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!
 

Dynamo Shock Red Bulls, Move To MLS Eastern Conference Finals

When this series started, many pundits didn't give the Houston Dynamo a chance to advance past the Supporters Shield winning and top seeded New York Red Bulls to their third straight MLS Eastern Conference final.  

In many cases you had people openly rooting against the two time defending Eastern Conference champions and that list probably includes MLS Commissioner Dave Garber.

The Red Bulls were rested and finished the season 6-0-2.  The Dynamo had never won at Red Bulls Arena and had been outscored during the regular season in their three losses to the Red Bulls 9-1 with two of those losses happening at BBVA Compass Stadium.   


But this is Dynamo Time, the MLS playoffs, and the Men In Orange just do what they do this time of year.   They kick up their level of play another level and don't stop until they reach the MLS Cup Finals 

After coming back from a 2-0 deficit at BBVA Compass Stadium Sunday to forge a 2-2 tie, they arrived in Harrison, NJ having never beaten the Red Bulls in a playoff game or in this stadium. 

But the top seeded Red Bulls had also never won a playoff game in their home stadium either, so one of these streaks was going to end.  

The Red Bulls initial score happened courtesy of a rare error by Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall in the 23rd minute.  Lloyd Sam hit a cross into the 6 yard box that Hall tried to grab with both hands and pin to the ground.  It squirted out of his grasp and onto the waiting foot of Bradley Wright-Phillips who knocked it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.

In the 36th minute the Red Bulls returned the favor with a giveaway of their own as Ibrahim Sekagya played an ill-advised pass across the top of the Red Bulls’ 18-yard box that an opportunistic Brad Davis picked off before dribbling forward and slotting it home with ease to tie the game at 1-1.

After that it was a series of brilliant Tally Hall saves and a little luck that kept the score knotted up.  A Thierry Henry shot just before halftime redirected by Tim Cahill was parried away by a Hall reaction save. 
A Henry header in the 65th minute hit the crossbar.  He missed a bicycle kick just wide in regulation time. 

But the Dynamo hero once again was Omar Cummings.  In the 104th minute Cummings was the man in the right place at the right time when Cam Weaver's header was blocked by Robles but ended up on Cummings foot that he pushed just past the goal line inside the right hand post past a prone Robles for the 2-1 win.

The 2-1 Dynamo win was not only their first win at Red Bulls Arena and first playoff win against this team, with the 4-3 aggregate score the Dynamo moved on to the Eastern Conference finals for the third consecutive year. 

Take that Dynamo haters.    And sorry Don, no LA-NY MLS Cup final this year either. 

They will face a familiar foe in Sporting Kansas City in the Eastern Conference Finals who closed out their series against the New England Revolution with a 3-1 win (4-3 aggregate), which will start on Saturday at BBVA Compass Stadium.

Dynamo Come Back For 2-2 Playoff Game Draw Vs Red Bulls

After sending the Montreal Impact packing on Halloween night, the Houston Dynamo had a bigger challenge to overcome in their quest to threepeat as Eastern Conference Champions and make it to their third consecutive MLS Cup title game. 

They were playing the first leg of their 2013 MLS Eastern Conference semifinal series at BBVA Compass Stadium against a New York Red Bulls Supporter's Shield winning squad that had beaten them three times in the regular season by an combined 9-1 score.   Two of those three wins this season came at BBVA Compass Stadium

And while the Men in Orange and their supporters could take comfort in the fact that the Dynamo are 9-1 all time in H-town during the MLS playoffs, their lone playoff loss was handed to them by guess who, the New York Red Bulls.  
  

Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear left the technical area during that late game melee in the knockout round playoff win against Montreal to keep his players from getting any yellow or red cards that could impact (pun intended) their Eastern Conference semifinal series.  He was assessed a bull feces one game suspension by the MLS Disciplinary Committee which didn't sit well with Dynamo fans.

Anything to get that dream NY-LA MLS Cup final huh, MLS?  

