Photo by Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports

By LEOPOLDO PONCE

HOUSTON — The old adage is that defense wins championships, but right now, the Houston Dynamo defense is not living up to its billing.

The Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas met for the first of three games this season with FC Dallas defeating the Dynamo in a 4-1 rout. After starting off the season with a solid showing in the back, Houston has now conceded eight goals in two games.

Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle was quick to bring up the defense as the main cause for their most recent defeat.

“We gave up soft goals…as good as their finishing was, there’s no denying that,” Coyle said. “We feel like we could have defended those goals a lot better, and I’ve said that to the boys.”

One talking point coming out of the game was the tactical changes that have been made recently to the team. Houston has started playing with a four-man midfield, as opposed to the five-player midfield that they used during their more solid defensive performances. Coyle believes that his tactical changes had little to do with the loss and again brings it all back to defense.

“If we had defended better it would not have mattered if we were in a 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1 or  3-5-2. A lot of people like to make a lot of things out of systems and shape and everything else.” Coyle said before adding, “This game is about players, them being on top of their game, and we have to accept that a number of our players were not last night.”

Even though he mentioned that some players were not at the top of their game, he realizes that at the end of the day it was a team defeat, “As a team, and I say that as a team because we all stick together, we didn’t defend well enough.”

He even placed some extra blame on himself and is more than willing to make changes if needed.

“As a head coach, I take responsibility as I always do,” he said. “And if I feel like we need another man in midfield then I am more than prepared to do it. Every game brings different challenges and a different set of problems in terms of the opposition. So we will look closely at San Jose, as we always do, and look at putting forth the best team available.”

However for Coyle this defeat coupled with another game on Tuesday is something that can be turned into a positive, especially since he feels as if the team, as a whole, owes something to the fans.

“You have got take this disappointing result, take your medicine, take the slap on the teeth which it is, and we have to bounce back quickly,” he said. “When you’ve lost any game, [the quick turnaround] is a great opportunity to put the smile back on the fans’ faces, because that is what we care about.

“We want to make sure that when they come to [the game] – that they’re enjoying their experience. Certainly, we did not do that against Dallas. There’s no getting away from that, and as a group I feel like we let the fans down. We will try to give them a good performance [on Tuesday] and something that they can be pleased about.”

In the end, Owen Coyle realizes that it is still early in the season and his goal for the team has not changed at all.

“We still have the same ambition as we did when we started the season,” he said, “and that’s to make the playoffs. This defeat hit us hard, of course it did, but we know we’re better than what we showed.”