The Houston Dynamo battled back from down a man and down a goal in a gutsy and hard–fought 2-2 draw with the Red Bulls on Saturday night.
“We’re very happy with the comeback, and we showed a ton of character to pull the goal out the way we did to get the point,” Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. “But we are putting ourselves in holes here and testing ourselves mentally, and it is nice to see we are not burying our heads.”
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“It was fantastic,” midfielder Brad Davis said. “The easy thing to do is to put your head down and give up, but the guys continued to grind. Luckily (Brian) Mullan got on the end of that and scored a goal, and hopefully that can be a turning point because we haven’t had that type of luck yet.”
Kinnear said he was happy to see his team play as if its season depended on it.
"If you bottle up those last 20 minutes, we really felt that urgency,” said Kinnear. “[With the red card], getting three was going to be difficult, but getting something out of it like we did, I think you saw the guys leave the field with their chest pumped out, not bragging, but understanding why we got something out of the game tonight."
Dynamo players and coaches were upset with the red card shown to midfielder Lovel Palmer late in the first half that forced the team to play the entire second half down a man.
“I don’t think it was a red card when I watched it again,” Kinnear said. “I thought the referee pulled out the wrong card. I thought it was a foul, but it was a tackle that deserved a yellow card.”
The team’s three second-half substitutes - Mullan, Corey Ashe, and Richard Mulrooney - each came on and provided a much needed lift on the night, culminating in Mullan’s winner in the 90th minute.
“We got our reward tonight, and it is great for Mullan get an equalizer like that,” said defender Andrew Hainault, who assisted on the late tally. “It doesn’t feel like a draw; it feels like a win.”
Dwain Capodice is a contributor to MLSsoccer.com. Questions or Comments can be sent via email to dwaincapodice@gmail.com.
