Dynamo Draw Union 1-1; Geoff Cameron's Late Goal Saves a Point
by Zach Woosley on Aug 7, 2011 2:41 PM CDT
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I'm not really going to complain about getting a point on the road against one of the better teams in the East, but it wasn't exactly fulfilling. The Houston Dynamo may of left PPL Park with a 1-1 draw thanks to a great goal from Geoff Cameron but considering how they controlled the flow of play, you can't help but feel like they should have gotten more.
The Philadelphia Union's Jack McInerney scored Philly's goal in the 15th minute after Colin Clark's somewhat lackadaisical pass was intercepted and the Dynamo back line was caught off guard. Andre Hainault and Bobby Boswell were out of position and fullback Hunter Freeman couldn't close the space on McInerney quick enough as the young Union forward scored his first goal of the season.
No matter how you spin it, it was another defensive cluster that left Tally Hall on an island with little he could do to stop the goal. McInerney, rather than charging at Boswell, dumped a quick pass off to Sebastien Le Toux which caused Boswell to jump completely out of position, depsite the face Hainault had LeToux covered. Le Toux smartly, one touched the ball right back to McInerney who moved right through the space left by Boswell. We've seen this kind of thing a lot this season and it's another example of why the Dynamo goal scorer should probably be playing in the central defense instead of the central midfield.
Then again, it's hard not to put most of the blame on Clark's weak pass that caused the whole mess in the first place after the entire Dynamo formation began to shift forward anticipating the ball being pushed up the field.
The Dynamo got their equalizer after Cameron was left alone with space about 25 yards from the Union net. His low shot was screened by several players andFaryd Mondragon was late to react and unable to stop the shot. The chance came less than a minute after Le Toux had broken free on the Hall and hit the far post with a shot that would have iced the Union victory.
Needless to say, it was major sigh of relief moment.
So the Dynamo got a point on the road against a conference opponent and were helped by losses from Kansas City and New York as well. Yet those results seem to rub a bit of salt in to the wound since you can't help but feel like the Dynamo could have beaten the Union last night. Basically, good but not good enough.
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Relates to other games
This is the same problem that hasn’t been solved. The Dynamo have most of the possession but nothing goes in the net. The problem is not really the defense since like you said, they were caught off guard by a poor pass. Every problem comes from within the midfield area, either they can’t find the striker or they do some poor passes. Ching barely touched the ball last night since he didn’t received a lot of passes.
by RedAce on Aug 7, 2011 3:38 PM CDT via mobile reply actions
I disagree
The problem is the defense. Not in their ability to defend but to move the ball forward. I think that I’ve figured out the Dynamo’s problem. It’s our ability to move forward. I am sick of seeing the defense play it safe and move the ball backward. Same is true for our midfield, but mostly it starts in the back. Ching doesn’t get to touch the ball because it rarely gets that far ahead because we don’t get it to him unless we chip or cross it to him which is not a reliable way to get the ball to anyone consistently. We need to be aggressive in our passing and be willing to give up some possession for opportunities. We have shown that given most of the time we can defend, but our ability to get the ball to our forwards and even midfielders is suspect. Our players can do it, they just don’t. No more playing it safe…it’s time to gamble.
I completely agree
My head was about to explode everytime i saw Hunter Freeman take the ball all the way back to Tally. I have no problem with going backwards but backwards movement should not be the first thought in our mind. We usually have the majority of the possesion ever game but it is dangerous possesion. Unless the ball is on Brad’s foot, the opposing team should not be that scared of a dangerous ball in
Well then...
I was too frustrated at looking at midfield that I really didn’t notice the “play it safe” moves by the defense. Yeah I noticed that alot in previous games now that ya’ll mention it. Do you think Dom tells them to play like this? Or is it all the players doing?
by RedAce on Aug 8, 2011 11:11 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
I don't think Dom says play it back as often as possible
It could be an issue of confidence going forward, but I don’t know. It’s done out of nervousness that much is certain
Whixch game did you watch?
I didn’t get to watch Saturday’s game but am very confused after reading the varied comments on several sites. Glenn Davis’s Blog’s posters seem polarized between poor play and a “game we should have won”. Ginge writes we could have easily have bagged our first away win. MLS Soccer cites we only had two shots on target and were fortunate to come away with a point. It was if there were two games- one we should have won, the other we were lucky not to lose.
