Dominic Kinnear and Wade Barrett catch up before the Dynamo’s home game vs San Jose
Houston Dynamo 0 : 1 San Jose
Houston, Texas — Normal service has resumed in Houston as Owen Coyle switched back to his preferred 4-5-1 formation against former Dynamo manager Dom Kinnear and the San Jose Earthquakes.
After conceding 8 goals in two home games, there was always going to be a change, whether Owen Coyle believed the Dynamo could be astute defensively or not in the 442 formation.
However, Coyle’s hand may have been forced a little by the occasion. If there’s any match any manager doesn’t want to lose, it’s one to the former manager of the team. “Cinco de Dynamo” marked the return of Dominic Kinnear to BBVA Compass Stadium.
“Anybody who watched tonight could see we were the better team” lamented Coyle the Scotsman adding that “you can be outstanding for 89 minutes and then one mistake, that’s what costs you.”
Mistakes reared their head again, for sure. Time after time the Dynamo made it into the final third but everything was just “nearly there” for the Dynamo. “The gaffer” told media that the Dynamo do need to be “more clinical” and Coyle hoped that they might “create better chances than just a penalty,” but the reality of the situation is that they did not. Barring Davis’ pinpoint through-ball for Barnes early in the first half, the Dynamo were restricted to a lot of half chances.
So what’s a man to do?
Coyle saw something in the 4-4-2 and when the Dynamo went 3-1 up against Sporting Kansas City he looked like a genius. However since going 3-1 up on Sporting KC, the Dynamo suffered a 7-1 run of goals against them.
The change back to 4-5-1 felt like a knee jerk reaction. The goals the Dynamo conceded were all due to individual defensive errors, all were preventable. No extra man in the middle of the field wasn’t a factor in any of the goals. The Dynamo looked astute in defense using the 451, but looked pretty uninspiring on offense — all of that returned versus a San Jose team that had only scored 8 goals up until last night.
Returning to the issue of balance, there have been several quotes over the last few weeks; from Owen Coyle, from Brad Davis, from Raul Rodriguez about finding the right balance for this team.
Rodriguez put it the best when he said after the Sporting KC game “tonight we won in attack, but we lose in the defense — we need to find a better balance” that was the first full game of 442 for the Dynamo. The balance still wasn’t there versus Dallas, Houston losing 1-4 at home.
So if the 4-4-2 is too attacking, and the 4-5-1 doesn’t create as many clear-cut chances, what is the solution for Houston? Could it be that Houston just don’t have the personnel yet to make either formation truly work for them?
Owen Coyle has said on a number of occasions that this Dynamo team is a work in progress:
“We knew weren’t going to be able to come in and sprinkle fairy dust” said Coyle during the early weeks of the season “this is a process that will take some time.” Coyle’s said that the team are looking to add players in the MLS’s summer transfer window, as well as welcoming Erick “Cubo” Torres to Houston in July from Chivas Guadalajara.
The question for Coyle, and for the Dynamo front office, is where do they add? who do they add? and more importantly with 6 days left in the transfer window — when?
One could argue that adding more players to this Dynamo team might actually upset the balance of the team, however, after 10 games of watching the Dynamo play it’s becoming patently obvious that they are in need of something special.
The Seattle Sounders has Dempsey and Martins; LA has Robbie Keane, they had Landon Donovan. Sporting KC has Graham Zusi and Dom Dwyer. FC Dallas has Fabian Castillo. Columbus has Kei Kamara and Federico Higuain. Montreal has Ignacio Piatti. Toronto FC has Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, and Sebastien Giovinco. Orlando City has Kaka. New York City FC has David Villa.
All of the above teams have players that can make something happen out of nothing. Piatti was wonderful in the CONCACAF Champions League final, and was the only player who looked like creating anything for Montreal when they were beaten by Houston this season. Piatti, Kaka, Dempsey, Martins, and Giovinco have arguably been the best players in the league this season. Not to mention the most exciting.
These players are all the creative heartbeat of their team. They enable other players to get more space and time on the ball, when they’re on the ball they find passes others cannot. The Dynamo just do not have this player. Tough decisions are going to have to be made in the front office regarding senior players whether the Dynamo like it or not, eventually, for the team to bring in one or more of these players.
Could the solution be Cubo Torres? Perhaps, but with such lacking in the creative department will Cubo be able to shine as brightly as the Dynamo need him to.
Would investing in a star designated player be a short term solution to the Dynamo’s woes so far this season? No — but the Dynamo need to invest in a special player to build a team around for the future, or else they risk their rich history in the playoffs being forgotten pretty quickly.
The Dynamo visit Toronto FC this weekend looking for their first win since beating the Montreal Impact on April 12th.
Follow Scott Nicholls on twitter: @scottnicholls
