Good evening folks. A day after D.C. United thrashed Harbour View, 5-0, to reach the CONCACAF Champions Cup it is the Houston Dynamo’s turn to try and book a place in the semifinals.
Houston will look to knock off Guatemalan side CD Municipal tonight at Robertson Stadium after the team’s finished the first leg in Guatemala tied 0-0.
If you will be watching the match on Fox Soccer Channel, and plan on being near a computer, please share your thoughts and opinions (as well as some play by play) in the comments section below.
Enjoy the match.
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FINAL– Houston 3, CD Municipal 1. Some questionable calls aside, Houston deserved this victory. Dwayne DeRosario and Corey Ashe took it to another level and Municipal couldn’t hang.
That said, the Guatamalan squad deserves some respect. They are a good team.
Thanks for following along on the commentary. Share your final thoughts on the match in the comments section below.
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94th minute– Questionable handball costs Municipal a chance at a second goal. That said, there’s major whining going on here from Municipal.
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91st minute– Municipal comes close with a sequence but can’t finish it off. I have to say I was impressed with Municipal this tournament.
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85th minute– PENALTY for Municipal and Pando Ramirez converts it. Houston 3, Municipal 1.
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84th minute– Corey Ashe has been a beast tonight.
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82nd minute– This just in: Getting a red card in a tournament is bad. Who knew?
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80th minute– Okay, I was going to ignore this but what U-23 tournament are these FSC announcers watching? Patrick Ianni has not had a great showing with the U-23 team. I highly doubt he starts against Canada tomorrow.
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77th minute– Brian Mullan for Dwayne DeRosario. DeRosario is Mr. Clutch.
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75th minute– Franco Carraccio coming in for Wondolowski
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75th minute- GOAL HOUSTON. Chris Wondolowski finished a great cross from Corey Ashe. Municipal is finished. 3-0 Houston.
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69th minute- GOAL HOUSTON. DeRosario converts the penalty kick.
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67th minute– PENALTY Houston. What a questionable PK that is. Terrible call.
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64th minute– Damn, my jinxes usually work most times. Guess not this time.
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59th minute– Odds of a second goal coming in this match? About 1,000/1.
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47th minute- GOAL HOUSTON. DeRosario makes a great spin in the box and beats Penedo from close range. Houston 1, Municipal 0.
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46th minute– And we’re back
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HALFTIME– Houston 0, Municipal 0. There have been some chances but some disciplined defending for the most part. I’m starting to wonder if Houston has the firepower to get the goal it needs. That said, none of Municipal’s attackers look capable of finishing.
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37th minute- Pat Onstad makes a clutch save on a Mario Rodriguez breakaway. To be fair, the shot was close to Onstad’s body.
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28th minute– Municipal complaining about a DeRosario foul. It’s tough to take their anger seriously when their uniforms have advertising on the butt. Who bought that ad slot? Who says, "You know where we’ll get noticed? On the players’ asses.
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26th minute– Wondolowski missed with a headed corner. Houston is going to convert one of these corners.
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21st minute- Municipal looks up to the challenge tonight and just might pull the upset against a short-handed Houston squad.
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19th minute– Okay, I was kidding.
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18th minute– I don’t know who this Claro guy is for Municipal but he’s everywhere.
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14th minute– Penedo with a clutch save off a Waibel header. The Municipal defense looks terrible on set pieces.
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10th minute– Municipal goalkeeper Jaime Penedo is a quality player who landed in Guatemala after a failed stint in Spain. I’m surprised he didn’t find his way to MLS.
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7th minute- Defender Renato Blanco for Municipal looks like a player. Somebody offer that guy a contract.
Houston corner comes close as Chris Wondolowski heads wide.
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5th minute- Brian Ching with a chance but can’t get a shot off in front of goal. It looked like he was waiting to be taken down.
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4th minute- We’re under way here and Mario Rodriguez has already managed to dive about 17 times.
Eric, the defense is a real concern in this game and the Osaka game. I think it may be Bobby Boswell. We have not made it a habit of getting beat over the top like that. Hopefully Ianni will win the starting job when he gets back from olympic qualifying.
Before last season began we didn’t have Jacqua or Ngwenya and both Columbus and LA fans were happy to be rid of them in trades. I like our chances of picking up another bust during this season.
Also remember that we were missing our two starting wide midfielders and Stuart Holden. Mulrooney and Corey Ashe will typically not be in the starting lineup and Holden is the first midfielder off the bench.
Tim – Oh, yeah, sorry, you’re right, Houston was F-ing world class tonight.
Actually, I happen to like the team and what they’ve built, but you’ve got to worry about the number of times in both games that they let Municipal forwards run free behind the defense. And who exactly stepped up at forward to make you forget Jaqua and Ngwenya?
Now what I’m sick of is people who can’t separate analysis of the negative qualities in a team or player with ‘hating’.
I think heads would explode if Chivas USA ever won anything, especially with Ante Razov on the roster.
Tim, check the DC United thread if you think this one is bad. It is the inferiority complex of NY/NJ Red Bull Metrostar fans. Anyone with a legitimate trophy or two are targests: Chicago, DC, LA, and you guys.
Lawd what will happen to this blog if Chivas USA ever win an MLS Cup.
LOL at all the negative Houston comments. Such haters.
Franco Carracio is a 21 yr old from Arsenal in Argentina.
Boswell lacks the pace and awareness we need in the backline. Never thought I would say this but we really miss Cochrane.
Missing Mullan, Davis and Holden in the midfield really hurt tonight. We’ll be much sharper when they are back.
Keith,
As much as I like MLS and want it to be the “league of the area”, its only the “league of the area” if you don’t count Mexico as part of our “area”
A couple of nice wins for MLS this round though! I think one of these teams will move through to the final this time based on improvements, what they did last year, plus the SuperLiga last summer…
I was at the game and I’m looking forward to the season tickets I bought!!!!
I was at the game and I’m looking forward to the season tickets I bought!!!!
Did anyone else notice the size of the crowd at this game? For a Champions Cup game, I think that’s really significant, even if there were some Municipal fans in there (from what I saw, looked like a lot of orange though). Houston is a GREAT soccer town. Awesome stuff.
Not really impressed by Houston. Two bad calls lead to two undeserved goals. The defense was ponderous, while the forwards were atrocious. At least their midfield actually showed something worthwhile.