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Editor's Notes: Small signs of improvement from the Dynamo, Dash Day and Tyler Deric wins SotW again

A busy weekend in Houston as the Dynamo drew against the Rapids and the Houston Dash hosted Dash Day. Last week Tyler Deric took home a Save of the Week win yet again.

Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Improvement?

Two draws in a row for the Dynamo, one against the L.A. Galaxy and Saturday against the Colorado Rapids, may not feel like victories but compared to last season they are wins.

Towards the end of the game on Saturday, broadcaster Eddie Robinson said he was getting a feeling in the pit of his stomach that all someone had to do was make a mistake and the other team was going to win. Last season that mistake would have been made by the Dynamo and they would have ended up losing or drawing. Too many times last season I had to change the recap I was working on during the last ten minutes of a game from a Dynamo win/draw to a Dynamo draw/loss. On Saturday, they managed to hold on for a scoreless draw against the Rapids.

With Giles Barnes away for national team duty, fans on social media began to wonder where the goals were going to come from as the team lacked someone who could create goals. Will Bruin just isn't that guy. Leaving him up top by himself isn't going to result in goals. It's just not. Chandler Hoffman was substituted in the last ten minutes of the game and we began to see more creativity but it came so late in the game that he wasn't able to make a difference in the scoreline. Luckily, Barnes will be back for their next game at CenturyLink Field against the Seattle Sounders.

While the game was...well...it was dull the team did manage to improve their passing game. Against LA they completed 68% of their passes while against the Rapids they completed 77%. The Dynamo completed 71% of their passes in the final third Saturday compared to 51% against the Galaxy the previous week. They improved their overall possession from 36% to 50.9%.

Where things didn't improve was shots. Against L.A. the Dynamo got off 6 shots with 3 on target. Against the Rapids they got off 11 with just two on target. Looking at the shot accuracy map you can see a change in control and concentration with the shots.

Shots against LA (3-27-15)

Shots vs Colorado (3-28-15)

Yes, I know the counter argument is that LA is a tougher team than the Rapids, but the point is that there were positives to take away from the game. They were able gain better control in the midfield against a weaker opponent even without Luis Garrido and Boniek Garcia who are also gone with their national teams.

In their upcoming match against the Sounders the Dynamo will have all four of their players back from national call-ups and they are going to need them.

Dash Day

Sunday the Houston Dash hosted Dash Day for fans. The team played a pre-season match against the Texas Longhorns out at Houston Sporting Park. Thanks to goals from Kealia Ohai and Melissa Henderson the Dash won 2-0.

The Dash season is fast approaching with their first game of the season on April 10. Don't have tickets yet? Get them here before they sell out. You don't want to miss out on your chance to see the Houston Dash's second season.

Tyler Deric

For the second week in a row Tyler Deric won the Save of the Week. This time for his stop on Mika Vayrynen of the LA Galaxy. He won last week with over 50% of the vote this week he won it  with 32.36% of the vote. If you saw the game on Saturday against the Rapids you know that he has a good chance at keeping the streak alive.