Home-match finale time for evaulation
Little-used players to be given a shot
As the Dynamo search for tangible reasons to get pumped up for the rest of their games now that they are eliminated from playoff contention, there is an easy one at their fingertips for this weekend.
Win the final home match of the season.
If Houston is going to do that against one of the top teams in the league, however, it is going to have to do so with some lesserused players.
The Dynamo (6-14-12, 30 points) play host to the Colorado Rapids (15-7-10, 55 points) at 2 p.m. Sunday at PNC Stadium and it appears that coach Tab Ramos will opt for a little player development rather than fielding a full-strength starting lineup.
“The number one focus is always to win games, but at the same time, we’ve had a few players who haven’t had as much of an opportunity,” Ramos said. “And I’m looking to open up the roster a little bit for this weekend and give some opportunities to guys that haven’t gotten as much.”
Other than to say he would pick some players who haven’t been used as much this season, Ramos didn’t give any other clues.
A few candidates include defenders Ian Hoffmann, Ethan Bartlow and Alejandro Fuenmayor and midfielders Boniek Garcia and Derrick Jones.
Hoffmann has been gaining traction lately with a couple of substitute appearances, but Bartlow has not played at all. Fuenmayor has played only one game this season.
Jones was a regular starter early in the season before falling out of favor and being injured. Garcia is the club legend, who may not have many seasons left in his career, especially with a new general manager coming in who likely will shake up the roster.
Whoever is in the lineup will face a difficult task against the Rapids, who have beaten the Dynamo twice this season — both times by a 3-1 score. On top of that, Colorado will be motivated by a chance to finish on top of the Western Conference. The Rapids are in third place and sit three points back of the first-place tie between Sporting Kansas City and Seattle.
The Dynamo have beaten Seattle and Sporting K.C. this season, but other than that, success has been tough to come by. Their problems range from starting poorly to ending poorly and giving up too much ground in the midfield.
Ramos has spent an extensive amount of time looking for answers and examining what could be done better. This week, he said he studied the Expected Goals (xG) statistic in all of Houston’s games and concluded the season was not far away from being much better from a results point of view.
“Just on that alone we should have gotten 12 wins instead of six,” said Ramos, whose contract expires at the end of this season. “There was a lot of that I looked at in terms of stats and a lot of things that could have gone our way that haven’t gone our way. Obviously, that’s an evaluation that we’ll have to do more of at the end of next week as we look into the future.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, that’s for sure.”