One game remains in the Houston Dynamo's disappointing season after Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the LA Galaxy. And strangely enough, their prospects next Sunday might be enhanced by the fact that it's on the road.
The Dynamo are unbeaten in their last four away from BBVA Compass Stadium, while their last three home games have all been losses. Worse yet, the Dynamo have been outscored 6-2 in that stretch, and shut out twice.
Sunday’s game was more of the same, as Houston could only register two shots on target.
“We haven’t been able to pick up points at home,” said Dynamo interim head coach Wade Barrett, “and that’s a problem.”
Barrett called Houston’s performance “disappointing” and chalked up part of the disjointed Dynamo performance to having to shuffle the lineup after Wednesday’s 0-0 draw at Seattle.
“For the most part we put out a group that was fresh and ready to go,” he said. “We were in the game. We were competitive in the game. I think the result was there for us.”
Barrett made seven changes to the starting 11 that faced Seattle on Wednesday, including giving loanee Yair Arboleda his first MLS start. The seven changes proved too much for the Dynamo to find a rhythm.
“When you put a group out there that’s familiar with each other, I think you get a little bit more fluidity in play and we didn’t have that tonight,” said Barrett. “Part of that comes from putting a group out there that you don’t have a ton of time to work on things over the course of a week.”
With the short turnaround from Wednesday’s game, Barrett had little time to implement a gameplan with the short training window available. The interim coach says the team was able to identify patterns and pocket of spaces to attack the Galaxy.
“We looked at it Friday. We looked at it on Saturday, but it didn’t translate into the game tonight,” said Barrett. “We talked about a few different ways to try and get at them, some pockets of space I thought we tried to go after, and it just didn’t work tonight.”
After next week’s season finale against the Colorado Rapids, the Dynamo will have plenty of questions to answer. Chief among them is Barrett’s status. Will the interim coach get that tag removed? The question will be answered by the front office, but Barrett does believes the Dynamo have put good principles in place.
“I think we’ve learned a lot as a staff in the last three to four months about the team and how they can handle what we’re throwing at them,” said Barrett. “I do feel like we’re in a better place now heading into next year.”
