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It was a strange night at Robertson Stadium yesterday.
What was even stranger is that the Dynamo produced two goals in the first five minutes of the game of dead-ball situations.
Goal #1 Brad Davis puts in delivery off a free kick and Nat Borchers must be asleep and fails to attack the ball and Brian Ching gets a leg around him to spear it in.
1-0 Houston Dynamo
Goal #2 The second goal in five minutes comes off a corner from Davis, Ching gets in front of Borchers at the near post and the ball ultimately is knocked in by Geoff Cameron.
2-0 Dynamo who are sharper in the opening five minutes against RSL who don’t look like they have answered the bell.
Goal 3# A thing of beauty from Real Salt Lake pulling out Dynamo center-back Ryan Cochrane, Williams receives the back-heel from Campos and perfectly weights a pass down the heart of the Dynamo defense to Beckermann who cooly slots it in. Game on, 2-1 as RSL back in it in the 27th minute.
Only five minutes later Colombian defender Jamison Olave gets ejected for the second time this year against the Dynamo. Olave should have known better for the tackle on Brad Davis in front of a referee known for ejecting players, Baldomero Toledo. The game would have number of questionable calls from Toledo and it is redundant that so many MLS games leave fans and others focused on referees after a game. A number of reckless tackles were evident in this game and I cringe at the thought of somebody getting their legs broken based on the lack of ability to control a game.
Jason Kreis who started the match with Robbie Findley, Yura Movsisyan and Javier Morales on the bench (total of 17 goals) seemed to be waiting to use these players in the latter stages. Morales would come on to start the second half while Movsisyan would score a gem of a goal to tie it after turning defender Mike Chabala and hitting the side netting off his left foot beating Pat Onstad.
RSL controlled a majority of of this game with ten men as the Dynamo failed to be able to take advantage of the additional man.
A visibly frustrated Dominic Kinnear could be seen on the bench and the Dynamo continued to make poor decisions on the ball, lacked movement and generally played direct.
The crowd at this point was not convinced yet in the final 20 minutes the Dynamo found their game and it seemed players were actually wanting and demanding the ball.
As RSL began to lose their legs Stuart Holden who had been quiet began to get more of the ball and waves of attacks were met with a Dynamo fan energy that reminded all of past playoff matches.
With the crowd engaged Brad Davis hit an absolute rocket from an angle that beat Nick Rimando and would serve to be the game winner.
Davis on this night was also honoring his charity “Brad’s Brigade’ which gets veterans and their families to Dynamo games and gives them the honor they deserve.
The real question remains to be answered. Will the Dynamo of the final twenty minutes emerge the next time we see them and will we look back at this game as a platform to a run. A much needed win that came at a cost as Brian Ching was sent off after an altercation with Javier Morales.
This was the most frustrated I have seen Brian Ching in his career and I have always admired his ability to walk away from tackles and the physical treatment he has received.
The win is especially important as LA got a 2-0 win over Toronto FC getting a goal and an assist from one David Beckham.
The u18 Dynamo Academy and Texas Rush Academy teams connected with the pro game playing after the Dynamo/ RSL as a part of the U.S. Soccer Academy league . I headed home with the Dynamo Academy looking more organized leading 2-0 in the 68th minute. You can fill in the final 22 minutes for me if you like. An excellent crowd remained on hand especially for the first half of this match.
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The officiating was just horrible. Nat Borchers should have been red carded in the 20th minute for a ‘criminal’ tackle from behind on Luis Landin. He only got a yellow. That set the tone for the entire night. Referees in MLS let the players get away with too much. It kills the game.
It is unfortunate that referees become as much a part of the game, or in some cases more, as does the teams there to play. Last night\’s refereeing was in my opinion atrocious. Control of this match was lost early and there was little opportunity to regain control once it was lost. There were so many fouls called, especially by RSL, that there wasn\’t any flow to the game at all.
One thought regarding RSL\’s equalizer: I seem to remember just prior to that that the Dynamo kicked the ball out of touch because a man was down. This would result in a RSL throw in which they would normally, out of gamesmanship, return it to the Dynamo on the throw in. Instead RSL restarted the match with a free kick near the halfway line. Did I miss a whistle? Am I remembering incorrectly? Not that it matters at this point but it just struck me as an incorrect restart at the time.
Regardless of everything, it was a great and much needed win.
What do you guy think of Landins play so far? I think he is definet an asset and I would like to see more playing time for him. The ref was awful.
Too me it is obvious that Dynamo is being persecuted by the MLS and the referees. Ok, one bad call, two, but how many is it now? Phantom goal @ Seattle, Davis ejection 2 weeks ago from the bench when he didn’t do anything, last minute PK @ Columbus, Rico’s first yellow @ Columbus, 3 Pk not given to us last night. The referee was so mad that Davis scored that he had to do something to compensate by ejecting Ching! Is it only me?? is there something the team can do? an official complain with the videos showing how many calls go against us in so many games?
We\’ll take the win anytime anyway, but one has to wonder why our team is strugglin so much to beat teams with 1 man disadvantage specially after beign up 2-0?. Also, in my humble opinion we have too many defenders (mike, barret, bobby, geoff, waible, cochrane, andrew) and strikers (ching, Dom, Cam, Thompson, landin). No one but Corey to bring options to the midfield. We need offensive midfielders. No one ever really replaced DeRo. Holden needs some rest and competition. Cameron has proved to be an outstanding defender, but not so much of a midfielder, Cruz is still too green. The only one that can replace Rico is Mulrooney and he\’s out for good.
Unbelievable finish to the game. Lots of great energy but way too much drama from the refs and lapses in the back third. Ed K is right, the ball was kicked out at the centerline. We should have gotten the ball back from an RSL throw-in. That direct kick led directly to the goal. Chabala gave Moysisian a yard of extra space on that shot. The only reason I can think that the ref gave that direct kick was that he had just separated Ching from his attack on the RSL guy that took him down in the box; not sure if the separation resulted in a card that could have called for the direct kick. That decision by the ref epitomized their complete inconsistency.
We need some killer instincts to demoralize other teams when we get them down a goal or two.
Unless the front office and or the coaching staff figures out a way to cure this cancer [most obvious symptom is the team's borderline apathy and ambivalence to maintainin possession], it’s going to be an awfully short post-season for the Orange.
And yes, the officiating was horrific, but if you don’t commit a foul, or put yourself in a position where you have to recklessly challenge, he’s not blowing the whistle. Ching and Morales had been jacking with each other all game, why sweep his legs late in the game. Turn the other cheek, bro, ’cause now your team is without you in the future…
And listing dubious yellow and red cards in the recent games and attempting to assign it a pattern of retaliation against us assumes a pattern of premeditated colusion that these refs would be hard pressed to obtain.