With goals from Shalrie Joseph and Kheli Dube, the New England Revolution downed the Houston Dynamo 2-1 in a battle of two teams battling solely for pride on Sunday night at Robertson Stadium.
The Revs' injury problems and national-team call ups left the team with only three field subs on the bench. Head coach Steve Nicol opted to hand Bobby Shuttleworth his third start of the season, and the 23-year-old goalkeeper repaid the trust with several terrific saves throughout the night, helping New England snap a five-game winless streak in league play and an 11-match winless spell on the road.
The first half played out like a typically physical Revolution-Dynamo tilt, with 13 first-half fouls and four yellow cards. Houston midfielder Geoff Cameron took what looked like the hardest foul from Pat Phelan early on but was back up moments later.
Houston continued its disturbing trend of yielding the game’s opening goal for the 14th time this year, the seventh time at home. In the 43rd minute, the Dynamo defense was slow to push its defensive line up following a long throw-in, and New England defender Emmanuel Osei lobbed a clearance back into the box. Joseph slipped past the defense, controlled the ball, and slid his shot between the legs of Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad to give the Revs the 1-0 lead.
Houston had a nearly identical opportunity in first-half stoppage time as the ball fell to forward Dominic Oduro behind the Revs defense. The Ghanaian blasted his shot on target, but Shuttleworth made a terrific diving save to preserve the Revs' lead at halftime.
After the break, the Dynamo started to see more of the ball and were rewarded in the 59th minute. Richard Mulrooney capped his 100th start in a Dynamo jersey with a picture-perfect cross to Oduro at the far post, who one-timed it into the corner of the net to level the score at 1-1.
But New England battled back to take the lead against the run of play in the 73rd minute. Houston defender Ryan Cochrane turned the ball over near the edge of the box, where Revs forward Ilija Stolica picked it up and sent it across the box. A waiting Dube was alone on goal and put in a clinical finish to put the Revs back in front 2-1.
Houston lost the plot late, as the Dynamo closed out the match without a scoring chance but suffered two late red cards to Joseph Ngwenya and Cameron, both of whom will miss Houston’s match at San Jose next weekend.
New England Revolution (8-15-5) vs. Houston Dynamo (7-15-6)
October 10, 2010 -- Robertson Stadium, Houston TX
Scoring Summary:
NE -- Shalrie Joseph 3 (Emmanuel Osei 1) 43
HOU -- Dominic Oduro 5 (Richard Mulrooney 3, Corey Ashe 3) 59
NE -- Kheli Dube 2 (Ilija Stolica 2) 73
New England Revolution -- Bobby Shuttleworth, Chris Tierney, Emmanuel Osei, Darrius Barnes, Cory Gibbs, Kheli Dube (Seth Sinovic 89), Shalrie Joseph, Pat Phelan, Khano Smith, Ilija Stolica (Jason Griffiths 95), Marko Perovic (Zack Schilawski 63).
Substitutes Not Used: Matt Reis.
Houston Dynamo -- Pat Onstad. Richard Mulrooney (Mike Chabala 75), Ryan Cochrane (Danny Cruz 75), Adrian Serioux, Andrew Hainault, Corey Ashe, Lovel Palmer, Geoff Cameron, Brad Davis, Cam Weaver (Joseph Ngwenya 79), Dominic Oduro.
Substitutes Not Used: Tyler Deric, Sammy Appiah, Bobby Boswell, Eddie Robinson.
Misconduct Summary:
NE -- Pat Phelan (caution; Reckless Foul) 26
NE -- Cory Gibbs (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 40
HOU -- Cam Weaver (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 41
HOU -- Ryan Cochrane (caution; Tactical Foul) 44
HOU -- Adrian Serioux (caution; Tactical Foul) 50
HOU -- Geoff Cameron (caution; Reckless Foul) 78
NE -- Darrius Barnes (caution; Tactical Foul) 83
HOU -- Joseph Ngwenya (ejection; Serious Foul Play) 93+
HOU -- Geoff Cameron (ejection; Violent Conduct) 97+
gameSumLabel">Referee: Mark Geiger
gameSumLabel">Referee's Assistants: Hector Vergara; Steven Taylor
gameSumLabel">4th official: Jasen Anno
gameSumLabel">Attendance: 16,479
Weather: Partly Cloudy-and-82-degrees
All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial
