Little depth hurts club during skid
Dynamo will try to win their first MLS game in June when they conclude a three-game road trip in New England on Saturday.
With a successful start to the season — propelled by a preseason push in CONCACAF Champions League — the Dynamo were one of the best teams in the Western Conference in the early going. But many of those games were at home. And as the team ventured away from BBVA Compass Stadium and lost attacking talent to international duty, it has struggled.
“Right now, we need to help the guys,” coach Wilmer Cabrera said. “They’ve been feeling bad because we haven’t been in this situation before this season. Also, we have to be calm, we need to be cautious and hopefully for the next week, everyone is at home and then we need to start fighting back.”
The Dynamo (7-5-3, 24 points) have won one game in all competitions this month, but that opponent (Austin Bold) is the eighthplace team in USL — and nearly orchestrated a second-half comeback in that U.S. Open Cup match.
In MLS, the Dynamo have been shut out in three of their past four games, including their most recent, a 2-0 loss to San Jose on Wednesday.
“It’s been difficult for us, you know,” said Cabrera, pointing to the team’s recent absences, which Wednesday included forwards Alberth Elis and Memo Rodriguez and defender Maynor Figueroa. “It’s a mess. We came in, we lost eight players.
“It’s something that’s difficult to be patient with because you want to play and we have the most difficult fixture on the schedule in front of us. But the reality is, you know, you take eight players from your starting lineup, you’re going to suffer. And right now, we’re suffering.”
New England (4-8-5, 17 points) doesn’t pose the greatest threat, although the team has picked up more points than the DynaThe
mo in its past five matches.
But the Dynamo’s next five games after the Revolution present a stiffer challenge, with four of the five teams currently in playoff position. The run includes a home match against conference leader LAFC, which has lost once this season.
“We have to try to give the guys a little bit of recovery,” Cabrera said of his team’s fitness. “Some of them they cannot recover, some of them have to play because we don’t have more players.
“We don’t have enough players to cover, so they have to play. Some of them are trying to play, but it’s not the same when you have your complete roster.”
Wednesday’s game saw the return of several regulars, such as Mauro Manotas, Adam Lundkvist and Romell Quioto, who nearly found the equalizer in the 72nd minute against San Jose.
“We know how difficult it’s going to be for this team in the away games,” Cabrera said. “We’re managing. Hopefully, we come back sooner than we were expecting.”