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Just hours after the Texas Rangers clinched the AL West title, FC Dallas effectively extinguished the Houston Dynamo’s playoff hopes with a 4-1 victory at Toyota Stadium. Houston is not technically mathematically eliminated yet, but it doesn’t look good.
FC Dallas got on the board in the 25th minute. Fabian Castillo drew a foul in the box and Mauro Diaz stepped up to take the PK. Diaz fooled Tyler Deric into guessing the wrong direction and his shot found the lower corner putting the home team up 1-0.
Houston’s only goal was an equalizer in the 36th by Rico Clark. A short left pass by Boniek Garcia in the attacking third put the ball at the feet of Clark, who delivered a perfect bouncing strike from outside the box into the lower left corner.
But it was not to be. A long range golazo from David Texeira in the 51st bounced off of Deric’s glove but into the net, and Kellyn Acosta ricocheted a cross from Castillo in off of the crossbar to make it 3-1 just two minutes later.
The Dynamo were unable to answer, and David Texeira added his 2nd of the game in garbage time to make it a 4-1 Dallas victory.
Houston will at least have two weeks to rest up before they take on Seattle on October 18th.
Lineup
Houston (4-4-2): Tyler Deric, Oscar Garcia (Luis Garrido 72’), David Horst, Raul Rodriguez, DaMarcus Beasley, Leonel Miranda (Rob Lovejoy 61’), Rasheed Olabiyi (Sheanon Williams 30’), Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis, Giles Barnes, Will Bruin
FC Dallas (4-5-1): Jesse Gonzalez, Atiba Harris (Ryan Hollingshead 73’), Zach Lloyd, Matt Hedges, Je-Vaughn Watson, Victor Ulloa, Kellyn Acosta, Michael Barrios, Mauro Diaz (Rolando Escobar 71’), Fabian Castillo (Tesho Akindele 88’), David Texeira
Goals
FC Dallas: Mauro Diaz 25’, David Texeira 51’, Kellyn Acosta 53’, David Texeira 90+3’
Houston: Ricardo Clark 36’
Disciplinary
Yellow: Brad Davis 25’, Leonel Miranda 42’, Atiba Harris 55’
Red: Raul Rodriguez 90’