2018 US Open Cup: Houston Dynamo turn it on in the second half for 5-0 victory over NTX Rayados

Wednesday night the Houston Dynamo hosted NTX Rayados in the 2018 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. The Rayados were one of the Cinderella stories going into the fourth round of the competition. The team is an amateur squad who plays in the North Texas Premier Soccer Association and had never made it to the fourth round of the tournament before.

The first half was a quiet half with each side having chances in front of goal, but neither side looked particularly potent. The Dynamo won the possession battle with 72.6% of possession.

It was Memo Rodriguez for the Dynamo who broke the scoreless deadlock in the 55th minute of the game. Initially Memo headed the ball downward and it bounced with little forward movement but Rayados was unable to clear the ball. With the ball still at his feet Memo was able to shoot the ball with his left foot sending it past a diving Cortes and give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead.

In the 68th minute one of the Dynamo players on a short contract, Aldo Quintanilla, doubled the lead. Luis Gil made a beautiful pass to Quintanilla who out ran the Rayados players who were near him. With the perfect angle Quintanilla shots the ball past Cortes to make it 2-0 Dynamo.

The Dynamo were awarded a penalty kick for a denial of goal scoring opportunity in the 69th minute of the game after Rodriguez was taken down from behind. Memo took the kick and scored to make it 3-0. The player who caused the penalty for Rayados was issued his second yellow card of the game and sent off leaving the visiting team down a man for the rest of the game.

It was second half substitute Matias Zaldivar who extended the lead in the 87th minute. Arturo Alvarez pulled the ball back to find Zaldivar who’s strike went flying past Cortes to make it 4-0 Dynamo. The Dynamo still had another another goal in them as Quintanilla worked hard on a layoff from Alvarez to make it 5-0.

The 5-0 win will advance the Dynamo to the Round of 16. The draw will take place on Thursday morning at 10 am CT to see who the team will face next.

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