Dynamo return home and dominate Montreal

After an extended road swing that saw the Dynamo win just once in eight games, Houston returned home on Wednesday night attempting to rebound from a dispiriting 3-1 loss in Colorado on the weekend. As has become standard procedure, the Dynamo sprinted right by their visiting opponents.

The Montreal Impact were this week’s victims. 3-1 was the final score, as Andrew Wenger nodded one home just a minute into the game and the Dynamo never looked back. Alex skidded a shot into the far corner 20 minutes later to make the score 2-0, and then after a ton more chances that could easily have seen them go up by four or five at halftime, Homegrown substitute Memo Rodriguez ripped one past Evan Bush to secure three points for the Dynamo.

Wenger, playing out wide with Romell Quioto and Alberth Elis already with Honduras for the Gold Cup, caught Kyle Fisher and the Montreal backline sleeping early as he connected with a picture-perfect Mauro Manotas cross and found an early goal against the team that made him their first ever draft pick in 2012. It was the Dynamo’s third-fastest MLS goal.

In between a number of missed Cubo Torres chances, Alex found a gaping hole in Montreal’s defense in the 23rd-minute and, on a pass from Manotas, slotted a shot past Bush to make it two for the Dynamo. Torres, fresh off a call-up to Mexico’s Gold Cup squad, piked a clear chance and had a breakaway shot saved by Bush. It was not his day.

But it was the Dynamo’s day. Montreal fell victim, as have so many other MLS teams at BBVA Compass Stadium, to the heat and humidity of Houston and the speed and relentless channel-running of the Dynamo. Even without Elis, Quioto, and Boniek Garcia, it felt routine from the Orange.

Rodriguez entered just past the 60th-minute for Torres and made his mark on the game with a goal, as he put every muscle in his body behind a shot and burst the net in the 67th-minute, becoming the first Dynamo Homegrown to score an MLS goal since Alex Dixon.

Joe Holland and Jose Escalante would also come on, making it feel like an RGVFC game which is a good thing.

Montreal pulled one back late on courtesy of Michael Salazar, who capitalized on some miscommunication and disorganization on the back-post to ruin the Dynamo’s clean sheet. But it won’t spoil what will go down as a good night for the Dynamo.