US Open Cup Houston Dynamo vs North Carolina FC Final Score: A Rain Delay, Overtime and a Dynamo Road Win

The Houston Dynamo entered into the fourth round of the US Open Cup to play North Carolina FC on the road. Going into the game the Dynamo had yet to win a road game in 2017. The Dynamo signed seven RGVFC players to short-term contracts for the game, Charlie Ward and Eric Bird were the RGVFC players to make their way into the starting lineup.

Things got off to a rough start for the Houston Dynamo when North Carolina scored just four minutes into the game. The Dynamo stopped the initial shot into the box. However none of the men in orange shut down the rebound allowing Steven Miller to score from 25 yards out and go up 1-0.

The Dynamo were finally able to breakthrough after a long pass down the right side of the field to Sanchez who moved towards the box and crossed it to Wenger. After missing several opportunities earlier Wenger was able to get his equalizer as he put the ball just past Sylvestre to tie things up in the 25th minute.

Houston looked close to taking the lead in stoppage time with back to back chances in front of the net. Sylvestre denied the Dynamo on both attempts.

Dylan Remick was the man to put the Dynamo up on NCFC in the second half. As NCFC looked to take the ball back down the field after shutting down the Dynamo Remick was able to get a turnover. His shot went right past a NCFC defender and a diving Sylvestre to make it 2-1 in the 62 minute.

The lead was short lived when Lance Laing scored on a free kick in the 69th minute. Laing found the far corner on the free kick after taking a slight deflection off the wall. The ball was well out of the reach of goalkeeper Joe Willis and back level the game went.

Then just three minutes before hitting the 90 minute mark the referee stopped the game due to lightening in the area. The game finally picked back up where it left off at 9:54 pm CT, almost an hour and thirty minutes after the players left the field.

North Carolina got things going again with a penalty kick but the shot went wide. Neither team was able to capitalize in the remaining minutes of regulation and the game ended 2-2.

The game then went into overtime which meant a minimum of two 15-minute periods. If the score was still tied at the end of the two periods then the game would go to penalty kicks to find a winner.

Early in the first of the two periods, Fondy had a diving header that looked like it might break the deadlock but Joe Willis was there to deny him the goal. Yet, neither team was able to pull one back in the first fifteen minutes. After a quick break the two teams were back at it looking to score and prevent penalty kicks.

Memo Rodriguez was the man to finally break the tie and in the Dynamo’s favor. Shooting from outside of the box, Memo’s ball went through traffic to find the corner of the goal as a diving Sylvestre was unable to get to the ball. The goal was enough to give Houston a 3-2 win and prevent penalty kicks.

With the win the Dynamo advance to the Fifth Round of the Open Cup. The Dynamo will find out who their next Open Cup opponent will be tomorrow during the Open Cup draw.

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