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Dynamo and Fire draw after trading second-half goals

HoustonChicago (USA Today Sports)

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

With the Houston Dynamo and the Chicago Fire both in the middle of the Eastern Conference standings, Saturday night’s clash at BBVA Compass Stadium was a great opportunity for one of the sides to grab a crucial three points in their hunt for a playoff spot.

But after 90 minutes of hard-fought soccer, both teams were forced to share honors after trading goals in the middle of the second half.

Cam Weaver broke lengthy personal and positional scoring droughts for Houston in the 61st minute, only to have the lead erased by a Mike Magee tap-in two minutes later for a 1-1 draw.

Weaver notched his first goal since May 2011 by finishing off an attack that he started. The 30-year-old forward sent a ball out to Corey Ashe, who then played it to Brad Davis for a cross in front of goal. The ball shot across the face of the goal for a side-step finish from Weaver, breaking the deadlock and giving the Dynamo forwards their first goal in two months.

The Dynamo thought they had opened the scoring much earlier in the match, but a controversial offside call ruled out a Bobby Boswell goal. Replays showed that Boswell was onside, but nearby teammate Ricardo Clark appeared to be too far forward.

Both sides created chances on goal in a more attack-oriented second half. Tally Hall made five saves in the match, and opposite number Paolo Tornaghi countered with three of his own, including a late denial of a Jason Johnson effort.

Hall could not do anything about Magee’s wide open chance shortly after the opener. Patrick Nyarko created space and sent a ball across the box for Magee, who tapped it in for his 13th goal of the season and his seventh as a member of the Fire.

Houston controlled possession and went after Tornaghi’s goal after Magee’s equalizer, but the defense held strong for the road point in one of the league’s toughest venues.

The Dynamo (8-6-6) will continue their home stand with a match against Columbus next Saturday night. The Fire (7-9-4), now five points back from the final playoff spot in the conference, will travel to face Philadelphia on the same day.

Comments

  1. Ashe was terrible; he got schooled all night. Dynamo need somebody who can freaking score.. 23 goals and sitting in 6th isn’t going to cut it. This is getting beyond frustrating.

    Reply
    • Little gamer? What does that even mean. Did you just mean to say he’s a gamer? The little doesn’t really add much.

      Reply
      • Southern expression. From Austin and not familiar with lil’? How about y’all or “fixin’ to”?

      • Austin is not the South just lil’ FYI. We have most of the good aspects of Texas without all the redneck buffoonery.

  2. The Dynamo generally play hard, it can’t overcome the lack of striking quality. Ball after ball into the box and one goal for it. No current playoff team has as few goals as we do. Even when Bruin comes back if we want to win hardware you need two people to knock it in because you will play teams like LA that will have several potential scorers.

    Ashe’s gaffe was indicative of why I don’t see him as US or all-star player. Stumbling over the ball in possession like a college player. All he does is hustle. He should be an energy sub not a starter. That’s two important slipups in a few weeks.

    Kinnear’s subbing also left something to be desired, down an injury sub his first tactical change is bringing on a DM tied at home. Bringing it back full circle, if you don’t feel like you have a more dynamic attacking choice than that, why aren’t we signing someone?

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    • I agree with most of what you are saying, but I thought that subbing in Warren Creavalle brought a lot of attacking energy. He usually make s an immediate, and positive impact on the game going forward, and once again he did. This Dynamo team plays very well in the midfield, and dies out up top. Very frustrating to see.

      These striker issues have been ongoing for years, and I share your confusion as to why they are not fixed yet.

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      • Because Jason Johnson splitting the backs on that one run where he had a shot stopped was as dangerous or more than Creavalle, who had to make an amazing dribbling effort just to get himself in the same area. The effort needed to be pushed further upfield if your purpose is a winner.

        I’m a Creavalle fan actually, and would like to see him play instead of Ashe in back. Creavalle will tackle someone. I think we have plenty of attacking talent we could use instead.

        In terms of where the Fs are, Kinnear bet on Carr and Cummings — both injured — in the offseason. He also re-signed Weaver, who had a goal last night for the first time in 26 months, and Ching, who has 0G 1A. IMO 2010-esque in the sense he made poor bets on older MLS veterans. 1G 1A from those four in support of Bruin. We may not be doing much because all those veterans are probably CBA guaranteed (and Barnes is a middie playing out of position…..), but if we don’t do something, the consistency of our mediocrity suggests our form is just a fair reflection of ho-hum forwards.

        Shame, this is the best bunch of middies we’ve had since the Golden Years.

    • To be offside you have to be not just past the next to last defender but also ahead of the ball. Whether he was “offside” positionally was debatable except it doesn’t matter because the passer was marginally in front of him. One of the virtues of taking the ball to the line is the recipient can break in front of their mark and not be off.

      The one I thought was wrong was Boswell. Boswell looked even and someone else was off, who was obviously not the one playing the ball on a header goal.

      Reply
    • The moderation caught me so I will post it a different way…..he’s behind the ball so he can’t be off.

      Reply

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