By COLE KELLOGG
New York had the better of the chances early on, but the Houston Dynamo out-classed the Red Bulls in the finishing department at BBVA Compass Stadium on Friday night.
Two goals and an assist from Will Bruin and a goal and assist from Oscar Boniek Garcia fired the Dynamo to a 4-2 win at home over the Red Bulls.
Bradley Wright-Phillips almost put the Red Bulls up in the eighth minute after a long ball from Sacha Kljestan put him through on goal, but David Horst was able to save Houston and clear the ball before it reached the goal line.
It was Wright-Phillips in the center of the action again in the 42nd minute, as he played a ball through to Mike Grella for the opening goal of the match. Grella beat his defender inside and shot past Tyler Deric at the far post to put his team 1-0 up.
In first-half stoppage time, a well-struck Kljestan freekick forced Deric into a quality save to keep his team in the match.
In the 59th minute, Bruin had his first contribution on the night. Bruin slotted the ball out to the right side of the box to Boniek-Garcia, whose ensuing shot was deflected by New York center back Karl Ouimette before floating over goalkeeper Luis Robles.
Houston got a second off of a corner kick in the 72nd minute. Ricardo Clark put away a Boniek Garcia corner kick by finding it with an outstretched leg at the back post. The finish came shortly after Clark had controversially had another set-piece goal disallowed.
New York similarly had seen a goal off a set piece questionably called back in the first half. Mike Grella fired a corner played low into the back of the net, but the whistle was blown and it did not count.
The Dynamo weren’t done just yet. A spectacular Bruin solo run gave Houston a third goal in the 80th minute. Bruin put the ball in the upper 90 after out-hustling New York’s Dax McCarty.
The Red Bulls got on the board again to make the score 3-2 in the 90th minute off of a close-range header from substitute Anatole Abang.
One goal was left to come, though, as Bruin finished in style with hist left foot past Robles in the 93rd minute.
Bring back Petke, maybe they’ll start playing better!
I’ve followed this blog for 10 years now and have written in the comments section only a few times usually only to praise a well written piece but tonight is different.
Why does this recap sound as if it is a PR piece written for Houston’s fansite?. “Emphatic Win”, “Out-classed”, “Out-hustled”?
I read this before watching the game and was surprised to hear it was so bad. Almost deleted the recording on my DVR but, I had some free time so imagine my surprise when the terrible display by the red bulls I expected to see wasn’t there.
I saw a game where NY controlled the match from wire to wire. Houston scored on 2 wild deflections and 2 quality finishes. NY’s goals were solid as well but once again, their failure to score clear chances killed them.
Not sure whats worse though, this writeup or the officiating in this one. 2 wrongly disallowed goals (one for each team) and a yellow card for a “dive” in the box by NY’s Grella, which on replay was a clear foul.
Cole, admit it, you mailed this one in. Then again, Ives, maybe that should be expected when your recaps are being written by marketing interns for specific teams in the league. What else should we expect but this 8th grade level, book report type of coverage.
Cole,…what happened to the Ryan Tolmich’s MLS Week 14: A Look Ahead thread? Why was it removed?
Outhustled Dax McCarty ….. You never hear that!
Redbulls lose again, should be good to move up a spot on the SBI rankings list.
Really surprised what a new coaching staff can do. I had written off Will Bruin as odd man out with Cubo coming in (and now Manotas) but I happy to say I was wrong. Alex Lopez is another player that is seeing minutes but I’m still on the fence. The line up during gold cup should be interesting to see.