Despite an emphatic 4-0 home win to start off the season, the Houston Dynamo stress that they are far from being a finished project. Players and coaches alike have kept a level-headed approach to the remainder of the arduous MLS season.
“It’s a long season. I don’t think it’s so much about one game, but to continue approaching the game in the proper way,” said forward Andrew Wenger, who scored the opening goal in last week’s romp. “[Head coach] Wilmer [Cabrera] said, ‘We will lose some games and tie some games, but if we approach it properly we will win more often than not.’
“I think that is the idea over the course of the season, not just one game.”
Assistant coach Michael Dellorusso says the technical staff works with players during video sessions to find areas of improvement after every game.
“Our movement off the ball still needs to get better. Defensively there’s always break downs, especially against a team like Atlanta United. We have to clean those up and it’s just a work in progress. It was a great first step, obviously, but we have a lot of work to do,” he said.
Defender Adolfo Machado reiterated that although the defense posted a shutout, the team will not be complacent with their Opening Day performance but continue to “give everything we have in order to keep advancing.”
“Each day we come and work hard, aiming to get better for every game. We don’t want to get comfortable,” said Machado. “We are focusing on what we want and the objective we have going forward.”
Even in preparation for Saturday’s match against Vancouver Whitecaps FC (5 p.m.. TICKETS), the Dynamo are focused on growing their own game in order to stretch the success from Game 1 all the way to Game 34 and into another playoff run.
“The coaching staff has a plan. They have an idea of what we want to do throughout the entire season,” said Wenger. “As much as we want to prepare for Vancouver … we also want to keep bettering ourselves and enlarge our base to make us successful throughout the year.”
