The Houston Dynamo may have entered Wednesday night’s Eastern Conference wild card round playoff game against the as the lower seed, but they never quite had the feeling of an underdog.
The Dynamo never looked like the underdog on Wednesday, outplaying the Fire on their home field for much of Wednesday night. Will Bruin’s two goals made the difference and Houston’s team defending made those goals stand up as the Dynamo posted a 2-1 victory to book their place in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Bruin headed home a Brad Davis corner kick in the first half, then raced onto a Calen Carr pass in the first minute of the second half to slot home the eventual winning goal.
Houston’s midfield outworked Chicago’s with Brad Davis, Oscar Boniek Garcia and Ricardo Clark carrying the play and forcing the Fire to settle for sending attacks down the flanks. Patrick Nyarko was effective for the Fire, and he set up Chicago’s lone goal (scored by Alex late in the second half), but Houston’s defense kept Fire forwards Sherjill MacDonald and Chris Rolfe bottled up.
The Dynamo victory sets up a rematch of the 2011 Eastern Conference final, which saw Houston defeat Sporting Kansas City. Houston holds a 1-0-2 edge on KC this season, but the one Dynamo victory came against a short-handed KC team (and came after an early KC red card).
The loss ended a disappointing month for the Fire, which saw them go from the verge of first place in the East to a slide that dropped them into Wednesday’s knockout round match.
Here are the match highlights:
What did you think of the match? Impressed with Houston’s performance? Disappointed with how the Fire looked? See the Dynamo beating Sporting KC?
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