Dynamo Dominated in Texas Derby by FC Dallas

In Davy Arnaud’s second game as the interim Head Coach we saw the Houston Dynamo struggle against in-state rivals in the second match of the Texas Derby. The winless streak now extends to six games and this game was pretty painful as it was a 5-1 loss to our rivals.

It was almost a dream start for the Dynamo who got the first chance of the game inside the first minute. Tomás Martínez made a run through the middle of the field and tried to set Tommy McNamara free on goal. The pass was intercepted, but Tommy Mac was able to get the ball back, but his shot was saved by Dallas goalkeeper Jesse González. The ball then spilled out and Martínez tried to make a play on it, but there wasn’t a lot of space for him to do anything and the ball rolled out for a goal kick.

The Dynamo came out with a lot of energy and looked the stronger side during the opening minutes. They found chances on the counter attack and were successful at build up play. DaMarcus Beasley and McNamara found themselves without many options high in FC Dallas territory on the left side of the field, but they were able to get out and send in a cross that resulted in a corner kick. The corner was played short and eventually was cleared out to Matías Vera who tried his luck narrowly missing from distance.

Following a poor turnover in the final third, FC Dallas got their first real chance of the game in the 14^th minute, but Maynor Figueroa came in with a sweeping slide to deny Bryan Acosta a shot. The blocked ball flew across the field to Alberth Elis who got a counter of his own going. After a brilliant run, Elis went down in the box. Instead of awarding the Dynamo a penalty, head referee Armando Villarreal showed Elis a yellow card for simulation. There may have been contact, but the call was likely the correct one.

Despite the strong start to the game it would be the home side FC Dallas that got on the board first. Bryan Acosta whipped a ball into the box intended for Dominique Badji, but it appeared José Bizama brought him down before he could make a play on the ball. Reto Ziegler stepped up to take the penalty and converted even though Joe Willis guessed the right way.

It wasn’t long before Dallas would double its lead. Just five minutes later a poor pass by Elis led to a counter attack by Dallas which saw Jesús Ferreira take on the entire Dynamo defense by himself. He kept threatening to play a ball through to Michael Barrios, but that created space for himself and, alongside some nice juke moves, put the ball back post and into the net.

The halftime whistle would sound with the score 0-2 in favor of the home side at Toyota Stadium. The Dynamo came out and played strong with a lot of energy for the majority of the half, but FC Dallas whittled away at it and by the 45^th minute were in control of the tempo and momentum of the game.

The early stages of the second half did not go well for the Dynamo. They surrendered a lot of the possession to Dallas to open up space for the counter attack which was an effective strategy against the Rapids last week. However, against Dallas it was far less effective and in fact by giving up possession in our half of the field we saw Dallas capitalize by scoring a third goal.

Michael Barrios played Ryan Hollingshead a through ball who crossed the ball into the box with his first touch. Between Figueroa and DaMarcus Beasley was Zdenek Ondrasek who put the ball passed Joe Willis in the 56^th minute.

It would get worse for the Dynamo with Ondrasek getting his second goal and Dallas’s fourth goal of the game. Badji played a ball into the box and Ondrasek did just enough to beat Figueroa to it and he one touched it into the back of the net.

The Dynamo would be able to get a goal back in the 80^th minute thanks to Memo Rodríguez. Houston won the ball in a good spot and Mauro Manotas slotted Memo a ball who beat Jesse González to deny Dallas a clean sheet.

Dallas nearly got on the board for a fifth time, but VAR was there to bail Houston out. Jesús Ferreira got free with acres of space inside the box after a ball was played to him by Paxton Pomykal. He had time to take a touch and put it passed Willis, but VAR ruled a player in an offside position interfered on the play so the goal was called back.

Michael Barrios was able to secure that fifth goal for Dallas in stoppage time as he slalomed through the Dynamo defense and put the ball into the net.

After the final whistle the Dynamo would be bested 5 goals to 1 by their rivals who will hold onto El Capitán. It was a fantastic start by Arnaud’s side, but they were unable to capitalize on it by finding an early goal. An unfortunate penalty and quick goal after that saw the momentum entirely shift to Dallas. The Dynamo just didn’t look themselves as mistakes and lapses of judgment were showing up all over the pitch. Defenders were poorly marking players in the 18 and 6 yard box and the offense struggled to string passes together.

Next up is Sporting Kansas City on Saturday August 31^st at 7:30 PM CT at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, MO.

Goals:

24’ FCD: Reto Ziegler (penalty)

29’ FCD: Jesús Ferreira (assisted by Zdenek Ondrasek)

56’ FCD: Zdenek Ondrasek (assisted by Ryan Hollingshead, Michael Barrios)

64’ FCD: Zdenek Ondrasek (assisted by Dominique Badji)

80’ HOU: Memo Rodríguez (assisted by Mauro Manotas)

Disciplinary:

15’ HOU: Alberth Elis (yellow card)

23’ HOU: José Bizama (yellow card)

28’ FCD: Dominique Badji (yellow card)

33’ FCD: Jesús Ferreira (yellow card)

Lineups:

Houston Dynamo (4-3-3): Joe Willis; DaMarcus Beasley, Maynor Figueroa, Kiki Struna, José Bizama; Oscar Boniek García, Tomás Martínez (54’ Christian Ramirez), Matías Vera (80’ Darwin Cerén); Tommy McNamara (65’ Memo Rodríguez), Mauro Manotas, Alberth Elis

FC Dallas (4-3-3): Jesse González; Ryan Hollingshead, Reto Ziegler, Matt Hedges, Reggie Cannon; Jesús Ferreira (89’ Bressan), Bryan Acosta, Brandon Servania; Dominique Badji (69’ Paxton Pomykal), Zdenek Ondrasek (83’ Ricardo Pepi), Michael Barrios