Houston Dynamo 4, Orlando City SC 0: 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) Surprise, surprise, the Houston Dynamo are good at home, but did anyone really expect a 4-0 dominant performance? This game could have been 6 or 7 to nothing as Joe Bendik had a few very good saves and we had a missed penalty. Orlando City SC had no answer for our relentless attack. As they continued to concede goals they had to push up more players to try and get something back, which only opened them up more to counter attacks. This is why we saw in the last 15-20 minutes of the game breakaway after breakaway. This is how the Dynamo were built to play and exploit teams and it worked wonderfully.

2) Wilmer Cabrera returned to the 4-3-3 and explained in the press conference after the game the reason for switching to the 4-4-2 was largely due to the health of Romell Quioto. With Quioto 100% he could go back to his preferred formation. Cabrera once again reiterated his position that his side needs to play their brand of soccer and not change based on who their opponents are. While I think that is a good position most of the time, teams that possess well in our attacking half when we play a 4-3-3, like Portland, or are quick at counter attacking, like New England, can hurt our chances to get a result. I worry Cabrera was only flexible with his tactics because of the injury to Quioto, but I can’t complain when the team plays this style so well.

3) Although the goals were the main highlight of this game, the defense also deserves high praise for keeping Orlando off the scoreboard. This was our 2^nd clean sheet of the year and our first in the 4-3-3. The last part of that is important because if this defense and midfield can stay disciplined and organized in this system, there are few teams that can beat us. Joe Willis did his part coming up with 4 saves as well.

4) We need to find out why we can’t play like this on the road. In each of our games away from BBVA Compass Stadium our team comes out and sits in too much inviting the home team to pin us in our half of the field as the chances on goal builds. Against Portland we came out to play in our style, but sat back the entire 2^nd half of the game which was a huge reason why we lost that game. Sitting back is actually a good tactic at times, but usually that’s reserved for the final 15-20 minutes when you have a lead so you don’t get caught on a counter attack. That seems to be the fundamental difference I see in away/home appearances for the Dynamo. We’re content to sit on leads or sit back in general away while at home we’re determined to keep scoring no matter how many goals we score or allow.

Rate the Players: