Watching the Houston Dynamo uncork a tenacious attack against Chicago on Sunday evening was a study in how to use the resources and elements available to rock the league's best defense.
Statistically speaking, Chicago might ultimately top the Houston Dynamo's record-setting 2007 defense. Denis Hamlett's Fire came into Sunday's match at Robertson having allowed just 16 goals, which was on pace to challenge Houston's 23 goals allowed last year as the fewest yet in MLS.
So it was nearly stunning to see the Fire defense reeling, unable to plot solutions for Houston's relentless attack over 60 or 70 minutes Sunday on the University of Houston campus.
The Dynamo applied heavy pressure and were unfortunate not to put three or four past Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch before halftime. Houston led by a 2-1 score at the break. But Brad Davis had missed from point-blank range, while goal scorers Brian Mullan and Dwayne De Rosario each missed the frame on terrific opportunities to double their personal first-half goal totals.
Chicago manufactured an early goal, but that was mostly due to a mistake by Eddie Robinson, who failed to deal with a fairly routine clearance. So Chicago took an early, surprising lead. From there, it was all Houston until the Fire grabbed momentum over the game's last 20 minutes, pressing desperately but futilely, for the equalizer.
So, what did the Dynamo do to keep Hamlett's men under such pressure over the game's first 65-70 minutes?
The men from Houston did pretty much what they always do. It's just that the two-time league champs had all their first choices available, and the Dynamo were on top of their game. When manager Dominic Kinnear cranks up the team's commitment and focus, players move forward with relentless speed. They push balls into a big target forward (or, in Sunday's case, two of them) and just keep coming. Moving the ball passively back and forth across the back? Uh, there's not much of that.
Mostly, it's a quick pass or two to open a channel, and then Kinnear wants his guys playing the ball forward.
That's what works on a narrow field. Robertson Stadium may not be as tight as the old Spartan Stadium in San Jose or some other, former MLS venues. But it's still a pretty narrow pitch. The spacious Home Depot Center, it isn't.
So side-to-side probing only increases the number of opportunities to lose possession on a squeezed field. Instead, balls won by center backs Eddie Robinson and Bobby Boswell go quickly out to the outside backs. Sunday, that was Richard Mulrooney and Wade Barrett. (The choice of Mulrooney also helped apply pressure on Chicago; he's better in possession and passing than Craig Waibel, Houston's right back of choice when Kinnear needs more of a defensive presence at that spot.)
From there the Dynamo outside backs generally look for the outside midfielders or for one of the target strikers. Sunday, Kinnear went with two of them, Nate Jaqua and Brian Ching. From there, the target forwards are looking to knock balls out to Davis and Mullan on the wings, or possibly for De Rosario as he probes for space in which to operate and attack defenders on the dribble.
Of course, none of this is rocket science, which is what makes the Dynamo enterprise so interesting. There's nothing complicated about the way the two-time league champions do things. They're just really good at it.
Sunday, they were especially good at it, super-fueled by the motivation of allowing that silly, early goal.
In other matches, in different circumstances, the Dynamo might possess the ball a bit more, probe just a bit more, perhaps playing through Ricardo Clark and De Rosario in the middle more often. But against Chicago's hard-working midfield, Kinnear adjudged that playing more directly was the way to go. It looks like he was absolutely correct, as Houston won for the fifth time in its last five MLS matches.
TACTICAL CORNER
Several teams were unsettled over the weekend by the absences of their steady holding midfielders.
San Jose got caught bypassing midfield too often early against Kansas City without the injured Ramiro Corrales around to link the lines. Ultimately, it didn't hurt the Earthquakes in the win-loss column. Frank Yallop's team had things figured out by halftime, but it took some tactical tweaking.
"Go left" became the order of the day, as Darren Huckerby took charge.
The Earthquakes' midsummer addition, the league's best attacker out of midfield at the moment, buzzed up and down the left side, giving the Wizards fits. Most of the attacking push came down that side, while central midfielders Ned Grabavoy and Francisco Lima sat back a bit more than they might otherwise.
Huckerby supplied the late game-winner, and the Earthquakes remained undefeated over seven matches. One more victory or tie would give Yallop's side an eight-game streak, which would establish a league best this year.
Dallas missed the clarity of Pablo Ricchetti's distribution from the holding midfield spot as their veteran Argentinean sat for a red card suspension. Marcelo Saragosa filled in for Ricchetti. And while Saragosa supplied the tackling, his passing and ability to work in tight spaces doesn't even approach Ricchetti's. It showed as Dallas fell 2-1 to Columbus at Pizza Hut Park, never developing any rhythm in the attack.
New England was ineffective without Shalrie Joseph at his usual spot as the Revs clashed with Los Angeles outside Boston. New England manager Steve Nicol tried Joseph as an advanced midfielder, stationing him right behind striker Taylor Twellman, in front of two holding midifelders. Steve Ralston's injury absence necessitated the experiment -- although we have probably seen the last of it already.
Nicol adjusted the formation before halftime, as Joseph was clearly uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the vagaries of that position. By the second half, New England was back on track, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to salvage the point at home in a 2-all draw.
Interesting choice by New York Red Bulls manager Juan Carlos Osorio to leave playmaking midfielder Jorge Rojas on the bench for Saturday's draw at RFK.
Rojas had visa issues two weeks ago and couldn't get back into the country before the Red Bulls tore through Houston, 3-0. He returned late last week, but wasn't able to work out extensively with the team. So Osorio, as is his policy, declined to start someone who wasn't able to train most of the week.
It looks to have paid off. The New York club posted its first clean sheet ever (ever!) at RFK. They did so with a midfield of Juan Pietravallo holding, Seth Stammler on the right, Dave van den Bergh on the left and Mike Magee screening in front of Pietravallo.
Rojas replaced Magee in the 70th minute as the Red Bulls extended their shutout streak to 344 minutes. That's just 11 short of a league high for 2008.
We can already see the effects of Bruce Arena's influence on the Los Angeles Galaxy in terms of team structure and, quite possibly, in terms of results.
The Galaxy seems more comfortable with the team shape, which looks like a simple line of four defenders, screened by a line of four midfielders. The outside backs are getting forward less frequently, especially Chris Klein on the right. He seems to be more of a true right fullback and less of a right-sided attacker who happens to start his runs from the right fullback spot. More or less, that's what he was under attack-minded former Galaxy manager Ruud Gullit.
The result is a simplified structure. The team gets into defensive shape faster after losing possession. David Beckham is doing less defensive covering for Klein, which frees the league's top ball striker to concentrate more on attacking and on retaining the midfield shape.
Greg Vanney's introduction as a holding midfielder was another dual purpose maneuver, simultaneously creating a more defensive mindset -- he's been a defender through his entire career -- and adding another veteran organizer to the lineup.
As for the result: Yes, the Galaxy extended their winless streak to 10 matches. Los Angeles hasn't won since June 14.
But perspective is important here. New England came into Saturday's match with a 33-11-13 mark at Gillette over the last four years. Steve Nicol's team also led the East coming into the weekend. So, a draw for Arena's side inside Gillette was a worthwhile achievement -- and a move in the right direction.
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