Houston Dynamo 1, Atlanta United FC 4: Rate the Players and Quick Thoughts

At the beginning of the year I introduced a new way for the Dynamo Theory community to be a part of Player Ratings. After matches everyone will get a chance to submit how each player did on a scale of 1 to 10 which will be averaged out in a later article. These ratings are interesting because we all view how players perform differently. Rating websites like WhoScored.com view things from an analytical perspective, but a statistic, even one as big as a goal, doesn’t quite tell the entire story as some goals are bigger and more important to a game than others. I think seeing how we as a community feel can create fun conversations. Of course, how we feel individually matters as well so please comment about player performances as you wish in the comments.

Quick Thoughts about the Game:

1) Wilmer Cabrera was forced to make some changes to his starting XI due to the heavy minutes his usual starters had and due to the style of play that typically demands lots of running and movement. I actually liked many of the lineup choices that Cabrera began with. It was good to see Dylan Remick back and DaMarcus Beasley was a surprise choice at left winger, but one where Cabrera didn’t have too many alternatives without wearing down other starters. His subbing also made sense to me as bringing on Quioto for Remick meant Beasley went back to LB and taking Alex off (who was allegedly playing sick) for Cubo put Andrew Wenger into the midfield. Taking off Wenger for Clark put a player more suited for that position on the field. Of course, despite the moves making sense on paper, they didn’t end of working too well.

2) The question all Dynamo fans have is, “why do the Dynamo play so well at home and so poorly on the road”. I don’t think it is personnel because the same personnel play well at home. I don’t think it is intimidation by opposing crowds. I think they take a more conservative approach with their game plan and it hurts them. The unabashed, all in on offense style that we see at home is a style that plays to the formation and squad’s strengths. When we play more conservatively and with more caution we lose that energy and support to score goals. Against Atlanta United FC, too often I saw midfielders and fullbacks purposefully not pushing up because they feared a United counter attack should they lose possession. We also saw fewer over the top balls to forwards which is a huge part of how quickly we transition. My only guess to why that would be is the team is concerned with not turning the ball over. The team is essentially over-thinking how they need to play on the road and they need to just play their brand or change to a formation on the road that suits a more conservative style of play.

3) While the offense had some dangerous attempts on goal that unfortunately didn’t go in, the defense gifted Atlanta with several of their goals. This defense looked unorganized and made sloppy mistakes that proved to be very costly.

4) As I said against the Union, we just need to learn to win on the road.

Rate the Players: