Heading into MLS Cup 2006, a question mark hung over Houston Dynamo. How would the Orange cope with the loss of defensive midfielder Ricardo Clark to suspension?
Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear replaced Clark with center back Adrian Serioux and used Ryan Cochrane in the middle of defense to come up with the answer. In Houston's penalty kick victory against the New England Revolution, Dynamo's defense did just fine.
"Did we miss Ricardo today?" Kinnear said. "I think we did. I think any team would miss him. You miss his mobility, you miss his confidence on the ball. But I think the guys adjusted well.
"There were some crazy times in the penalty box, but I thought our back three held pretty well. Besides Taylor's (Twellman) header in the first half, I don't think they had too many chances where there wasn't bodies in front of them."
Despite ceding a majority of the possession to the Revolution, Dynamo gave up just six shots on goal, two each in the first half, second half and extra time. One was a goal and only one more -- Twellman's point-blank header midway through the first stanza, really threatened the Dynamo net.
Of New England's nine remaining shots, seven were deflected off target and another was saved off the line by left back Wade Barrett.
"Something I told everybody this weekend is their attack is too good to completely shut down. They're going to get their chances," said center back Eddie Robinson. "We've just got to make those chances as difficult as possible. I think for the most part we did that."
After a stretch of pressure from the Revs late in the first half, the Orange switched to a 3-5-2, a move designed to keep New England at bay while opening spaces for Dynamo.
When Kinnear called for the shift, Cochrane went out to the left of the back three while Robinson manned the middle and Waibel stayed on the right. Barrett pushed up into the wide midfield role on the left, with Brian Mullan as the right-sided wingback.
"They were in a 3-5-2 and I think that sometimes we may have struggled playing against a 3-5-2," Cochrane said. "It kind of felt like they were all over us for a bit, so I think Dom made a good move in switching to that and we kind of opened them up a little bit."
Cochrane, a third-year player out of Santa Clara University, and Serioux, who is in his first season in MLS after two with England's Millwall, were viewed as a potential weak spot in the week leading up to the match. But both have gotten plenty of playing time this season; Cochrane started 24 of the 27 games he played in and Serioux made 20 appearances.
"I felt really prepared. This year I played a lot," Cochrane said. "I played a majority of the matches, so it wasn't like kind of a fresh thing."
Robinson said he was impressed with both Cochrane and Serioux's performances. Cochrane played 102 mostly inconspicuous minutes, while Serioux went 114, even getting involved in the attack from his deep-lying position.
"Fantastic," Robinson said. "You can't say enough. Both of those guys got pretty tough knocks, and that overtime was tough on them, but they pushed through."
It helped, Robinson noted, that the entire Dynamo defense was very knowledgeable and well prepared for the Revolution's threat.
"It's a 32-game season, so we've got plenty of tape on them," he said. "We played them twice. So we know what they're tendencies are; they know what our tendencies are and I think that kind of lended to the fact that it was 0-0 and it was a game that went to overtime. Just being smart and knowing what we did about their attack and the way they played, I thought we did a good job."
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
