Winning has become a way of life for Houston Dynamo over the past two months. After taking a quick 1-0 lead over Monarcas Morelia on Sunday evening, it looked as if that trend would continue, but Morelia struck for a goal in the 74th minute to tie the score and the two teams battled to a draw from there.
The Orange were frustrated with the result, especially because the Morelia goal came on a misunderstanding between goalkeeper Zach Wells and the Dynamo back four.
"It was just a miscommunication between myself and about four of my teammates," Wells said. "I got the ball about a split -second before and the defense came right through it. It came out of my hands and went the wrong way, obviously. We had the right people in place to defend it, but somehow they got it through."
On the Monarcas goal, Wells came off the line and stopped a through ball into the box, but the ball bounced off him and to Marcio Batista, who hit a shot from the heart of the area into the lower right corner past the scrambling Dynamo defenders trying to get back into the goalmouth while Wells was out of it.
"The goal we gave up was very preventable," said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. "You could say it was soft. We defended pretty well up to that point. We were defending a little bit too much. I think we had a hard time clearing the lines because the guys were a bit tired."
The goal ruined what started out being a great game for Dynamo. Barely 12 seconds into the match, Joseph Ngwenya took a through pass from Brian Ching as he snuck in behind the Morelia back line on the left and poked a slow, but effective shot, from just inside the top of the box past Moises Munoz as the Morelia 'keeper charged off his line, nestling the ball inside the far corner.
"That was a good one. We wanted to try to catch them a little off guard," Ngwenya said. "(Dwayne) De Rosario played it to Ching, who got it to me and I was able to take the pass from Ching and slide it in. That was just a great pass from Ching and what I did was easy. "
The game turned physical with five yellows being issued. Fernando Arce and De Rosario got yellows in the 48th minute after Arce appeared to have slapped Wade Barrett. De Rosario retaliated for his teammate by shoving Arce in the back. In the 66th minute, Horacio Cervantes was booked for dissent, but the second real altercation took place in the 78th minute when Diego Martinez undercut Brian Mullan. Mullan retaliated with a shove to the back of Martinez. Both were booked.
Kinnear didn't agree with the way referee Walter Quesada called the game.
"I always thought the rules of the game were that if you slap someone across the face, you get sent off, so what he was looking at tonight, was totally different than what we see on Saturday," Kinnear said. "I don't like to criticize referees, but I think this guy refereed very different than what we are used to. I think the guy (Samir Osman) that refereed on Wednesday saw things clearly. I think the guy tonight was intimidated a little bit."
With the tie, Houston and D.C. are tied for the lead in Group B heading into Wednesday's game, and Morelia is in third place with two points. Dynamo and United play in the group finale on Wednesday night.
Houston had opportunities to tie the score late, but shots by Stuart Holden and De Rosario were both stopped by Munoz. Houston said they were tired from playing two games in four days, but they were happy to at least get the point.
"Obviously, this was a tough one for us because we came in a little bit tired I think from the last game," Ngwenya said. "But we still got the tie so that is good.
"It was just one of those games. We couldn't convert any of our other chances in the first half. I think we were a little tired too, and I know we are all looking forward to the next one and putting this past us."
Jeremy Rakes is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
