Monday Morning Centre Back: The Thinnest Margin
by Zach Woosley on Aug 8, 2011 11:49 AM CDT
in Monday Morning Centre Back
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The Dynamo ultimate success this season may have been saved this weekend by the goalpost. Just a minute before Geoff Cameron's goal earned the Dynamo a point, the Union's Sebastien Le Toux had Tally Hall and the defense beat and only needed to guide the ball in to the waiting goal...and he hit the post.
That's it, that's the margin that made the difference between the Dynamo leaving Philadelphia with a point or another loss. Not getting a result likely wouldn't have ended the team's playoff hopes, but it certainly wouldn't of helped. Fortunately, Le Toux's shot bounced off the post and Cameron's attempt was on target.
More than anything else, Saturday's match was another example of how desperately this team needs a true attacking force in the midfield. Despite having the lion share of possession for most of the night, the Dynamo were once again toothless on offense, failing to ever feel dangerous despite making 16 attempts on goal (of which only two were on target).
The Union do deserve a lot of credit for the Dynamo's offensive struggles though as their defending was suffocating all night. Dominic Kinnear wasn't too concerned about the result, though he did admit his team should have gotten more from the match.
"The guys are confident tonight, but we're not thrilled with the result, and I think we could've gotten more," Kinnear said. "But we got the late goal and feel pretty good about that. I think moving forward we're a confident group, and we're motivated, which is good to see."
New signing Carlos Costly wasn't able to affect the match much in his 29 minutes, but considering his limited time with the club, I'm not too concerned. A full week of training will help him further integrate with his teammates. What was obvious though, is that unlike Koke, Costly's work rate is much stronger and hopefully he'll be able to settle quickly and help this team score goal down the stretch.
Still, more help is needed and the Dynamo have one week left to bring in some more help for the run to the playoffs. Hopefully we'll hear something official about the much rumored Brazilian attacking midfielder this week.
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Of course, if a certain Ghanian had not missed from 5 feet in Game 1 way back when, then Phila would have two less points than they do and we, two more. So the What Ifs can go all kinds of ways.
Still, the point is true, that the attack corps needs help. We’ll see what Costly can do, though judging him, or any player, on a 30-minute stretch coming after one day of practice with the team seems churlish to me at best.
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
Whoops, don't hit Post too early....
Not that that was what you were doing Ginge.
I wonder if Camargo will help. Right about now, though, I kind of wish the Kenny Cooper deal had gone through.
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
Geoff Cameron
For the love of god can we please quit playing GC in central midfield where the game totally passes him by!!? He could (and probably should) be one of the top US central defenders with his size, speed, agility, passing and ability to come forwards out of the back holding the ball and posing a threat to opposition mid/def….but he seems to need the game in front of him to see it unfolding to be effective. Play hime back there with Andre the Giant and trade/Cut E Rob/Boswell as they chew up large cap space for squad players and get us a decent Right Winger, Attacking mid and forward. Just my two cents. :)
Hopefully
if we do end up snagging Camargo we can move Cameron back to CB to pair him with Hainault. I can understand why DK continues to play him somewhere in the mid (either DM or CAM) because he is your better-than-average passing CB and has the size, speed and relative skill to play more than CB. That being said, I think having Moffat now that if we get Camargo we have him play with Moffat in the middle and Cameron in the back with Hainault. That way Cam can use his passing to initiate play by linking up with Moffat, who in turn can give to Camargo and from there dictate where to go. But yes, its critical we get a proper CAM and it would help alot to also get a winger. In fact, now that we have Costly I firmly believe a CAM + winger can put us back as a dark horse few would want to face. I doubt we’d be championship contenders but we’d give some of the championship contenders a scare. We’ll see what happens the rest of the week…
Contracts are guaranteed
Boswell weighs in @ 210k a yr and I think he’s got another yr on his contract- dunno if it’s guaranteed or option. ERob is 120, Freeman 150-160. Presently, all the contracts are guaranteed- if we cut anyone now, we still pay and it still costs against the cap. Few other teams would want to pick up any of these as they are either too expensive- interested team doesn’t have cap room- or interested team doesn’t want to tie up this much of their cap with vets who aren’t playing up to their salaries. Especially when there are cheaper, younger alternatives. We dumped De Ro because of his $$$ obsession, rumors about acting the diva, and also to build the defense around Boz’s King Kong salary (for a CB). He was supposed to return to DFer of the yr status. Didn’t happen.
