The Houston Dynamo Academy, presented by Statoil, swept their weekend series with Sporting Kansas City at the Houston Amateur Sports Park. The Dynamo U-16s defeated the Sporting KC U-16s 3-2 and 5-2 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, while the U-18s defeated the visitors 2-0 and 4-3.
Due to conference re-alignment, the Dynamo and Sporting KC were both placed in the Central Conference's Frontier Division and were scheduled to play a home-and-home series this season. To cut down on travel costs, the Dynamo and Sporting played all of their matches in Houston this past weekend. Next season, all matches between the clubs will be played in Kansas City.
Needing to keep pace in a tough Frontier Division, the Dynamo U-18s responded with a strong showing on Saturday against Sporting. Bryan Salazar put the Dynamo ahead in the 16th minute and Jorge Contreras sealed the game with a goal in the 62nd minute. Salazar leads the Dynamo with nine goals in 12 games this season.
On Sunday, the U-18s played a back-and-forth affair with KC, jumping out to leads of 2-0 and 3-2 before eventually winning the game 4-3. Irvin Ramirez and Manuel Chavez (pictured, above) put the Dynamo ahead in the first half, but Sporting scored two goals right after the halftime break to pull even. Jose Rodriguez responded quickly with his third goal of the season, but Sporting's Darby Cronin found the back of the net in the 76th minute to even the match at three. The resilient Dynamo continued to push for the winner and found it in the 82nd minute when Carlos Ibarra broke through the defense and slotted it past the goalkeeper to give Houston a 4-3 win. Following the 2-0 weekend, the Dynamo U-18s improved to 8-3-3 on the season and sit in second place in the division.
The Dynamo U-16s defeated the Sporting KC U-16s 3-2 on Saturday behind goals from Albion Neziri, Elo Ozumba and Christian Lucatero. The match ended with only 19 men on the field as Sporting's Dominick Parry and Cole Stevenson and Houston's Sergio Quintanilla were issued red cards. On Sunday, the Dynamo defeated the visitors 5-2, marking the third time this season the Dynamo U-16s have scored four or more goals in a game. Christian Lucatero tallied one and Elo Ozumba scored two to give each player a team-leading eight goals on the season. Josue Palomino and Jose Duarte provided the insurance goals for Houston.
With the wins, the Dynamo U-16s improved to 10-3-1 on the season and sit in second place in their division behind Solar Chelsea SC.
Both squads will resume action on Saturday when they host Classics Elite at the Houston Amateur Sports Park. The U-18s kick off at 2 p.m. with the U-16s to follow at 4:30 p.m. All matches are free and open to the public. Visit HoustonDynamo.com/Academy to see the complete schedule for all Dynamo Academy and Pre-Academy teams.
U-18: Houston Dynamo (7-3-3) vs. Sporting Kansas City (6-5-2)
January 26, 2013 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
USSF Development Academy League
Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Bryan Salazar 16
HOU -- Jorge Contreras 62
U-16: Houston Dynamo (9-3-1) vs. Sporting Kansas City (4-7-2)
January 26, 2013 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
USSF Development Academy League
Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Albion Neziri 7
HOU -- Elo Ozumba 68
HOU -- Christian Lucatero 80
U-18: Houston Dynamo (8-3-3) vs. Sporting Kansas City (6-6-2)
January 27, 2013 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
USSF Development Academy League
Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Irvin Ramirez 6
HOU -- Manuel Chavez 29
SKC -- Isai Gutierrez 50
SKC -- Eduardo Moreno 60
HOU -- Jose Rodriguez 61
HOU -- Carlos Ibarra 82
U-16: Houston Dynamo (10-3-1) vs. Sporting Kansas City (4-8-2)
January 27, 2013 -- Houston Amateur Sports Park
USSF Development Academy League
Scoring Summary:
SKC -- Nic James 7
HOU -- Elo Ozumba 23
HOU -- Christian Lucatero 25
HOU -- Elo Ozumba 39
HOU -- Josue Palomino 68
SKC -- Matthew Lewis 79
All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial.
