Houston Dynamo have more positives then negatives

Houston Dynamo head coach Paulo Nagamura met with the media prior to Tuesday's game with Austin Fc. Many things were on the table, some old and some new. One thing stayed the same, Nagamura's ultimate transparency with every answer.

One of the old on the table again was urgency. Although Nagamura used the word consistency more then urgency, the message was the same.

"The most important word is consistency because when we have it we can
achieve the performance we want and, truthfully, the results will come," began Nagamura. "When you have the consistency, you have the performance you want, you can have results. One day the ball goes in, another day the ball doesn't go in, I think that against Dallas the ball didn't, he (Hector) came in and they took a goal away from us and Dallas scored us. I think that when you work well, the ball goes in there and you have the luck and the forcefulness you need. That's the mentality now, keep working hard, continue with the same attitude when you do that, luck comes to you”.

Another old item on the table was performance. Again the head coach was straight forward in his answer.

“The work is daily, it is weekly," continued Nagamura. "Our team needs to do a better job on that, it's nothing new. We have been working from the beginning, but it is a matter of execution. We train, we talk, but it's a question that on the day of the game, on the field, we execute when we have the opportunity to execute”.

As he explained it, execution and consistency go hand in hand. If you don't translate it from the training sessions to gameday performance, the results won't be there.

A new subject with an old answer was that conversation has now changed from what's going on with Fafa to why isn't Sebastian Ferreria playing the full 90.

“I don't necessarily make that comparison based on player salary or how much money he makes," explained Nagamura. "Every player has an important role for this team, every player in the squad has to produce. That's not my job to go into that realm, that's for Asher (Mendelsohn) and Pat (Onstad) when they sit down and discuss if that's what they see. In terms of the group and how we go about things, we assess if every player is doing the best they possibly can on the field.”

It's good to see that if Nagamura doesn't feel he is getting what the team needs from one player, he has no problem making a change. That bodes well for the future of the team.

Houston's performance overall on Saturday seemed to be the performance that Nagamura wants on a more consistent basis. Although, he did not say it outright, the performance change when Herrera stepped on the pitch. The big question is can he get 90minutes plus from his team game in and game out.

“What we showed on the field and what we demonstrated throughout the game – there's much more positive than negatives," concluded Nagamura. So, I like to leave that game with much more positives than negatives. The negatives, we will fix in the training facility. We will try to assess and address at training, individual talks and video. It's another big game (Austin FC) for us, it's another classico and hopefully the guys who step on the field will do so with the same kind of urgency and energy that we showed in the second half.” 

The Houston Dynamo were dominated at home when Austin FC came to town just over a month ago. Now on Tuesday night, they have an opportunity to return the favor. A win or draw against the second best team in the Western Confidence would go a long way towards a positive push for a playoff berth.

Kick-off in Austin is slated for 8:00pm CT.