Despite being 10 spots higher in the standings, San Diego FC\u2019s players and coach weren\u2019t 10 spots more talented than 11th-place Houston Dynamo Saturday night.<\/p>\n
In talent, the teams appeared even, and in individual brilliance, the 11th-place club was better.<\/p>\n
A German wing accelerated like a Tesla. An Argentine defender channeled countryman Messi for a few seconds. The outbursts netted two Dynamo goals, quieting an announced crowd of 28,231 in Mission Valley, as fans saw the 11th-place team wasn\u2019t a bunch of stiffs.<\/p>\n
So in addition to the 4-3 loss that nearly kicked them out of first place in the Western Conference, the San Diego newbies walked off with a renewed appreciation of what\u2019s what in wacky MLS.<\/p>\n
Scattered performances such as Saturday\u2019s, they saw, will prevent them from going where they want to go. Unless the first-year club maintains the surprising cohesion that took it up the 15-team ladder, bigger successes won\u2019t be coming.<\/p>\n
Western Conference semifinalists two years ago who understand the league\u2019s rhythms and that first-place in July means nothing, the Dynamo showed SDFC isn\u2019t talented enough to freelance its way to a first-round playoff bye. Or, if it loses its grip on its teamwork, talented enough to get anywhere near the MLS Cup.<\/p>\n
The lesson of the football match is the same team-sport truth that a legendary coach of American football harped on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Team, The Team, The Team!\u201d preached Michigan\u2019s Bo Schembechler.<\/p>\n
None of these realities \u2014 the league\u2019s slim talent margins, the imperatives of teamwork, collective discipline and drive \u2014 were unknown to either SDFC coach Mikey Varas or his players before the defeat.<\/p>\n
But they were hammered home in this nominal \u201c11-vs.-1\u201d match.<\/p>\n
Allowing a season-high four goals, the last one due to a broad defensive lapse, was an affirmation of humility less than it was a humbling. Varas used that word \u2014 humility \u2014 four times in his postgame comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want to do great things, unbelievable things, humility is the root of those things,\u201d he said. \u201cHumility is the root of greatness. And we have to be together in everything we do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was too clearly not collective tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within the long MLS season that\u2019s interspersed with international windows and condensed stretches of travel, many teams\u2019 aptitude can shift like the wind.<\/p>\n
On this night, Houston got a high-end goal from a speedster, Lawrence Ennali, who was in his first start since his knee gave out last August. A go-ahead goal by Argentine defender Franco Escobar was so slick, coach Ben Olsen cracked he couldn\u2019t \u201ctake credit for Franco beating two guys and shooting it off the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two-goal night by Argentine striker Ezequiel Ponce and his goal in the prior match, the coach implied, was a long time coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s been getting a lot of stick for not putting up the numbers that, you know, a big-money player does,\u201d said Olsen, who also said: \u201cIt was our best performance to date.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varas couldn\u2019t have been surprised by Houston\u2019s Argentines accounting for three goals. Praising Argentina\u2019s football culture before this season, the coach said it was a great gift to attend football practices in the country.<\/p>\n
Varas, who questioned whether he\u2019d prepared his players well, said SDFC achieved its team style for only about 15 or 20 of the 90 minutes Saturday.<\/p>\n
Jeppe Tverskov, SDFC\u2019s defensive midfielder and captain, bought that the two clubs were similar in talent. He agreed that SDFC won\u2019t like the results if it repeats its disjointed approach. \u201cWe are good because we are good as a team. That\u2019s one hundred percent correct. This is hopefully a one-off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The answer will come Saturday in Chicago, when SDFC faces the Fire, who, as it happens, are ninth in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite being 10 spots higher in the standings, San Diego FC\u2019s players and coach weren\u2019t 10 spots more…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,3549,15520,7264,221,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-47565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-fc","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114815305582216083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}