On Saturday at Robertson Stadium, the Houston Dynamo thumped Chivas USA 3-0. The result helped the Dynamo vent some of their frustrations at their performance last week.
“Guys were [ticked] off about [last week’s] loss, especially at home, and the team was fired up,” said Dynamo midfielder Geoff Cameron. “We came off of a loss last week, and we all know we didn’t play that great, but we rebounded this week, and we were fired up from the beginning.”
That’s a bit of an understatement. The Dynamo scored two goals in the first 20 minutes and cruised from then on.
“Last week, we were disappointed obviously,” forward Dominic Oduro, who scored the third goal, said. “We wanted to forget about that. I thought we played well and controlled the game, and we scored some amazing goals.”
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The first goal came when Corey Ashe’s pass split the Chivas defense and Cameron beat keeper Zach Thornton to give Houston a 1-0 lead.
“We’ve been working on it all week with our outside midfielders pinching in,” Ashe said. “Cameron made a great run, and I figured if I could slip it in, he would do the rest, and that’s what happened.”
Houston extended its lead eight minutes later when Lovel Palmer, who started his first game, hit a rocket from 35 yards out.
“I’m elated,” the Jamaican midfielder said. “I couldn’t ask for a better goal, and it helped the team relax and we got three points.”
The final goal came in the 65th minute, when midfielder Brad Davis found Oduro in front of goal for an easy tap-in.
The victory gives Houston its best-ever start to a season and extended the Dynamo's unbeaten streak against Chivas USA to 10 games. After gifting their opponent two goals last week, taking an early lead and then recording the first shutout of the season went a long way to please head coach Dominic Kinnear.
“It’s one of those where after last week, I told the guys, 'We’re not going to blow up the team because we had a bad 45 minutes,'” Kinnear said. “I see the response from the guys, and the response was excellent. . . . Now the guys are very happy and you can tell: The music is a little louder, and the chatter is a little happier.”
Dwain Capodice is a contributor to MLSsoccer.com. Questions or Comments can be sent via email to dwaincapodice@gmail.com.