I don’t know if we tried to offload Freeman instead of Chewey to Portland, but I’d bet we tried. Spenser is much smarter than that…
No takers, so we eat the salaries. It should be an interesting offseason. I’d hope the FO works their tails off in those months, instead of a flurry of free agents we’ve never heard of coming during February. Wild catting can bring results- sure, and the payoff is enormous- if you don’t add up the tremendous waste of energy and loss of fan confidence who get jaded by the endless trials of not ready for prime time players.
Guh
You’re taking the gem out of my donut there, play. I know I know, its the reality we face I just didn’t feel like reading it this morning. Had a nice extended weekend, we picked up a point (2 more would’ve been better but same ol’ same ol’) and now we might finish the Camargo deal…and then reality sets in. It’s going to make it tougher to bring in quality talent with those salaries hamstringing us. I think wild-catting (love that term, perfect) is the way to go the rest of the season but we need to sit down and do some serious homework, scouting and trials in the off-season. I don’t mind wild-catting for backup spots but in the trouble areas we need serious quality. We’ll have a chance to either trade or drop Boz, E-Rob & World B. Freeman (and depending on circumstances, figure out what to do with Taylor and Watson) and get some quality talent in spots we need (CAM, winger, pacey forward) and maybe some decent backups.
Camargo
Glenn Davis said the deal is done on his show and it should be announced soon. Looks like we got a CAM, hopefully he can integrate and settle quickly and we can move Geoff back to defense.
This lineup sounds interesting:
Hall
Ashe – Cameron – Hainault – Freeman/Sarkodie
Clark/Cruz – Camargo – Moffat – Davis
Costly – Ching
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"You live and learn. At any rate, you live." -Douglas Adams
Managing Editor of Dynamo Theory
Yo si le voy, le voy al naranja!
Great
So hopefully we’ll get official word later today or tomorrow morning, I’m assuming its visa & paperwork issues at this point. Now, if Canetti can pull off signing another mid (a backup CAM) and a winger then I’ll officially shut up about it.
As to your proposed formation, my only wrinkle would be putting Watson on the right instead of Clark. I like the defense and of course Costly + Ching up top, but Watson did a fair job as CAM so I would be curious to see him there on the right. Not that I’m complaining about Clark there, but just curious to see how Watson would play off Camargo.
But yes, hopefully with Camargo’s signing the Geoff Cameron experiment can come to a merciful end.
Watson should definitely get a run on the wing since they need to see if he’s a guy they want to keep around past this season.
--
"You live and learn. At any rate, you live." -Douglas Adams
Managing Editor of Dynamo Theory
Yo si le voy, le voy al naranja!
by Zach Woosley on Aug 9, 2011 10:23 AM CDT up reply actions
Hmm
Good call. I hadn’t considered that but it just adds all the more incentive to try him there…I mean, let’s see if his touch and pace is better used on the wing. He could be an answer there, and as you astutely point out it helps determine what to do with him in the off-season (as this will be a very critical off-season)
Clark vs Watson Smackdown
Though Clark doesn’t cut like he used to for the Rapids, at first glance, his goals per minutes played is second only to Ching’s. In short, he’s a money player on a team that has long depended on its midfield to make up for lack of scoring punch. Watson has played 800 minutes (14 starts, 8 subs); Clark 996 (19 starts, 11 subs). Watson has 0 goals and two assists. Clark has 3 goals and 2 assists. Watson only has 7 shots for the year, which means he takes a shot about every 114 minutes. Clark has 23 shots, so shoots about every 43 minutes. I realize coming in late in the game skews the numbers for both as this is often garbage time (though the same argument could be made for a higher number of shots) where there may be limited shooting opportunities.
If the purpose is to make a decision about Watson for next yr, then by all means. If we are for making a playoff push, my $$$ is on Clark. I’ve seen enough of Watson although a case might be made for how Dynamo castoffs sometimes improve when used differently (Wondo, Palmer, Oduro, et al).
You deserve
a Pei Mei chinstroke for this.
Fair enough that if we’re making a push we use Clark, but I’d have Watson waiting in the wings (pun intended)…they both are the same age, make about the same so we’ve got a potential Highlander match-up on our hands. Of course, pairing them with a decent-to-good-to-pretty-damn-good CAM can change the dynamic here and really shift things one way or another, but we’ll see how that plays out
Always wanted that for a Juan Valdez advert
“In the end, there can be only Juan.”
Unfortunately, only redwoods like us would get the reference.
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