Quick bit of news from yesterday, the Dynamo's trip to face the San Jose Earthquakes in the second match of the 2012 has been rescheduled, just slightly. Instead of the match being played on Sunday, March 18th at Buck Shaw Stadium has been moved up a day and will instead take place at AT&T Park. The move is so the match can be part of a double header with the Mexico U-23 v. Senegal U-23 game.

The move makes sense I guess, nothing wrong with bundling matches, but this is essentially an MLS match, the top division of soccer in the United States, playing under card to a U-23 friendly. I know it really doesn't matter, I know it's really not a big deal, but it just seems cheap and a bit condescending to MLS (even though this is not the case). It's also annoying personally because it makes it harder for me to cover the match since I was expecting the match to be on Sunday and made plans. Oh well.

The match will kick-off at 4:00pm CT, no TV coverage has yet been announced but it's likely to be part of the still unannounced remainder of the Dynamo's local TV deal. Hopefully no Dynamo fans made travel plans for this match and if they did they'll already be in the San Jose area on Saturday.

Am I nuts to be a bit annoyed bit this?

Judging by the general content of the comments around here (and in other places), the main concern going into the 2012 Houston Dynamo season is that team has dipped in quality with the loss of Brian Ching and Danny Cruz. The fear seems to be that we are in for yet another long season of middling to above average results with the possibility of a serious drop in form. Or do I exaggerate?

Neither Jose de Jesus Ortiz nor Glenn Davis have much to say so far today about potential player transfers. However, adding potential fuel to the fire of perhaps some supporter discontent is a pair of stories filtering from points south. The first one (link here) says that that CD Olimpia have decided not to deal Oscar Boniek Garcia, despite entreaties from his family and apparent contact from our Orange. It's hard to say whether or not this is just another negotiating ploy as this wouldn't be the first time we've seen stories like this in the middle of negotiations, but still, it's pretty far from encouraging.

A second story from Honduran paper Diez.hn (link here, which unfortunately is in Spanish) states that Carlo Costly is at Real España, but would prefer to play abroad. It then goes to say that España has received offers for Costly's services from Deportivo Cali in Colombia, some team in China and, you guessed it, the Houston Dynamo. So the question is, is it possible that we can see more from Costly over an entire season than we saw in the second half of last year. In a forward corps of Will Bruin, Cam Weaver, Calen Carr and Chris Rolfe (not to mention possibly a trialist), would Costly fit in? Would he get minutes? Would he be a distraction?

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It seems like just yesterday the Dynamo played for the MLS Cup in Los Angeles, in fact it was only 66 days ago, but time waits for no one and the new season must get underway. Yesterday at the team's training facilities, the Dynamo did just that, kicking off the 2012 season with the opening of pre-season camp.

It's the first Dynamo camp that doesn't include Brian Ching and Eddie Robinson and it's another reminder of the evolving face of the roster. Everyone was on deck for training except Geoff Cameron and Kofi Sarkodie, both of whom are away on national team duty. Here's the current active roster going in to camp:

Forwards: Will Bruin, Calen Carr, Colin Rolfe, Cam Weaver

Midfielders: Luiz Camargo, Colin Clark, Brad Davis, Alex Dixon, Adam Moffat, Josue Soto, Nathan Sturgis, Je-Vaughn Watson.

Defenders: Corey Ashe, Bobby Boswell, Geoff Cameron, Andre Hainault, Kofi Sarkodie, Jermaine Taylor

Goalkeepers: Tyler Deric, Tally Hall

The rest of the Dynamo draft picks are in camp, but not under contract, so they aren't on the official roster. In addition, there were a couple trialist but I've been unable to get any names associated with those gentlemen. Chris Canetti did say the club will be releasing more information about them in the coming days, so we'll just have to be patient.

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Follow the yellow brick road, and there might be a powerful wizard at the end able to grant you whatever your heart desires. Or, as so often we find, after having stumbled through the many potholes on that road you come to the end of it only to be met by an eccentric myth of a person capable only of offering up false promises and trinkets. In the business of player transfers, these promises typically come down to playing time and money--quite often with a heavy emphasis on the money aspect--which is why a number of notable overseas players offered contracts with Major League Soccer clubs have gone elsewhere.

Granted, were any of us afforded the chance to be in a similar situation, a contract promising the grander payday would likely be taken over the one on offer in the US or Canada, even if it meant having to consult an idiot's guide to the Chinese language. Still though, while Kris Boyd decides whether to join Houston Dynamo or keep traveling down that road in search of greater riches, he might wish to consider some cautionary tales of fellow Scotsmen who, when offered up a deal by Houston, chose to pass only to find a possible U turn at journey's end.

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