Maidana is out for the game this weekend. Barnes is doubtful and judging from Coyle's and his own comments, you can pretty much consider him out.

Not sure who plays behind Bruin now as the two most likely candidates are the ones that are injured. If I had to guess, I'd say Miranda plays on the wing opposite Wenger. I'm guessing OBG in Maidana's position? I don't think Rocha can play in that role but maybe him?

Or maybe Coyle goes 4-4-2 and puts Bruin and Manotas/Torres on the pitch together.

Can Miranda play in the middle? OBG can handle the wing spot adeptly.

I fear that a 4-4-2 with Bruin and Torres and no Barnes would suffer from a severe lack of service, although Wenger has certainly been a step up there. Would be interesting to see what Bruin and Torres up top with some combination of OBG/Miranda/Wenger in midfield could do.

OBG has played in the middle at times. I don't know that I've seen Miranda do it. I agree that a 4-4-2 is risky. Given that the game is on the road against a good team, I doubt we'll see it.

Im a chronic Will Bruin hater so Ill chime in here:

I actually think his hold up play this year is MUUUUCCCCHHHHH improved. Let's see how he progresses this season, but the new additions have definitely helped. Maidana is doing a great job of helping Will ease pressure and transition to attack. Wenger has just been incredible. In addition to his great service, he is also pulling defenders out wide to give Bruin more space.

Positive start to the season. For all the *****ing and moaning I do about the Dynamo, I have to admit they have started pretty well and the team is much more fun to watch. It almost makes me forget that I'm getting robbed in the concession lines.

Gifted them a goal on a U5 missed clearance attempt.

And then this happens.

Dancing Bear

x2

Hamstring injuries. Hamstring injuries everywhere.

Welp. The offense isn't the issue so far.

I've only seen the game winning goal thus far so I probably shouldn't comment but still encouraged by 11 goals in 3 games. For now. At some point, it's going to become frustrating. But still, it seems like a lot of progress has been made. Just obvious that more progress is needed to become a contender.

I'm not so quick to discount contender status.

4 goals f PK this season??? flop-per

Frustrating result. That was a dive and a half.

Dive or not, improvement in the team or not (and I think there clearly has been), we still have 4 points after 4 games. Sure, you can say that we should easily have at least 6 and very likely as many as 9 or 10 but the fact is we still have 4. At some point, this improvement needs to translate into tangible results. We're not at that point yet per se but I also don't want to this to be a season where we say "but we are so much better than last year" while we average 1 PPG still in August.

Anyone else watching vs the Sounders right now?

Offense looks way more potent than last year. Defense still suspect, but it should be a fun year. (Entertaining anyway.)

These Sounders kits are awesome too.

That was a kick in the nuts

Bruin getting fouled in extra time, then our defender getting an elbow to the face right before the winning cross gets sent it 30 seconds after the three minutes of stoppage time expired.

N U M B
U
M
B

5th verse, same as the 1st.

went to the game. When it happened all I could do was laugh.

Man, that game was a **** punch.

and Wash Rinse Repeat

A bit late here, but I went to that game against LA. I'm finally ready to offer a lukewarm taek: Raul Rodriguez is not an MLS-level center back.

He has no pace, no positioning, and no strength to make up for the lack of the first two. Horst isn't much better, but at least he's a bulldog that's going to win every dang ball in the air that he can.

If we trot that Horst/Rodriguez pairing out for Columbus, I'm going to lose my dang mind.

Wonder if we'll see Anibaba or Ibeagha at centerback sooner rather than later. I'd be very happy with giving Sheanon Williams back the right back spot as soon as he's healthy, he was solid there last season.

Anibaba has been terrible at right back. He has no speed to make up for his terrible positioning.

Probably because he's truly a centerback

Anibaba shouldn't be starting anywhere. Really wish Williams was healthy. Coyle suggested that there will be changes coming based on that LA performance so we'll see if he was just blowing smoke or not.

Speaking of Coyle, he's 8-1 odds to take the Celtic job. Based on what other than his name, I'm not sure.

I was really trying to talk myself into Anibaba. He has put in many good crosses this year that have lead to goals or scoring opportunities. He typically puts it in a dangerous situation...sometimes by luck...He doesn't really seem to be picking anybody out. He just kind of puts his head down and rockets the ball into the box.

The team really does suck, and I am not really sure how it can be fixed. Every player has at least one hole in their game and at least one redeemable quality. Overall it doesn't seem to fit all that well. Maybe it will smooth out, but it has been unpleasant.

In other news, I went to the 8th Wonder Brewery before the game and Glenn Davis showed up. He had the night off because Unimas had the game so he decided to drink with the people. I stood in the very long beer line next to him and he bought us a round a beers. Nice guy.

Hmmm...

So benching Bruin was the wholesale change Coyle was talking about making?

Anibaba, Horst, Maidana, Bruin all dropped.

Seems like Coyle's in the "try anything to give the appearance of doing something" stage of coaching.

He's playing a much more defensive lineup in this game. When Alex and Clark are your two most advanced center mids, it's clear you are trying to keep it tight in the back.

So we'll give up a late goal to lose 1-0 instead of 4-3.

Also, it's nice to be able to catch the game ota on Kube.