The Houston Dynamo fell to a 2-1 loss to the New England Revolution Sunday night at Robertson Stadium, with New England’s Kheli Dube scoring a game-winning goal at Robertson Stadium for the third consecutive year despite the Dynamo’s heavy edge in chances and shots on goal. New England goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth made six saves to earn the win for the Revolution. The match included a combined seven yellow cards and two red cards between the teams.
With the loss, Houston dropped behind New England to 15th in the overall MLS standings. The teams are now tied with 48 goals allowed on the season, the highest total in the league.
The Revolution are now 4-0-1 all-time against the Dynamo at Robertson Stadium. Kheli Dube also scored the game-winning goal against the Dynamo in a 2-1 win at Houston in 2008 and a 1-0 win at Houston in 2009.
New England took the lead against the run of play in the 43rd minute, when a long throw-in was cleared, and Emmanuel Osei played the ball back into the penalty area. Shalrie Joseph stayed onside and snuck a shot through the legs of Pat Onstad from a tight angle for his third goal of the season.
Houston came out firing early in the second half and completely controlled the first 20 minutes. The Dynamo broke through in the 60th minute when Corey Ashe fed the ball wide to an overlapping Richard Mulrooney, who served a precise back-post cross to a wide-open Dominic Oduro, who fired a shot inside the right-hand post. The goal was Oduro’s seventh goal of the season in all competitions, tied for the team lead, and fifth of the year in MLS play, tying his career high set in 2008 with FC Dallas. The assists were the third of the year for both Mulrooney and Ashe.
New England goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth was called on to make two saves in the next six minutes to keep the game tied. The Revolution then went ahead in the 73rd minute when forward Ilija Stolica stole the ball from Houston defender Ryan Cochrane with a physical challenge, then fed the ball to Dube at the back post, where he slotted the ball past Pat Onstad.
Houston pushed to try to tie the game but could not break through. Frustrations boiled over in stoppage time, when Joseph Ngwenya was ejected for a high challenge on Cory Gibbs, and Geoff Cameron was ejected for a retaliatory foul against Pat Phelan. Both players will miss Saturday’s match against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Houston defender Richard Mulrooney made his 100th career start for the Dynamo in all competitions, the 11th player in team history to reach that mark. Goalkeeper Pat Onstad extended his club record with his 170th start in all competitions and his 220th career start in MLS play.
The Dynamo played without forward Brian Ching (knee swelling), midfielders Colin Clark (ACL surgery) and Anthony Obodai (meniscus surgery), and goalkeeper Tally Hall (ankle).
Next Game: Saturday, October 16, 9 p.m. CT, Houston Dynamo at San Jose Earthquakes, Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara CA
Next Home Game: Saturday, October 23, 3 p.m., Houston Dynamo vs. Seattle Sounders, Robertson Stadium
POSTGAME QUOTES
DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the game …
“I don’t have many thoughts on the game. It was full of missed chances and bad mistakes, and we lost our cool at the end.”
On the goals …
“I don’t think they had many chances, but they had two, and those were enough. We had more than enough chances. Between the 18s, I thought we played pretty well. Those two goals that we gave up were very soft. Our goal was a great goal, and I thought we should have had more.”
On the first half …
“To come in down 1-0 at halftime was very surprising, because I thought we had some great chances. I thought overall we carried the play, but we keep on making mistakes and giving up soft goals, and it does damage to your psyche. On the other side, when you are missing chances, it does more damage, and it keeps piling on the pressure.
HOUSTON DYNAMO GOALKEEPER PAT ONSTAD
On the game …
“It was a difficult one. We had ample opportunities in the first half with three or four good looks. Their first opportunity they buried, which is the story of our season. I thought in the second half we had opportunities as well, with balls in good spots, but unfortunately we could not get that second one to seal it. At the end we had a costly error that cost us three points.”
On the season …
“You can tell the guys are frustrated right now. This season has not gone our way. It’s disappointing when the guys want to win so badly.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO DEFENDER RICHARD MULROONEY
On the game …
“We are disappointed. I thought we battled back to get to 1-1, and I thought the momentum was on our side. You create your own breaks, and these are our mistakes and our play that has put us where we are. We continue to get punished every night. It’s disheartening. Not that our team didn’t try, but it just hurts to continue losing, especially at home. It was a good crowd tonight.”
On starting his 100th game with the Dynamo …
“It’s a club I believe in. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I still think Dom is the best coach in the league, and this group of guys I wouldn’t trade for the world. We have had a tough year, but having said that, this is a group of guys I would want to be with for a 100 more games if possible. It’s an accomplishment, but having said that it would be better to be able to remember my 100th with a win.”
