i wanted to. Kids today grow up knowing more about the sport. From the leagues to teams to players they are more involved in the sport intellectually. This is how most of us grew up loving the other sports. The issue is how soccer is approached in the way it is regulated amongst clubs and academies in the US. They think that the models that work in Europe are appropriate for the United States' social structure. They want exclusive commitment to soccer at the earliest ages possible just like the rest of the world, but our social system is different. If you think about the best athletes in the United States they do not grow up playing a single sport. In fact they are encouraged to play multiple sports. Making ultimatums to kids will kill their interest in the sport. The girls side is different as soccer is one of the few options an athlete has to play at a high level and achieve the things they want to achieve. They still demand the exclusivity as early as possible but because families are led to believe this is the only way to achieve success they buy into it and thus it makes the women's side of soccer all about the money and if you can't afford a club or academy you won't play at the highest level.
I also think it needs to be made clear how rich you can get at a young age playing soccer. For many in America, professional sports are a ticket out of poverty. But, our traditional setup requires you attend college before going pro, opening you up to financial risk should you get injured. If it becomes more widely known that you can be signed by a professional soccer team when you're a teenager, I have to think that would appeal to those who love to play sports and see it as an escape.
As a parent of a kid who lives and breathes soccer and seeing some of the kid son our team giving up on playing tackle football to play club soccer. I absolutely see the dynamic changing in the USA. Soccer is growing, and is on the uptick, while baseball is on the down tick - and football is showing cracks with all the concussion data.... DD
That's great but we're still doing it wrong. Until the club system in the US is dramatically changed (requiring large amounts of money to play on the top teams), we will always exclude talent we might not know exists. When I was a freshman in college, I went to a school that had dropped their NCAA team and didn't yet have a club team. I was still young enough to play U-19. I played for a team in San Antonio that was made up of kids who couldn't afford to play for the big clubs in town. We were light-years better than the other teams...finishing 2nd in state that season. Houstonians FC is another example of what you can do when you cater to the kids who can't afford to play for the Rush's and Texans of the world. It's always been my dream to start a club like that because I know the impact it can have on a community and the kids that play for it.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Owen Coyle, Houston Dynamo agree to part ways: <a href="https://t.co/THYqOjnYgZ">https://t.co/THYqOjnYgZ</a></p>— Houston Dynamo (@HoustonDynamo) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonDynamo/status/735655654787059712">May 26, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> He never made sense as coach of the Dynamo.
Don't want to revel in someone's misery but this is the right thing to do. Time to move on before the season gets too far away from them. His lineup decisions made no sense and he was trying to force a style that didn't fit the players. To be fair, he wasn't granted the most talented team...but he's the one that chose to continue giving significant time to Bruin, Clark and others who clearly aren't performing.
The whole organization is broken right now, top-to-bottom. After the success of our early years, this really sucks.
