Houston Dynamo vs DC United Final Score: Dynamo win first road game of the season

Houston and DC United faced off on Saturday night after both teams played mid-week games. Both were short players who were still out due to the Goal Cup including DCU goalkeeper Bill Hamid.

After a fifteen minute rain delay the game got under way just after 6:15 pm CT. While both teams had some time with the ball early on it was clear that the early part of the game would be affected by the soggy pitch.

Houston earned a corner kick in the 6th minute of the game and Alex served the corner kick into the box. Andrew Wenger dove for the ball heading it past Travis Worra to give Houston a 0-1 lead early in the game.

In the fifteenth minute, Alex got around the DCU defense to move the ball into the box. As he approached goal he passed the ball to Mauro Manotas who had a clear shot on goal. Manotas buried his shot and double the Dynamo’s lead.

Before fans finished celebrating the goal the Dynamo scored again. This time it was Alex and Andrew Wenger who assisted on the goal put in by Memo Rodriguez. Memo headed the ball to goal as he went virtually undefended on the play. Worra attempted to make a stop on the ball but it went right past him. Just seventeen minutes into the game the Dynamo found themselves with a 0-3 lead.

DCU came close to netting a goal in the 28th minute of a goal line stand from Ricardo Clark and a stop of Tyler Deric on the follow up help to keep DC off the board.

Things slowed down from there but Houston still held the edge until half time in-spite of losing the time of possession battle. As things got underway in the second half DCU has several chance in front of Tyler Deric as Houston got off to a slow start.

DCU nearly found their first goal in the 58th minute. Deric was able to get a hand on the first shot and deflect it. Then on the follow-up shot from Patrick Nyarko it was AJ DeLaGarza who made the save using his forehead to send the ball away from the net. However, DCU would finally breakthrough thanks to Bobby Boswell. The defender got his head on the ball as it was put into the box by Loyd Sam. Deric got up to try and stop the shot but is went right by his outstretched arm to make it 1-3.

As the second half wore on Houston dropped into more a defensive position eventually subbing out Manotas for defender Jalil Anibaba. Dropping five to the back the defensive shift allowed DCU more time on the Dynamo side of the field. The reinforced defense was able to shut down any more dangerous ball that DCU lobbed their way. Houston held on for a 1-3 victory that was their first win on the road in 2017.

Houston are back at BBVA Compass Stadium next weekend where they are undefeated this season. They will be hosting the Portland Timbers at 7 pm CT.

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