That meant Kinnear was watching from the press box instead of the sidelines when the first leg of this Eastern Conference semifinal series against top seeded New York kicked off.  While they didn't score their first goal seven seconds into the game like they did last month, the Red Bulls did strike first with Tim Cahill taking a Thierry Henry cross from the left side and burying the header past Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall in the 22nd minute.

The Red Bulls expanded their lead 10 minutes later on a counterattack sparked by Henry and Cahill which ended with Eric Alexander faking to his right, turning left past Boswell and then blasting his shot from 14 yards out just inside the near post for a 2-0 lead they took into half time.

The Dynamo dominated possession in the first half and limited the Red Bulls to only two shots on goal, but the only stat that counts is that 2-0 one on the scoreboard.

But as I said earlier, the MLS playoffs are Dynamo Time and they seem to step up their level of play at this time of year.   The Dynamo began their comeback in the 51st minute when Markus Holgersson failed to clear a ball out of the Red Bulls box and it went straight to a waiting Ricardo Clark at the top of the penalty area.  Clark chested down the early Christmas present and blasted a shot through traffic and past New York goalkeeper Luis Robles inside the near post to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Then came the game changing and probably series changing moment as Omar Cummings, who has been saddled with painful injuries for much of this 2013 MLS regular season coming into the game off the bench in the 62nd minute for striker Giles Barnes. 

Cummings has endured three knee injuries, a groin injury, a hamstring injury and an extensive rehab program that kept him in a reserve role, but it was he who would make the Red Bulls feel the pain of his presence in this first leg playoff match. 

Three minutes later Cummings was taken down with a reckless scissor tackle from behind by Red Bulls center back Jamison Olave within referee Ricardo Salazar's line of sight that earned him a no doubt about it red card and an early trip to the locker room.  

In addition to Olave missing Wednesday's return leg, the red card forced the Red Bulls to play the rest of the match with 10 men, and the Dynamo have a season long habit of scoring a lot of late second half goals.

La Naranja are at just the right time regaining their reputation of being dangerous on set piece plays as the agonizing Eric Brunner near miss in the 78 minute was testament to.

Andrew Driver also narrowly missed an equalizing goal in the 81st minute as the Dynamo continued to put pressure on the Red Bulls.

The equalizing goal finally came in the 91st minute.  Brad Davis delivered another one of his brilliant corner kicks that Bobby Boswell got his head on that a diving Robles couldn't control.  Cummings tapped it inside the right post from point blank range past the helpless New York keeper to tie the game.

Two minutes later in stoppage time the Dynamo should have had a penalty shot awarded to win it when Omar Cummings was clearly clipped in the penalty box as he spun away from his defender in preparation to take a shot but Ricardo Salazar didn't see it that way.  But the 2-2 comeback draw with the Red Bulls sent the BBVA Compass crowd home deliriously happy that the Men In Orange defended their home turf and are very much in this series. 

The Dynamo now head to Red Bulls Arena Wednesday to play the second leg of this aggregate goal series.  If the second game is tied after 90 minutes, two 15 minute halves will be played followed by penalty kicks to determine who goes on to face the winner of the Sporting KC- New England Revolution series in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Dynamo Knock Montreal Out Of MLS Playoffs

As has become the tradition for the two time MLS Eastern Conference champion Houston Dynamo the last few years, they tend to do just enough in the regular season to qualify for the MLS playoffs, then kick up their play another level and roll all the way to the MLS cup title game.

In this 2013 MLS season the Men In Orange were 4-1-2 down the stretch enroute to compiling their 14-11-9 record.  One of those down the stretch wins was a 1-0 one at BBVA Compass Stadium against their Eastern Conference knockout round opponent the Montreal Impact.

But there were still questions from pundits and fans alike about whether this 2013 edition if the Houston Dynamo had it in them or the talent to make it to their third consecutive MLS Cup title game. 

