A metaphor for the Houston Dynamo’s season.
by Matt Hoffman (@mhoff)
Chicago Fire General Manager Nelson Rodriguez describes MLS as “the most competitively balanced league in the world, “but even that doesn’t adequately explain how three of the league’s worst teams each got their first road wins this past Saturday.
MLS teams almost as a rule, generally don’t win a lot of road games. Any happiness Bruce Arena may have shown following the Galaxy’s US Open Cup win over the Timbers was tempered by what he called the “lost days” following a trip to Toronto.
The league shifted to an unbalanced schedule where teams only have to travel to the opposite conference opponents once every two years. This seemed a reasonable accommodation but, one theory is this had an unintended side effect: Clubs lack of familiarity with other cities may consciously or unconsciously stunted both their ambitions and their ability to exploit advantages on the road.
MLS went to the unbalanced schedule in 2012 so the data is still relatively scant (check out Total MLS for a great breakdown here). It would appear though that other American sports cover even more ground than MLS but don’t share the same home/away splits that the domestic league has.
It is easy to chalk that up to financial pressures, chiefly accommodations. MLS goalkeepers have moonlighted as loan officers (Troy Perkins). Other goalkeepers have retired and gone into law enforcement (Tally Hall). Then there’s the goalkeeper who became an investment banker upon learning that his wife was expecting triplets (Milos Kocic).
Travel arrangements, like everything, have improved dramatically over the years. Chartered flights might not be the norm now but, in Portland at least, Timbers opponents can splash the cash staying in The Nines, a $400 a night, 4-star rated hotel right smack-dab in the heart of the city.
If Week 25 had a theme, particularly a catchy phrase, it would have been “road rage”. Four of the week’s ten matches had the road team winning, three of which (Houston, Columbus, and Chicago) getting their first road wins of the year.
Houston has long been given up for dead in a competitive Western Conference. So morbid have Houston become that their 2-3-7 record under interim coach Wade Barrett clearly outshines the 3-7-2 Houston went under his predecessor.
The only team without an All-Star, Houston came into last Friday’s match in San Jose, trailing FC Dallas by 24 points with only eleven games left to play. Giles Barnes might be gone but with Erick “Cubo” Torres and Will Bruin on the bench, Houston was off to the races following a 6th minute goal by Ricardo Clark.
Columbus lost MLS Cup in their home stadium by a 2-1 margin. That December match has seldom felt so far away. 2016 has been a nightmare for Columbus.
One day someone will write a bestseller describing the meltdown of Kei Kamara and Columbus and the team’s dismal form as a result. Saturday’s result came against Kamara’s new team, the New England Revolution.
For one night at least, Columbus showed that they might not be better off without Kamara, they were, at least, better than his new team.
Kamara was able to win the header but not the match against his former club.
All Kamara could say after the match that “It was just one of those days.” Kamara may have been the missing piece that fired the Crew to the MLS Cup, Kamara was quick to dispel that that is what is in store for New England stating flatly: “I’m not the final [piece of the]puzzle to really take the team to the championship.”
Speaking of “fire”, the Chicago Fire had not won a game since July 9th 2014, a span of 773 days or 15,460 listens to “Be Here Now” by Oasis, the monstrosity described by one critic as “a blaring, bloated brute of an album”.
On an unrelated note, congratulations to Commander Jeff Williams for being in space for 520 consecutive days, not only was he in space for the entirety of the Fire’s road drought, setting a NASA record as well.
Even with time in the season running out, Houston, Chicago, and Columbus are, at least mathematically, still alive. The three teams return home with a chance to build on their gains.
That will be easier said than done.
Columbus goes first hosting Philadelphia. The Union lost for the third time in 13 home games this weekend against Toronto causing them to slip to 4th in the East.
Will Johnson has returned to the lineup and contributed an assist in Toronto’s win in Chester, Pa.
On one hand, Toronto have been brutally dispatching opponents going 5-1-0 in their last six games. On the other, it’s a disappointing way to follow up a 4-0 thrashing where team introduced Alejandro Bedoya as a Designated Player.
Chicago next hosts Los Angeles. The Galaxy who sit tied with Dallas and Real Salt Lake for the best road record in the West with 14 points despite playing fewer games. It will be interesting to see who LA sits since the Galaxy has to return to LA on Saturday to host the disappointing Vancouver Whitecaps whose postseason hopes are fading with each passing match.
Dynamo players encircled interim coach Wade Barrett following their winning goal in San Jose.
Finally, the most intriguing game is Houston hosting Seattle. It’s hard to believe this Sounders squad is the same team that lost 3-1 in Kansas a month ago in which they nearly went an entire match without taking a shot; something that has never been in accomplished in MLS history.
That July 24th performance was the final straw as Sigi Schmid left the club. Nicolas Lodeiro has been masterful since joining the squad and now Seattle can claim the sixth spot with a win over Houston.
Columbus, Chicago, and Houston all made huge strides to get their first road win of the season. The odds would seem firmly stacked against them as their mid-week opponents are among the best teams in the league. However, the first rule of MLS Wagering 101 says don’t best against the home side.
In 34 home games so far this season, Houston, Columbus, and Chicago have lost a mere four times combined. Collectively, they’ve won nearly three times as many matches, earning wins in 11 of those games.
It is hot; it is mid-week; and two of their opponents (LA and Seattle) have to travel to the Pacific coast this weekend. Who knows, following a wild weekend we just witnessed, MLS teams will now be playing 16 games over the course of five days. What on Earth will these teams have for an encore?
