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CCL Rewind: 10-man Dynamo draw, Sounders win in road trips

Sounders (Getty Images)

The Houston Dynamo and Seattle Sounders both went on the road in CONCACAF Champions League group action on Thursday night and both are coming back to the USA with points in the bag.

The Sounders sent a young squad to Trinidad & Tobago and came back with an impressive 3-1 win over Caledonia AIA courtesy of goals from Fredy Montero, Alex Caskey and Sammy Ochoa. Montero was one of the stars of the match, delivering an assist on the opener and scoring an insurance goal in a game that gave Seattle six points through its two Group 4 games.

The Dynamo did not grab three points, but they were able to draw despite playing with 10 men for nearly half-an-hour. Adam Moffat scored an equalizing goal in the 57th minute, but shortly thereafter Nathan Sturgis was sent off for a stomp. Houston, however, still managed to hold firm defensively and it claimed a point that gives them four in Group 3 through two matches.

What do you think of the Sounders and Dynamo grabbing points on the road? Expecting both to get out of their groups? Which team do you think has a better shot at making a deep run?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Stomp? What stomp? If you saw a stomp, you’ve got waaaay better eyes that me, sir. What I saw was minor contact made on a 50/50 ball. At the very worst, it was a foul. A yellow would have been outrageous. This coming from a Sounder fan. Don’t encourage the officials by validating what they saw…. because, clearly, that never happened……

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  2. Much respect to the traveling Seattle supporters in Trinidad last night! I did a little Google Earth check and found that the distance between Seattle and Port-Of-Spain, Trinidad is farther than the distance between Seattle and Hokkaido, Japan. Pretty sure that makes Seattle and Caledonia the most geographically disparate teams in CONCACAF.

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  3. rare occasions? The ref went from calling nothing in the first half to handing out cards like candy in second. He calls a yellow when the defender pulls on Kanji’s hip but calls nothing on a clear obstruction when Kanji looked to break away. Really chaotic I thought.

    For me Clark was terrible, Camargo was almost as bad, Moffat had a poor first half but looked much better in the second, Andre got worked all game. We were much better with 10 men when Bobby and Kanji came on and sturgis, camargo and clark sat. Oh and Boniek is really good.

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  4. Olimpia, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 1-1.

    But point taken, I’d already know because I watched it, but would a non-viewer know?

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  5. The point was nice but in practical terms it basically means every group game is going to “count.” Which is nice if you’ve bought a ticket for the Dynamo home games.

    From a Dynamo perspective, we had some of the callups out there and they did not embarrass, but I think you saw why some players are second string. Deric, Clark, Sarkodie, Weaver.

    Sturgis’ stomp was borderline — and a reminder not to misbehave right in front of the ref — so my issue would be more why x, y, and z weren’t punished more seriously. They were coming in hard and late on tackles and only on rare occasions getting yellows for it.

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  6. I’m often dismissive of such talk if the ref consistently lets them play or calls it tight, players know what they’re dealing with, but this guy was card-happy and all over the place in terms of calls and cards.

    Gun and a badge, etc.

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  7. I didn’t think that Nate deserved red, but overall Houston was lucky that the ref was terrible.

    Sounders are still soooo deep. Partly because Alonso could play 7 games in 7 days, but mostly because they have so many players that could be called first string or are right on the edge of being so.

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