They were also playing in the Impact a team that had beaten the Dynamo twice by the aggregate score of 7-0, but was 1-6-1 down the stretch and were fortunate to have gotten the number five seed over the Chicago Fire due to a tiebreaker.   

But this is Dynamo Time, AKA the MLS playoffs and they were playing this game at BBVA Compass Stadium where they rarely lose on Halloween night.  

The Dynamo stayed true to form and quickly seized control of this Eastern Conference knockout round playoff match with a goal in the 16th minute. Will Bruin received a beautiful back heel pass from Ricardo Clark that he buried into the right hand corner of the net past Impact keeper Troy Perkins for a 1-0 lead. 

The next Dynamo goal in the 27th minute was courtesy of Oscar Boniek Garcia's hard work.  After stealing a pass from Impact defender Hassoun Camara he sprinted toward the 18 yard box with it and was hip checked to the ground by Hernan Bernardello to earn a penalty call.  Garcia then calmly kicked the penalty shot into the lower left hand corner of the net for a 2-0 lead. 

Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall made two impressive saves of Marco Di Vaio in the 42nd and 61st minutes to keep his clean sheet with Bruin notching his second goal of the game in the 72nd minute to make it 3-0 and punch the Dynamo's ticket to the MLS Eastern Conference semifinals.

Then we had a Halloween night appearance of soccer hooligans in the 89th minute dressed in Montreal Impact uniforms. 

Already down a man because Nelson Rivas earned an early trip to the locker room with his second yellow card in the 70th minute, the Impact's Andres Romero kicked a fallen Kofi Sarkodie while he was on the ground trying to keep control of the ball.

Neither one of these teams like each other, and Romero's actions triggered an on the field melee in which Marco Di Vaio scratched and slapped the Dynamo's Corey Ashe.  While Ashe was given a yellow card, Romero and Di Vaio were given red cards and sent off for their nekulturny actions with referee Mark Geiger wisely blowing the whistle to end the game a minute later.

"There's really no place in soccer for what the player did to Kofi," Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said. 

Sure isn't.  But that's okay, Di Vaio and Romero will have the rest of the MLS offseason and the one game suspension to start the 2014 MLS season to contemplate that point now that the Impact's season is over. 

The Dynamo survive and move on to play their Eastern Conference aggregate goal semifinal series with the Supporters Shield winning New York Red Bulls, starting Sunday at BBVA Compass Stadium.  

Once again it's an MLS playoff matchup for the Dynamo against a team that dominated them during the regular season.  The Red Bulls beat them three times by an aggregate score of 9-1, but this is Dynamo Time now.

We'll see on Sunday. 

Houston Dynamo Headed To 2013 MLS Playoffs

Since the Texans were chilling during their off week, I got the opportunity to focus my undivided attention on our local football team that wears orange unis and kicks a round ball. 

The Houston Dynamo suffered a devastating 3-0 home loss last week at BBVA Compass Stadium to the New York Red Bulls that knocked them out of Supporters Shield contention and dropped them to sixth place in the tightly bunched MLS Eastern Conference playoff race.

Only the top five teams in each conference make the playoffs and the Dynamo were in serious danger of missing the 2013 MLS playoff party.  In addition the loss robbed the Men In Orange of control of their playoff destiny heading into the final game of the season.

The Dynamo were now facing a do or die situation to get back into the playoffs against a DC United team that although they have beaten them three times this year and United was on an eleven game losing streak, were desperate to not set an MLS record for futility.   And yes, DC United was relishing the opportunity to salvage some of their team pride and avenge last year's Eastern Conference final playoff loss by knocking the Dynamo out of the playoffs.

The Dynamo also needed some help from other teams Saturday and got it.   Toronto FC upset the Montreal Impact 1-0 and Sporting Kansas City beat the Philadelphia Union 2-1 to make the MLS playoff equation simple for the Men In Orange:  Win against DC United and the Dynamo were in the MLS playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons.

