Sunday’s Game a Sellout
By: Marc | October 3rd, 2007This is a couple days old, but already the LA-Houston match is a sellout!
From the article:
This Sunday’s Houston Dynamo game against the Los Angeles Galaxy is sold out, a first-time experience for the team since its move to Houston.
I never realized the Dynamo had never had a sellout before — this is great! And the game means something, both for the Dynamo trying to hold on to first place in the West and to the Galaxy who are trying to make the playoffs.
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I was thinking of this the other day and thought I’d open the floor for discussion on this issue.
Though it is premature with three games to go, who is Dynamo’s regular season MVP this year? Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Eddie Robinson. ER has played almost every game and has almost completely shut down the defensive middle. For a team that set the MLS record for consecutive shutout minutes this season, which was the real reason why the June/July run was so successful, Robinson has been lights out, playing hurt, playing inspired, zeroing in on the opponents’ best forwards and covering them like a cheap suit. I will never forget his performance against Pachuca, where if they had won that game, he was a shoo-in for Man of the Match. It would have been completely counterintuitive to do it, but I’ve got to think that if ER was taking the PK and not Ngwenya, Calero wouldn’t even have seen that ball that just singed his pirate bandanna off.
2. Pat Onstad. Again, going back to the MLS record for consecutive scoreless minutes, how does the attention not immediately go to the goalie who played the vast majority of those minutes? Onstad has been a brick wall in that goalmouth this season, and though a record like that speaks as much of the defense in front of him as of him, it’s hard to ignore it since it’s quite possible that Onstad and crew have just taken that record and put it away. This is also a guy who, if not for some questionable refereeing, would have been responsible for knocking the US out of the Gold Cup.
3. Patrick Mulrooney. With all due respect to Joseph Ngwenya, Mulrooney is easily the top acquisition for Dynamo this year. His versatility alone puts him in the running for this award. Defender, midfielder, right, left, center, what hasn’t he done , and done very, very well? Has he been more valuable to the squad than Robinson? You could easily make that case.
4. Dwayne De Rosario. This is a candidacy built on ifs and opportunity. DDR has been fuh-reakin’ awesome of late and his goal last week against the candystripers was something else. How he found that seam to Sala’s left was something I’ll never know. The last few weeks, beginning just before the Galaxy game in LA, DeRo has resumed his forceful ways. And though he started so slowly this year, he has been nothing short of amazing at times. The Celtic announcers felt like he should have gotten Man of the Match in the MLS All-Star Game, which put to some rest the well-considered argument that, with the first half he had, he didn’t even deserve to be there. If DDR continues to play at a high level and leads Dynamo to wins over the next three games (and thus the Western Conference title, a 2008 SuperLiga berth and possibly the Supporters’ Shield), I would be hard-pressed to argue against him for team regular season MVP.
Others receiving votes
1. Wade Barrett. Captain America has played in every minute of every single game this season. He has kept the team settled when it needed him the most.
2. Joseph Ngwenya and Nate Jaqua. If they get it, they should give the award to Dominic Kinnear, who hasn’t made a bad personnel move that I can see. Both have been serious reasons why the team not only has survived during a very busy season, but thrived.
3. Stuart Holden. If the award was just for summer performance, he’d be in serious consideration. How this team lost the services of the 2006 MLS assist leader (Brad Davis) and didn’t miss a beat is almost completely due to Holden.
4. Brian Ching. The Karate Kid (see his Chronicle blog at http://blogs.chron.com/brianching/ about that nickname) has been his usual dominant self. But this is a team built on a crushing defense, and Ching hasn’t been the dominant reason for the team’s success. Still though, his takedown of Dax McCarty on his run parallel to the goal before delivering the smooth pass to Holden in Frisco Sunday was a thing of beauty. McCarty hit the dirt like he had run full-tilt into the side of a building.
5. Brian Mullan. Had a great first half and has been awesome at times, but second half injuries have himout of the running for this award I think.
Any other thoughts?
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