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Last-second Clark penalty gives Dynamo crucial win over Real Salt Lake

Clark (Getty Images)

After the night Nick Rimando had in goal for Real Salt Lake, there's no question he'd like to have one moment back.

Rimando, who saved a Brad Davis penalty and a point-blank Will Bruin header late in the second half, committed a foul on Mac Kandji that led to a last-second penalty, one that Colin Clark converted to give the Houston Dynamo a 1-0 victory over RSL at BBVA Compass Stadium Thursday night.

The three-point haul puts the Dynamo back in third place in the Eastern Conference, a point clear of Chicago and three clear of Columbus, although both teams have games in hand on Houston. Salt Lake, meanwhile, saw its three-game unbeaten streak in all competitions come to an end in brutal fashion.

Prior to the-last second drama, it appeared that RImando, who will join the U.S. men's national team for its match against Jamaica on Tuesday, would be the hero. Following a foul on Chris Schuler in the area, Rimando stuffed Davis' 76th-minute penalty attempt, diving to his left to reject the Houston captain.

Rimando came up huge again in the 82nd minute, denying Bruin off a well-placed cross from Corey Ashe. Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall matched Rimando's heroics down the stretch, making a pair of tremendous saves — one off a Nat Borchers header and another on a Ned Grabavoy breakaway — to keep Houston's unblemished home record intact.

The deadlock was snapped in stoppage time, as Rimando raced off his line to try and punch a ball away only to collide with Kandji and knee him in the back. Clark blasted his penalty down the center for the game-winner, one that snapped Houston's four-game winless stretch in league play. 

Here are the match highlights:

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What did you think of the match? Did you think both penalty calls were fair? 

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The replay above showed the penalty was called at 92:39, and there were A MINIMUM of minutes of stoppage time. Any comment made on when the PK was taken would expose a high level of ignorance.

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  2. No comments about how the PK was awarded in the fifth minute of stoppage time — in a game that the official said would have three extra minutes?

    But Rimando’s foul: Good lord, that was atrocious.

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  3. Honestly, I’ve never been impressed with Kandji. No matter what team he plays for, he’s never scored more than four goals a season, which is pretty poor for an attacking player with the natural gifts he has.

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  4. It goes both ways amigo. It is good to see two guys that were injured badly making a comeback for a scrappy team. Clark has been hurt for two years, and Kandji scored the greatest goal in “Crapids” history while blowing up his leg. Honestly, the Dynamo this year remind me a lot of the “FSL” team that won the cup.

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  5. The More the league grows, teams like rsl,crew,chivas usa, revs, dallas will slowly die until they invest in dps, and good ones who will give the young players experience and confidence. Not only that, but are stingy teams waiting for the cosmos to join in order to look for fancy dps or they love the salary cap and parity of mls. Imagine nani to the new england revs or chicaco fire,ballack to rsl, chupete suazo to Houston or dallas. As a matter of fact, my team is the dynamo but kinnear makes them play ugly soccer and when do they score more than 2 goals that are constructed from the back or mid.

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  6. Even worse for RSL: Seattle has Chivas and Portland coming up and LA has Colorado – the three weakest teams in the West. Both can leapfrog RSL, dropping them into fourth and therefore the wild card spot.

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  7. Fantastic night from both Hall and Rimando. One of the best performances by Hall all year and Rimando came up huge (until the last play). Can’t blame him for coming out and once Kandji turned his back there was nothing Rimando could do. Tons of respect for Nick Rimando. It was nice to beat RSL on the last play of the game for the second year in a row.

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  8. I’m just glad they got the 3 points. The introduction of the CCL schedule and now some International call ups has not been good to the Dynamo. RSL is a great team so it’s nice to beat them, no matter how it happens. The GKs were on point most of the night. Either that or guys kept shooting directly at the keepers. I honestly can’t blame Rimando. The defense didn’t do a great job at protecting him and were the Dynamo better finishers, it’d be a much different scoreline. In the end though, it was his one mistake that lost them a point.

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  9. Well that was uncharacteristic mental laps from Rimando. What a shame to save a penalty only to give up another on such an unnecessary play.

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