They did so but not without DC United fighting them every step of the way.  After Dynamo striker Giles Barnes was hauled down in the penalty box, Oscar Boniek Garcia confidently converted the penalty kick into the lower right hand corner of the goal for the initial tally of the game in the 11th minute.

Things were looking good at that point for La Naranja because when they score first this season, they have not lost (13-0-3) in this 2013 MLS campaign.    

DC United fought back to tie the game in the 27th minute with a Kyle Porter header but six minutes later Giles Barnes got the game winning header in the 33rd minute past DC goalkeeper Bill Hamid.to give the Dynamo a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish despite major pressure at times in the second half from a DC United squad desperately trying to avoid MLS infamy. 

But as the referee's whistle blew in the 94th minute DC United would indeed set the mark for fewest wins in an MLS season with a 3-24-7 record, one less than the four wins Chivas USA managed in 2005.  They would have also set the record for fewest goals in a season if it hadn't been for Porter's score that allowed DC United to finish with 21 goals scored on the season.

But back to discussing my playoff bound hometown MLS squad. 

The Dynamo finished the season in fourth place at 14-11-9 after the New York Red Bulls thumped the Chicago Fire 5-2 and the New England Revolution beat the Columbus Crew 1-0.  That created a third place tie in the Eastern Conference standings that bumped the Dynamo into the Eastern Conference play-in game they will host at BBVA Compass stadium Halloween night.against the hated Montreal Impact (14-13-7) who slid to a fifth place tie with the Fire 

Winner of the play-in game gets the New York Red Bulls 17-9-8 in a two leg playoff series 

The two time defending Eastern Conference champs are seeking their third straight appearance in the MLS Cup and last year on their way to the title game the road to it started in the play-in game against the Chicago Fire. 

The Dynamo just seem to kick up their play aonther level when they get to the MLS playoffs, and here's hoping the Men In Orange stay true to playoff form in 2013 as well.

Darn, Dynamo Fall Again In MLS Cup 2012

Well, for much of this match the Dynamo not only outplayed the LA Galaxy, they had a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Unfortunately the Galaxy woke up and put together a burst of second half activity starting around the 60th minute that sent the Dynamo reeling to a 3-1 defeat and ensuring that the MLS Anschutz Cup would stay in Los Angeles.

While the Men in Orange are frustrated and disappointed that their season ended with a second consecutive MLS Cup final loss, they do have CONCACAF champions league play to look forward to next year

They are also resolved to make the new MLS playoff format work in their favor next time in which the team with the highest seed hosts the championship game.  .   

The Dynamo are motivated to ensure in 2013 that should they make it all the way back to play in MLS Cup 2013, it will be played in the much friendlier confines of BBVA Compass Stadium.

Thanks for another wonderful playoff run guys.   Now lets make it happen.

Bring The MLS Cup 2012 Home Dynamo!

The MLS Cup 2012 championship (re)match between the Houston Dynamo and the LA Galaxy will be kicking off in mere moments in Carson, CA

While the rest of the world's soccer media is focused on the announcement that David Beckham made earlier that this is his last MLS match of his six year run in the LA area, my Men In Orange have been without media fanfare quietly focused on their mission of bringing the MLS Cup back to Houston for the first time since 2007.

The back-to back Eastern Conference champs lost 1-0 to the Galaxy in MLS Cup 2011, but that team was missing Brad Davis, who got hurt in their Eastern Conference final against Sporting KC last year   

The 2012 edition of the Dynamo not only has Brad Davis back, but added Honduran Oscar Boniek Garcia to the squad and has one of the best goalkeepers in MLS in Tally Hall.

While other peeps will want a happy ending for Beckham and the Galaxy, there are a group of guys in orange shirts and their fans back in Houston who rather see at the end of 90 plus minutes the Dynamo ruining the afternoon for them by hoisting the MLS cup in the Home Depot Center after a Dynamo victory and bringing it back to H-town.