At this point in the season, it’s no secret: The Houston Dynamo have struggled to win on the road.
Wednesday was yet another interesting chapter in that ongoing tale. For the first time in 2011, a Houston opponent was red-carded in the run of play, with Emmanuel Ekpo earning his marching orders in the 11th minute. With their man advantage, the Dynamo scored the first goal in an away game for just the second time this season (the other was at Seattle on March 25).
Yet despite the early advantages, Houston found itself in the familiar position of needing to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the final 10 minutes.
“We’ve got to learn how to not get in these positions, to not do this to ourselves,” midfielder Brad Davis said. “It’s kind of weird the way things are falling for us, but the only thing we can do is keep plugging away. So there are a couple negatives, but we’ve dug ourselves out of holes like that so many times this season. We’ve just got to have the mentality to see games like this off.”
Calen Carr’s 86th-minute strike snatched a point for the Dynamo. It was the eighth time this season that Houston has earned a result in the last seven minutes of a match, but the Dynamo know they will have to start taking three points when the chance arrives down the stretch.
“We still have five games left, so no matter how bad things are, we’re not out of it, so we’ve got to keep fighting away,” Davis said. “It doesn’t matter how you get into the playoffs; as long as you get in, anything can happen.”
Carr and Watson open Dynamo account
Houston’s two goals came courtesy of players who had never gotten on
the scoresheet for the Dynamo before. In addition to Carr’s late
equalizer, Je-Vaughn Watson scored on a back-post header in the 34th
minute.
They were part of a changed lineup – seven positions saw new players, including Geoff Cameron at center back – that came through for the Dynamo.
“They contributed to the goal, which always nice to see,” Kinnear said. “It was good for Calen to come on at the end, and I thought he made those good runs behind the defense, which is what we hoped he would bring. Je-Vaughn had a good finish off a good ball from Jermaine [Taylor], and overall I think that group contributed well.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
