Search for offense continues on road trip
Six goals in asmany matches jeopardize postseason chances
Before this summer began, the Dynamo looked poised for a return to the playoffs, and maybe as one of the top seeds.
The team had competedwell in CONCACAF Champions League, its three-pronged attack had expanded to four with the emergence of forward Memo Rodriguez and the club recaptured its home field dominance at BBVA Stadium.
But as the summer winds down, a sputtering Dynamo team (9-11-3, 30 points) is struggling to earn enough points to keep pace in the playoff chase.
The Dynamo missed the playoffs last year in part because of a sometimes porous and inconsistent backline. But this season, and especially in recent weeks, an impotent attack has the teamsearching for answers.
“Unfortunately, the ball does not want to find the back of the net. I don’t knowwhat it is. I don’t know what karma we are paying for,” forwardMauroManotas said. “They generate one opportunity andscore a goal. It’s complicated.”
That was the case when the Dynamo fell at home in back-to-back games. Most recently, the Dynamo lost to Chicago Fire 1-0, but a somewhat similar scenario played out in their1-0homeloss to the Seattle Sounders before that.
“This one hurts,” defender DaMarcus Beasley said after the Chicago defeat. “Playing at home, losing 1-0, not creating too many chances. One mistake, last game; this game.
“And that’s it, you know. Both games, one mistake and that was it. That punished us and we couldn’t find a way to put a ball in the back of the net.”
That’s been the Dynamo’s story in recent weeks—and arguably, months.
Accounting for the last six matches, theDynamohave scored the second-fewest goals in the league (six)—earning a paltry three points in that span.
In its last six home contests, the team has hardly been better scoring eight goals and earning seven points.
After last Saturday’s loss, coach Wilmer Cabrera said his team is starting to feel the pressure as it fails towin points in a stadiumthat used to be its stronghold.
“The pressure is always here fromthe beginning of the season,” Manotas disputed. “Now we have entered a pothole that we could not get out of.
“Unfortunately, the results are not happening. This team with these players that we have does not deserve to be where it is, we are a good team, with great players, but unfortunately this is a difficult stretch.”
After its home defeats, the Dynamo hit the road to face New York City FC (9-4-8, 35 points) on Thursday then Eastern Conference leader Philadelphia Union (12-7-6, 42 points) on Sunday.
The Dynamo are currently ninth in the Western Conference but remain within striking distance of a crowded middle conference pack.
“It’s not like we have two more games, we have 11. That’s a lot of games left,” Beasley said. “We can’t keep saying how, ‘This is our day. This is our day.’
“We have to make it happen. The only ones that can make it happen is us.”