After carrying the banner for nearly two months, the Houston Dynamo attack finally hit the skids.
Houston’s attack came into Saturday night's match against the Philadelphia Union red-hot, having scored 11 goals in seven games and eight in the last three. Against an organized Union defense that employed the offside trap well, the streaking attack ground to a halt in a scoreless draw at PPL Park.
“We got ourselves in good positions, but we didn’t take advantage of them,” head coach Dominic Kinnear told the media afterwards. “We put ourselves in good positions but our last pass let us down, as I’m sure Philadelphia could say the same thing.
“Philadelphia had us on our heels tonight, but I think we had chances to put them on their heels and, and like I said before, that last pass was missing for us.”
The draw will cost the Dynamo points in the standings as both the Columbus Crew and New York Red Bulls won Saturday, extending the gap between Houston and the Eastern Conference's fifth and final place to seven points with six games to play.
Houston’s attack had benefited in recent weeks from timely finishing, a resurgent set-piece game and a red-hot forward pairing of Omar Cummings and Giles Barnes. Those three things were missing for the Dynamo on Saturday.
On several good sequences, the possession game looked to be alive and well. But Houston never found the final touch to test Algerian international goalkeeper Rais Mbohli, taking 11 shots but putting none on goal.
“Yeah a little bit,” Barnes said when asked if the night in front of goal was frustrating. “They kept such a high line, you know – you [beat] the offside trap and you’re in one-v-one. I think one or two of the offside calls are a little bit iffy but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
Barnes and company saw the flag raised seven times on the night, six in the first half.
As the Dynamo attack struggled, the defense did enough to keep the spry Union attack off the board with a number of plays where players raced back or slid in to break up point-blank chances.
The end result was a point on the road. Not a bad thing in concept, but on a night where three was needed, it’s something the club will want to improve on as the playoff window creeps shut.
“It’s always good to get a point on the road. But you wish this was the beginning of the season when we were getting points on the road and not the last six games,” said goalkeeper Tyler Deric. “It’s crucial right now – we need to get three points, but you have to give credit to the guys. We worked hard.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
