Defense steps up in club’s surge to reach playoffs
In recent matches, reserves take over for positive results
Everybody knows the Dynamo can score goals in bunches.
But the biggest thing they have in their favor heading into the Major League Soccer playoffs is they are starting to prevent them, too.
It is rare for the Dynamo (1310-11) to shut down opponents, but their ability to scratch and claw their way by blocking shots and swarming to loose balls has improved by the month.
They have used that formula to secure two consecutive shutouts heading into Thursday night’s knockout-round game against Sporting Kansas City at BBVA Compass Stadium.
They have conceded two goals in their last four games — a stark
contrast to the beginning of the season, when they were allowing goals by the bushel.
“Now is when we need those clean sheets,” coach Wilmer Cabrera said. “Now is when we need to show that we are stronger even when we play away.”
One of those clean sheets came on the road against Sporting KC (12-9-13). One of the two goals they conceded over their last four games was to Sporting KC’s Jimmy Medranda. It came on a onetime shot from well outside the penalty area that Cabrera later said might be scored once out of
100 tries.
With so many veterans among the back-line starters, depth has been important this season. That depth stood out in Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Chicago.
Left back DaMarcus Beasley rested for the playoff game, which gave way to Dylan Remick. The sub was as good Sunday as he has been all season.
Right back A.J. DeLaGarza suffered a knee injury in the eighth minute, which forced Jalil Anibaba into action. After he took 15 minutes to catch up to the speed of the game, he showed he was up to the challenge.
Anibaba and Remick teamed with center backs Leonardo and Adolfo Machado to keep the highscoring Fire from gaining rhythm around the penalty area.
“Defense is key, especially this time of the season,” Anibaba said. “Being able to keep shutouts is huge. It’s a team thing. It’s not just the back line.
“When our offense is clicking and they’re putting a lot of pressure on the other team, it makes our job easier. When we’re solid, it makes their job easier.”
How easy the attackers have it when the defense plays well never was more apparent than it was Sunday. Once the Dynamo absorbed Chicago’s pressure in the first 15 minutes of the second half, they regained their legs.
When that happened, the Dynamo showed yet again how dangerous they are on the counterattack with Romell Quioto and Mauro Manotas scoring insurance goals in the final 25 minutes.
The Dynamo were not doing that during a lull in August and September, but they have played their way out of it and are in as good a form as they could hope for with their first postseason in four years three days away.
“We are playing the way the Houston Dynamo play,” Cabrera said. “We are not a team that is going to outpossess anybody, but we are going to attack. We are going to go up on goal and we are going to try to score on the right, left, central.
“This is the way we’ve been doing it the whole year. Everyone knows us, and we know everyone. That’s the way the Houston Dynamo are in 2017, and we continue pushing for that.”