Pat “The Cat” Does It Again. Dynamo Down Raging Rapids

By: Richard | April 19th, 2009

Houston Dynamo 1-0 Colorado Rapids.

Phew!! The Dynamo finally get the win they have been looking for, thanks largely to the big man between the sticks. Thank God for that. Now perhaps we can focus on actually playing some decent football.

So on a truly warm day in Houston (Mr Akinbiyi…), some of my personal thoughts from the game; feel free to agree/disagree as you will.

1.) The field at the Rob looked a hundred times better. Not sure if it was the torrential downpours Friday/Saturday or the groundsmen over at UofH or some combination of the two, but what a difference since the NY game. Still had some weird bobbles in it, but at least the ball moved around properly and (for the most part) predictibly.

2.) Thanks go out to the Houston Transport authorities for scheduling road maintenance on I-45 right at the turn off for UofH on the day of the game. Completely screwed up the freeway and led to tons of people coming into the game late, including El Battalion. Who, by the way, also seemed to pack up early and head out before the final whistle – very odd? Fortunately, the brilliant Texian Army were there in full effect until EB got through the turnstiles at the other end. Crowd listed at around 13k, which was a little disappointing, but looked like more.

3.) As I alluded to above, this was not a pretty game by any stretch. But then none of the Dynamo games have been thus far. This was about getting a win. By any means possible. You could sense the relief in the players and crowd at the final whistle.

4.) I’ve had my doubts about playing Geoff Cameron in Central Defense. I must admit, however, that he is performing better and better there each week and for sure adds an element that no other MLS center back currently posseses (IMHO) – the ability to dribble the ball out of the back and into the midfield. He did this again on numerous occasions today and it frightens the heck out of MLS midfields, who don’t know quite what to do. We’ve got ~~Happy Days’ Richie Cunningham~~ Andrew Hainault waiting in the wings, but I’m liking Cameron there more and more as he gets aquiainted with the actual CD job.

5.) Brad Davis had a good game today. Still comes inside way to often and gives up the left side outlet for us, cramping central mid, but had a couple of good shots on goal and his play/cross led to a great Ching header for the goal. I’d like to see him stick to the sidelines more and dribble round someone every once in a while, as he can do….drive to the goal line, son!

6.) Can we please have a practise session around how to pass a ball?? Missed passes, too hard, too soft, behind receiver, hoofing it up in the air instead of playing on the ground…geez…I realize this is not the Premier League just yet, but come on people! – it’s hot down there on the field – if ya let the ball do the work and pass it around a bit, you get to do less running and the opposition has to do more!

7.) There has been a lot of talk about us getting a striker and rightly so. We’ve ended up with Ade Akinbiyi, who is certainly experienced and can find the ol’ onion bag on occasions, but what we SORELY miss is, dare I say it, a DeRo-type player. Someone who can sit in the middle of the park and get some time on the ball, pick out some passes, bring others into the game and actually offer a threat with the ball at his feet…possibly even dribble round a man or two before laying the ball off?? Right now, we are uber predictable. Davis can’t do it, neither can Holden – to be fair, neither are that type of player, even though they are being asked to perform that role. Everyone knows what Houston is about – the question is can you stop it That said, we always had DeRo offering that “what if..” element – something different, unexpected. We are missing that right now, along with some calmness when the ball is at our feet (which admittedly, we may now begin to get as we have a win under our belts) – showed badly today against Colorado.

8.) Pat “The Cat” does it again. WHAT A SAVE! Absolutely top draw penalty stop from Onstad. Actually, as good as the PK stop was, I think I’m even more impressed that he got straight up after making the save, ran to the other side of the goal and stopped a point blank follow up header from Terry Cooke about 2 seconds later! Fantastic stuff – you won’t see a better save sequence this season. Really got the crowd into it too – the place was jumping from then until the end of the game – you’d have thought we’d scored again by the noise that reverberated round the stadium afterwards. See the action from MLSNet.com right here

9.) Colorado. Actually came to play, which was a nice change for visiting teams. Played well, but suffered a bit from the heat, I think. Have a really good looking front 2 in Conor Casey and Omar Cummings – nice differences in style that definately seemed to compliment each other well. That said, did not offer many threats on goal, where the Dynamo had 4-5 real chances. Midfield were combative until they ran out of gas, top 2 were good all game, though well handled by the Boz and Cameron. The back 4 were their undoing – at times did not seem to be on same page and did not defend the wide areas well enough, along with being out muscled by Ching and Kamara (when he wasn’t falling over) regularly. However, Dynamo nervousness and a strong push after Cooke came on in the final 10-15 minutes by Colorado (their best spell of the game) did make for another figernail-biting finale!

10.) Yes. Kei Kamara. Dude, please learn to accept a ball to your feet without it pinging off in some random direction. It’s like your mind knows what it wants you to do, but your body is a step behind in making it happen! And for crying out load, stop falling over. You definately bring some energy to the attack and do lots of running, but control is not a strong point of yours at the moment and we need that off a front man if we are going to have others come join the attack, or take some of the heat off the Chinger. If we’re not gonna start Corey “Arthur” Ashe out wide, then I’d like to see him have a shot up top – can you imagine the frights he would give defenses from Ching flick-ons with Ashe sprinting by them to get on the end…? The dude is lightining-quick, folks. Perhaps then teams would defend a little deeper against us and we’d have more room to move in the Mid. Also, Dom, why bring Ashe on and play him wide right, pushing Mullan – a RW – up front, when we have a striker to bring on and “Arthur” is very left-footed? I dont get that?

All in all, though, great entertainment – right down to HEB Buddy getting jipped out of scoring first against Dynamo Diesel at half-time and the FO desperately trying to sell the crowd on the concept of “Recycling-day”, when clearly no-one gave a crap! It’s been a beautiful day in Houston, TX; it’s 80 degrees and sunny; the Dyanmo win again and roadworks are back on I-45 – the world is as it should be! …. oh and Seattle, lest I forget, You’re Welcome! .