The last time the Montreal Impact visited the Houston Dynamo, they saw star forward Marco DiVaio issued a red card for an ugly incident late in a playoff loss to the Dynamo.
Four months later, the Impact found themselves sorely missing DiVaio as the suspended striker’s absence proved costly in a tightly-contested 1-0 Dynamo victory on Saturday.
Will Bruin’s deflected shot goal in the 40th minute was enough to give Houston the victory on a day when Montreal couldn’t finish its chances. Impact forward Andrew Wenger was the main culprit, missing a handful of clear chances throughout the match.
One of Wenger’s chances was saved well by Tally Hall just before Bruin’s goal, and a second Wenger chance was cleared off the line by Kofi Sarkodie in the 62nd minute.
Hall made four saves to post his second straight shutout.
Here are the match highlights: