The Houston Dynamo’s 2010 season has begun to act a bit like a broken record: Poor finishing, defensive miscues, and disappointing results have undone them when at times they’ve played well enough to deserve something out of the match.
Sunday night’s 2-1 loss to the New England Revolution was the team’s 15th loss on the year, and the story has to be getting a little old for head coach Dominic Kinnear and the players.
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“I don’t have many thoughts on the game,” said Kinnear after the match. “It was full of missed chances and bad mistakes, and we lost our cool at the end.”
Both Revolution goals came from Dynamo mistakes. On the first goal, the defense was slow to push up following a clearance, and when the ball was sent back into the Houston box, the defense was slow to react to a run by Shalrie Joseph. On the second goal, Ryan Cochrane got caught and turned the ball over, resulting in the game winner for the Revs.
“Those two goals that we gave up were very soft,” noted Kinnear. “I think both goals tonight could have definitely been avoided.”
For portions of the first half and the first 20 minutes of the second half, the game was mostly Houston’s. But the Dynamo failed to convert on several chances during those key moments.
“It’s the story of our season,” said Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad. “When it rains, it pours. Even at 1-1, we had some opportunities, but we couldn’t get that second one and, unfortunately, [it’s] a costly error at the end there that ends up costing us three points.”
For most of the year, the Dynamo have focused their frustrations at their disappointing season, internally fighting hard to try to improve, but against the Revs those frustrations boiled over externally with late red cards issued to Joseph Ngwenya and Geoff Cameron.
As a result, Houston will be without both Ngwenya and Cameron for their next game at San Jose on Oct. 16. Cameron's season may even be finished, pending disciplinary action by the league for his frustrated punch at Pat Phelan in the game’s dying moments. For the Dynamo players, this has been an even longer year.
“You create your own breaks, and these are our mistakes and our play that has put us where we are,” explained Richard Mulrooney, who played in his 100th match with Houston. “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, as it was a good crowd tonight.”
Dwain Capodice is a contributor to MLSsoccer.com. Questions or Comments can be sent via email to dwaincapodice@gmail.com.