Cornfused. Moffat’s and Costly’s play were slammed @ Glenn Davis’s site- a little unfair to Costly, who had a day with the team, if that. Kudos to Kinnear for giving Carlos half an hour.
Though I didn’t see the game, I do agree with the difficulty getting the ball from defense past the half way line. The question remains- where is Cameron most effective and is that where he helps the team the most? I hope the Camargo papers come through quickly.
In other MLS action, Bill Hamid’s red card was on Avila- TFC’s recent acquisition of a young attacking mid. Several MLS attacking mids have called the moving vans before and during this season while we….
While we….
Hold your breath….
Wait…
Still holding?
Some thoughts
Just saw the highlights finally after being out of town this weekend, and noticed a few things relevant to this discussion:
1. When you shoot from distance, put the ball on frame! You can;t score if you don;t put the ball on frame people. That’s what I liked about Moffatt’s blasts against Seattle, they made Keller save them. In this game, the only one on frame was Cameron’s. Result?
2. As to who controlled the game, Twellman said after Cameron’s goal that it was “well-deserved as Houston is dominating this game.” Also, according to the official release, we get this info:
Houston dominated the first half and the match, with more than 60 percent of the possession and twice as many shots (16-8) as Philadelphia.
Of course, if Phila was playing not to lose at home after going up 1-0 early, then no wonder these numbers exist. Was that true? If so, then those boos that rained down at the end were more than deserved and just goes to show why I have always doubted Peter Nowak.
3. Ginge, you are right on that the fault on the Phila goal lies both with Clark’s lackadaisical pass and Boswell following the ball instead of his man. I give more fault to Boz, who should really know better.
4. So based on all of this, did we deserve the three points? I’d probably say no based on my limited knowledge of the game, but that a draw was fair, irritating but fair. Anyone else?
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
Thanks for the perspective
Can anyone give a fair and balanced appraisal of Costly’s play?
Costly
Some people are being to hard on him which I think is not fair at all. Here’s what I think…since he only practiced with the team one day he tried his best when he came out. He did show that he can hold the ball and that he would go fight for it, but the forwards barely got the ball from any pass
by RedAce on Aug 8, 2011 11:20 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
I'm with ya
Looking forward to seeing what he brings in the future. He can only raise his game with the team from this point on, but by how much is up to him.
I think that we beat ourselves
Other teams rarely beat us – we often beat ourselves and force us to tie the game late or we end up losing a lead or the game. We could easily have had 3 points if we didn’t play the ball back as much and didn’t continue crossing it without a prayer every time we get forward. That’s our failing moving forward and attacking. We don’t concede many goals often and we do tend to dominate possession. The failings are clearly on our end which is good because if other teams were just beating us we would be much lower in the standings.
Philly match
Outside mids need to cross the ball higher in the box. The low crosses was not working. they need to go down the back line or dribble across the box. This change should have been made by the coaches at the half. Forwards can not score if they are not given the ball in a good spot.
I wish..
I could add to this but I wasn’t able to watch the match and in an egregious oversight I didn’t DVR it either. Just had to do the ESPN gamecast and keep refreshing my phone every 10 seconds. It sounds like a defensive mistake allowed the opening goal, then steady pressure (as I’d imagine Philly would park the bus) allowed us to equalize.
In regards to comments I read about forward movement and passing, a huge part of that is not by design but out of necessity: there is no one to pass it to going forward. We have our back line, a deep DM who tries to get forward but ends up stranded so either plays it wide or long over the top. And if those don’t seem like appealing options (which they’re not), they simply decide to restart and do the ol’ backpass. I truly hope that if the Camargo signing goes through that we can start the trend of forward passing and movement because both of those are so key. We’ve been accustomed so long to set pieces and long balls that we haven’t had much practice in off-the-ball movement. Sure, we’ve seen glimpses and spells of it but hopefully with a CAM who can help posses the ball and link up with the other midfielders we can get better movement and better forward passes. I’m hoping that in 4 games time we start to see the back-pass as the pass of last resort rather than option 1a.
All in all, though, we’ll take the point :)
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