Recap: Sounders 2, Dynamo 0

The Houston Dynamo again seemed to look much better with the new additions of DaMarcus Beasley and Luis Garrido Sunday night in Seattle. However, the key mistakes came out in full force again and doomed the Houston Dynamo to a 2-0 loss at CenturyLink Field in front of 50,276 fans.

An uncharacteristically bad stutter-step penalty kick by Brad Davis could have given the orange a first half lead. In the last half hour of action, tragedy struck. David Horst unluckily deflected a Marco Pappa shot into the net; then Rico Clark committed an ill-advised, overzealous foul on Obafemi Martins that resulted in a penalty for Seattle. Gonzalo Pineda on the kick struck the final blow despite a right guess by goalie Tally Hall.

It is a shame that otherwise the Dynamo had a good plan and a decent game. The team was well positioned on defense and Luis Garrido helped make the centerbacks’ job easier. Houston had some good attacks with Davis and Beasley generating danger from the left flank and Giles Barnes again working hard all over the place.

Meanwhile the Sounders couldn’t really create much on offense as Houston used positioning and possession to control the action. During the first half Seattle only really threatened on a few occasions and mostly in a rather timid way.

In the 24^th minute, the Houston Dynamo were awarded a penalty kick on a clear handball by Djimi Traore after Boniek Garcia's shot forced the call. On the same play and just a split second before, Will Bruin attempted a shot and in the process injured himself on a bad step in the ugly looking artificial turf at CenturyLink.

Inexplicably, the usually reliable Brad Davis decided to try and fake Stefan Frei with a stutter-step. It failed miserably as his shot was not strong enough and Frei got it easily. Penso might have missed Frei getting off his line too early and too far out.

That miss would doom Houston later on. At the time Houston had the game under control and the lead would have only strengthened the Dynamo’s hold on the match.

Will Bruin (before his injury) and Rico Clark each had headers that could have gotten in but Houston overall did not finish the chances they had.

Things got weird at the start of the second half as Bruin stepped in on the field when Jason Johnson should have been the one in. Houston had to waste the second half kickoff for the substitution to take place. Dominic Kinnear felt Bruin shouldn’t really continue but apparently Bruin wanted to play.

In any case the young Jamaican saw some rare MLS action and started with a couple of good details on offense, although he would later fade away. Omar Cummings was not available in the list of 18 players so JJ got the break.

Seattle had awaken by the end of the first half and looked to gain in confidence. They have made a habit of kicking it into high gear in the final half hour and soon enough it showed again.

In true 2014 Houston Dynamo fashion, "it" happened. In the 69^th minute, Marco Pappa got past Luis Garrido just outside the box and attempted a shot on goal. David Horst unluckily deflected the shot, and Tally Hall could not react in time as Seattle took the 1-0 lead that they probably didn’t deserve at the time.

After that Horst looked rattled and unsure. For this game, Jermaine Taylor seemed the better of the two centerbacks.

Five minutes later, Ricardo Clark made a huge mistake on a Seattle free kick. He held Martins inside the box as the kick was made, and Penso had the angle to call the penalty.

Pineda scored despite Tally Hall guessing correctly; the goalie could not clear the ball out and instead bounced off his gloves and in.

The game was pretty much over. Andrew Driver came in and tried hard with some good crosses from the left side, and Johnson woke up late to try from extreme long distance and forcing a late Frei save.

Seattle Sounders 2, Houston Dynamo 0

Seattle Sounders (4-4-2): Frei; Evans, Marshall, Traore, González; Neagle (Barrett 68’), Alonso, Pineda, Pappa (Rose 90’); Martins and Dempsey (Cooper 92’)

Houston Dynamo (4-4-2): Hall; Sarkodie, Horst (Driver 81’), Taylor, Beasley; García, Garrido, Clark (Ownby 77’), Davis; Bruin (Johnson 46’) and Barnes

Officials:
REFEREE: Chris Penso.

AR1 (bench): Ian Anderson; AR2 (opposite): Mike Rottersman; 4th: Daniel Radford

Yellow cards:

SEA: Neagle, Martins (2), Pineda, González

HOU: Garrido, Sarkodie

Red cards:

SEA: Martins (2nd yellow)

GOALS: 1-0 Pappa 69’, 2-0 Pineda (PK) 75’