On a sweltering night in the midwest, goalkeepers Tally Hall and Jimmy Nielsen combined to keep clean sheets in a defensive stalemate at Livestrong Sporting Park.
Hall made four saves while Nielsen made two saves as the Houston Dynamo earned a valuable road point in a scoreless draw against the Kansas City Wizards.
Sporting KC had a significant advantage in shots (17-7) and shots on goal (4-2), but couldn't beat Hall, who recorded his second shutout of the week. The Dynamo nearly snatched all three points late but rookie Brian Ownby was denied by Nielsen.
Here are the match highlights:
What did you think of the match? Disappointed by Sporting KC's inability to find the net? Happy to see Houston's defense getting back to its stingy ways?
Share your thoughts below.
I agree the 433 is really a 451 and it was a response to shore up the horrible midfield play so far this season. I feel it has been a direct result of how poor Carmargo and Moffat have been this year. The 433 has done a fine job of clogging the middle but the it has done nothing offensively. Davis and Bruin are just lost in this formation.
I think you have the offense well diagnosed except I, while historically a Ching fan and wearer of his shirt, think he’s past it. I still like him as a regular 30 minute guy though.
I think we need to sign someone because if you go 442 then you still don’t avoid the issue of who starts at the CM positions, and you then have 2 to fill instead of 1. It would create Davis- and Boniek-space but you then have to start like 2 CMs out of Moffat Watson Camargo, who to me are all blah.
I’d like to see Creavalle for Ashe.
Yeah I’ve been defending him for awhile but Camargo just hasn’t been cutting it, which was especially apparent this last week. Although the 4-3-3 sounds more positive, I agree that it’s had a stifling effect. Against Chicago Kandji was limited on the wing and even subbing in Ching was a positive move because it provided actual hold up play. I like Boniek, but he needs more room to do his work. And everyone but Davis seems to be limited to the wing, and ironically he can’t escape the middle.
Yeah I see up there where the article is sporting the old Wizards name. See what i did there? =p
The KC uniform look has vastly improved and matured but the name is as clunky as ever, sorry.
I felt like Taylor and Creavalle were the key Dynamo players. Boniek and others had 1 on 1s with Nielsen but generally IMO the “433” is actually a 451 and is limiting Houston’s offense, Davis gets squeezed in, Ashe and Hainault get too many of the crosses, Bruin disappears. It’s hard to complain about tying a decent KC team on the road — Wizards, Sporting, whatever….team name still needs work — but the big picture is sporadic Dynamo offense.
In terms of “rest of the season,” Canetti has indicated we may pursue another player, but there are just 3 window weeks left and I’ve not seen anything more than us occasionally saying in the press we might like a player, Miller, or the Rangers winger. Canetti seemed to say it might be a forward, but I think Bruin Kandji Ching is good enough for MLS, our real need is a central setup man instead of all the CDMs we use. I see our sputtering offense as more a reflection of the modest midfield talent (and of later, formation). So sign a CAM, we’ve not had a top notch one since DeRo (all due respect to the Holden and Cameron fans, but there’s good and then there’s great).
After the last week I’m terrified that we’ll be hopelessly flinging in crosses and hoping for corners for the rest of the season. Talk about dour…
nothing wrong with calling them the Wizards. They will always be the Wizards.
Yeah. Let’s go ahead and make that read “Sporting Kansas City,” mm-kay?
I still can’t believe Fifa 12 still calls them Kansas City Wizards.
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS??? Good lord…