Let's Go 2014 Houston Dynamo!

One of the interesting things about Major League Soccer is that like baseball, it has a long season and a very short offseason. 

It was just last November I was pissed off about the injury riddled Dynamo just missing out on their third straight trip to the MLS Cup championship match after falling to our hated rivals Sporting KC in the Eastern Conference finals.

I was angered by the Hateraid coming from other MLS fans jealous of the fact the Houston Dynamo had been to back to back MLS Cups and unfortunately lost to the LA Galaxy both times. 

And with me gleefully watching our MLS Cup tormentors be knocked out of the 2013 MLS Cup playoffs by Real Salt Lake I was hoping the Men In Orange would survive that series, we'd play Real Salt Lake and I'd get to finally witness a Dynamo championship parade in downtown Houston.

But that dream got ruined by Sporting KC and the referees.  Kofi Sarkodie scored in the 18th minute in that November 9 Eastern Conference final first leg in Houston, but it was disallowed. 

That goal would have given the two-time defending MLS Eastern Conference champions a win and a 1-0 aggregate score lead instead of the 0-0 draw we headed into Kansas City on November 23 with.  

The 2-1 loss at Sporting Park sent SKC to the December 7 MLS Cup title game they eventually won in a penalty kick shootout..

Well, that's over and I did my bitching about it back in November.  I was so mad I refused to even watch MLS Cup 2013.  

Would be nice for the Dynamo to flip their usual playoff script and at least shoot for the Supporters Shield so we could host those playoff second legs for a change.  

The other benefit of having the best record or as close to the top of the table as possible so that the Men In Orange would as the higher seed host the second leg of aggregate score playoff series.   Should they go on one of their patented Dynamo Time playoff runs through the MLS Eastern Conference bracket, they would host a potential MLS Cup title game at BBVA Compass Stadium.

So why am I talking about the other football team in H-town for a moment?  Because the 2014 MLS season kicked off today and I'm anxiously waiting for their sister squad, the Houston Dash to start NWSL play next month.   

La Naranja started off this campaign in the cozy confines of BBVA Compass Stadium with their opening match opposition being the 2013 MLS Eastern Conference semifinalists, the New England Revolution.

The Dynamo got the season opening party started in grand style with a 4-0 blowout win over the Revs in front of a record sellout crowd at BBVA Compass Stadium.  

The 22,320 orange clad peeps had barely gotten their butts into their seats when Will Bruin scored his first goal just 64 seconds into the contest to get this 2014 MLS campaign off to a wonderful start.    

The Men In Orange got a second Will Bruin goal in the 13th minute.  Bruin also got an assist on the 23rd minute rocket that Oscar Boniek Garcia blasted past New England goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth to help the Dynamo cruise to a 3-0 halftime lead. 

It was the Dynamo's night, and the score might have even been more lopsided had Shuttleworth not made spectacular saves on one on one breakaway opportunities by Bruin and Omar Cummings. 

Cummings finally got the goal that was denied him in stoppage time as a shot from Ricardo Clark bounced off his head and into the net

Hey, as Cummings demonstrated in last year's MLS playoffs, he does have a knack for scoring stoppage time goals.

Ask New York Red Bulls fans about that. 

Next up is a match against the hated Montreal Impact, who the Dynamo sent packing in a contentious Eastern Conference knockout game that a couple of Impact players took literally at the end of of it. 

Let's Go Dynamo!