Cochrane in midst of whirlwind return
Defender being thrown immediately into fray in second Dynamo stint
Related
- Dynamo re-acquire defender Ryan Cochrane
- Ryan Cochrane player profile
- Highlights: HOU 0, RSL 0
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On Friday, the Dynamo re-acquired Ryan Cochrane from the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for an international roster spot. Shortly thereafter, Cochrane met up with his new -- old -- teammates. The next day, Cochrane played nearly the entire game helping to anchor a solid team defensive effort. Up next for Cochrane is a return home to Robertson Stadium where he could get time in either or both of the Dynamo's next two games: Wednesday in CONCACAF Champions League play against El Salvador's Isidro Metapan or Sunday night's MLS matchup against Seattle Sounders FC.
"It was pretty fast," said Cochrane. "The good thing is that coming here, I only have to learn four or five players' names; everybody else I know pretty well, so it's a good situation."
Houston lost Cochrane in the expansion draft following the 2007 season, left unprotected in part to accommodate his desire to return to San Jose. Over the last year and half with the Earthquakes, Cochrane started 19 games for San Jose.
The trade might have already begun to provide the dividends Houston was hoping for as the team put together one of its better defensive performances over the last month in Saturday's scoreless draw at Real Salt Lake.
Cochrane lined up at center back, next to Bobby Boswell, to start the game. Unfortunately for Houston, right back Andrew Hainault suffered an early red card. Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear brought Geoff Cameron back to partner with Boswell and moved Cochrane to right back, rather than make a substitution before the half.
Houston played a man down for the remainder of the first half with the Dynamo defense holding tight until the numbers were evened out by a red card to Real Salt Lake's Clint Mathis. Cochrane continued at right back throughout the majority of the remainder of the game before being substituted for defender Craig Waibel in stoppage time.
While goalkeeper Pat Onstad made an impressive array of saves to keep RSL off the scoreboard, Cochrane did well in his time and Houston got its first clean sheet since the U.S. Open Cup match against the Charleston Battery, eight competitive games ago.
For the Dynamo players, the clean sheet was a marked improvement over the team's defensive performance of late.
"We had better communication," said Cameron. "We had a full week of good practice back at home and took a step back to see where our success has come from, which is our defense and keeping a clean sheet."
Even if the marked improvement is just short term, Houston has to feel confident with the return of Cochrane. The center back was an instrumental part of both Dynamo championship runs in 2006 and 2007.
"The championships stand out, easily," said Cochrane. "There's no question about it. The celebrations afterward downtown were great too. Those are experiences that I can't replicate and I don't have anywhere else in my soccer career, so coming back here is special for me."
Dwain Capodice is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
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