For the first time since 2010, and just the second time in club history, there will not be playoff soccer in Houston. Needing a result to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot, the Houston Dynamo fell 3-1 at the hands of D.C. United, ending their chances at another postseason run.
“It’s not good. Real quiet,” head coach Dominic Kinnear said of the locker room atmosphere after the game. “They know what’s going on. We talked about it before the game and they put a lot into trying to get it. They’re disappointed; I don’t think any of us envisioned it when we stepped on the field for the first day of preseason this was going to happen.”
Sunday’s game was full of quirks, few of which went the Dynamo’s way.
First DaMarcus Beasley injured his hamstring just 12 minutes into the match. That compounded Houston’s struggles to get out of the gates as they were outshot 9 to 3 early in a game they needed to win. Then, 22 minutes in, there was a weather delay of over an hour.
According to Kinnear, the Dynamo struggled to simply “get the ball rolling.” For team captain Brad Davis it was a confidence issue.
“There were times where we moved the ball well and I think we have to be a little more confident,” he said. “I think we all need to be a little bit better about being comfortable on the ball, controlling the ball. I think those types of things and opening teams up.”
Houston found a late push, but were already in a 2-0 hole as the East’s best team finished their chances well.
Officiating was a talking point in the game. Houston declined to use the decisions as an excuse, but there was an interesting back-and-forth between referee Ismail Elfath and assistant referee Chris Strickland that negated a penalty in the first half.
“The sideline referee called a penalty. Then he talked to Ismael and it wasn’t a penalty,” Davis said. “My personal opinion is he got the call right. I’m going to be honest; I don’t think it was a penalty. But I don’t know how you call a penalty and then you call it back either.
“We didn’t really get an excuse on that. There were a few calls out there tonight that were a little bit suspicious and I think we got a little bit burned on a couple of them.”
Still, the officiating was not the reason Houston lost. They were a depleted team that struggled to get things rolling in the right direction and were caught out by a good team.
All that’s left is to play out the string after a tough Sunday loss.
“We’ve got two games left. This group is going to still come out and play with heart and play with pride and try to get as many point as we can and finish as high as we can,” Davis said. “But right now as you can see in our locker room it’s not the best of moods.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
