HOUSTON – For 90 minutes the Houston Dynamo did enough to merit taking Wednesday’s game into extra time, but FC Dallas had other things on their mind.
An injury-time goal from FC Dallas attacker Fabian Castillo sent the Dynamo packing from the US Open Cup via a 1-0 defeat. Houston had more passes in the attacking half and the attacking third, and also had 22 crosses but none connected successfully en route to a gut-wrenching loss.
“I thought we had better movement of the ball in the attacking areas,” said Houston Dynamo head coach Wade Barrett. “Mauro [Manotas] hit one off the post and we had some dangerous looks going forward. Andrew [Wenger] caused a lot of problems. I felt like we were the team that was in charge in the second half. And we were the team pushing for a goal.”
The Dynamo pushed and attacked, but in the end just couldn’t break through.
“I’m disappointed and a little broken about what happened tonight but I’m ready to regroup and approach this next game with a lot of enthusiasm for the weekend [against the Vancouver Whitecaps],” said Barrett. “We have to take whatever disappointment we have, whatever frustration we have and we have to use that in a positive way heading into the weekend.”
Barrett added that the team cannot carry anything over into this Saturday's home game because it will hamper the Dynamo’s chances.
The Houston head coach will take some positives from today’s game despite the loss, and one of them might be the formation. Houston lined up in a 4-2-3-1 as opposed to Barrett's preferred 4-1-4-1, and the attacking prowess – despite the lack of goals – showed what this team can be capable of.
“I think we’ve established over the last eight or nine games that we can be a disciplined group and tough to play against in that other formation,” said Barrett. “I think tonight we showed that we can be disciplined in this formation as well.”
