both from FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper. Cooper ran onto a through ball and looped it over the 'keeper from the edge of the area in the 35th minute, then hit a low shot on the half-turn from the top of the box just before halftime.
• The Dynamo pulled level in the 57th minute when Geoff Cameron aimed a low cross for Brian Ching in the goal area, only for the ball to bounce off FCD defender Drew Moor and into the goal. But it look less than a minute for the Hoops to regain the lead, Houston native Arturo Alvarez running free behind the Dynamo defense and beating Caig from inside the area.
• FC Dallas seemed on their way to the club's first win ever in Houston until Cameron popped up to score a minute into stoppage time, ripping a rising blast from just outside the area that sailed under the crossbar.
• Here's Kinnear's team (4-3-1-2): Pat Onstad (Tony Caig 28) - Craig Waibel, Bobby Boswell, Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett (Brad Davis 78) - Geoff Cameron, Richard Mulrooney, Corey Ashe - Dwayne De Rosario - Franco Caraccio (Brian Mullan 70), Brian Ching. Substitutes Not Used: Kyle Brown, Chris Wondolowski, Patrick Ianni, Erik Ustruck
• Here's Morrow's team (3-4-1-2): Dario Sala - Drew Moor, Duilio Davino, Adrian Serioux - Dax McCarty, Andre Rocha, Pablo Ricchetti, Blake Wagner - Juan Toja (Dominic Oduro 74) - Kenny Cooper (Anthony Wallace 87), Arturo Alvarez (Ricardinho 80). Substitutes Not Used: Ray Burse, Michael Dello-Russo, Aaron Pitchkolan, Abe Thompson
FC DALLAS
FC Dallas came back to win in Marco Ferruzzi's coaching debut, getting two late goals from Dominic Oduro for a 2-1 win against Real Salt Lake last Saturday at Pizza Hut Park. The Hoops are now tied for second place in the Western Conference with 12 points from nine matches, level with the Colorado Rapids two points behind the LA Galaxy.
LAST MATCH
• FC Dallas had gone winless in four consecutive games, last a disheartening 5-1 home loss to the LA Galaxy, in what would be Steve Morrow's final game in charge. Real Salt Lake had just one win in their last five matches, still winless on the road on the campaign.
• Before the first half was out, both teams were a man down. RSL defender Ian Joy was sent off in the 38th minute, after the second of two bookable offenses in 20 minutes. But just before the break, FCD defender Bobby Rhine was also shown red after an altercation with RSL's Javier Morales.
• The visitors took the lead in the 69th minute. Racing to receive a return pass from Morales in the left side of the area, Fabian Espindola sailed past a defender and drove an angled shot past FCD goalkeeper Dario Sala inside the far post.
• Dominic Oduro scored his first goal of the season the week before, and after coming on as a substitute, he again came through. In the 83rd minute, Drew Moor floated a long ball from well out on the right, and the Ghanaian rose up to head it over RSL 'keeper Nick Rimando.
• Then a minute into stoppage time, Andre Rocha split the RSL defense with a ball into the box. Oduro collected it before cutting to his right to escape his marker, then set himself and curled a shot past Rimando inside the right post for the winner.
• In his first game in charge as interim head coach, Ferruzzi made three changes from the team that lost 5-1 to the LA Galaxy the week before. With Adrian Serioux suspended, Aaron Pitchkolan came in on the left of the back three. Juan Toja and Arturo Alvarez went to the substitutes' bench as Bobby Rhine and Marcelo Saragosa came back into a five-man midfield.
• Here's Ferruzzi's team (3-4-1-2): Dario Sala - Drew Moor, Duilio Davino, Aaron Pitchkolan - Bobby Rhine, Pablo Ricchetti (Juan Toja 79), Marcelo Saragosa, Anthony Wallace (Arturo Alvarez 69) - Andre Rocha - Abe Thompson (Dominic Oduro 65), Kenny Cooper. Substitutes Not Used: Eric Avila, Andrew Daniels, Michael Dello-Russo, Mike Graczyk
• "It was an emotional game. The boys did a brilliant job, they were spectacular tonight. A lot of heart, a lot of effort - I couldn't ask for more," Ferruzzi said.
TEAM NEWS
• After scoring his first goal late in the Galaxy match, Oduro came on with 25 minutes to play and hit for both the equalizer and game-winner.
• "He's been training very hard," Ferruzzi said. "Coming off a goal last week, he has a lot of confidence. He did an excellent job tonight. If he keeps working that way, it will hard to keep him off (the field)."
• The winning goal was the second time in less than a year that Oduro had beaten RSL with a goal in second-half stoppage time. He did the same in a 1-0 win at Rice-Eccles Stadium on June 14, 2007.
• "We've been practicing through balls all this week. I saw a great opportunity and I think (Andre) Rocha saw the same thing that I saw. And I just did what I had to do," Oduro said.
• Perhaps the biggest change Ferruzzi made to the team was dropping Juan Toja. Trying to find the form Toja had exhibited a year ago, Steve Morrow had played Toja as an underneath forward, a playmaking central midfielder and also put him in a wide midfield role.
• "Toja is an excellent player. He's a spectacular player. He's working into his form, but we have no issues at all," Ferruzzi said. "Juan is a great player. He's going to fight for this club. He's going to have an impact. That's what we expect, that's what he expects, that's what's going to happen."
• The Hoops came into the game winless in their last four matches, with losses in three. Their last win came more than a month ago, a 2-0 victory at Chivas USA. Oduro's goal celebration was, in some ways, a response to everything.
• "It (that goal) was kind of a relief," Oduro said. "Everybody knows what we've been going through. Steve Morrow is a great coach but unfortunately, he's gone. Taking my shirt off was to show the guys that it's not over and that we can do this. We had a bad stretch and all we can do is pick our heads up."
HOUSTON DYNAMO
The Houston Dynamo went to the Bay Area for the first time since the club's move from there to south Texas, and saw the San Jose Earthquakes win for the first time at home in their return to the league, a 2-1 victory on MLS Primetime Thursday. The Dynamo now sit in fifth place in the Western Conference with 10 points from nine matches, a point behind Chivas USA yet just four out of the top spot.
LAST MATCH
• The Earthquakes hadn't won in four games, since claiming the first victory in their return to the league, while the Dynamo had won their last two matches after opening defense of their title with a six-game winless run.
• It was somewhat of a homecoming for the Dynamo, featuring 10 players and coach Dominic Kinnear who had gone with the club to south Texas when it left after the 2006 season.
• The Earthquakes took the lead in the 67th minute. A deflected cross from Ronnie O'Brien was flicked over his head by Ned Grabavoy, finding Kei Kamara deep in the box. His quick shot on the turn not only beat Dynamo defender Patrick Ianni, but goalkeeper Pat Onstad as well, giving the Quakes the lead.
• San Jose doubled the margin in the 81st minute. On the counter, Ivan Guerrero played Ryan Johnson through on the right side of the box, and while Onstad did well to parry his blast, Guerrero was on hand to slot home the rebound.
• The Dynamo pulled a goal back two minutes from the end when Brian Ching volleyed home a Brad Davis cross at the near post for his second goal on the season, but they could get no closer and San Jose was able to celebrate a victory in front of their home fans for the first time in three years.
• Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear maintained the same starting XI for the third consecutive match, the same one that had claimed the club's first two victories on the year.
• Here's Kinnear's team (4-3-1-2): Pat Onstad - Richard Mulrooney, Bobby Boswell, Eddie Robinson (Patrick Ianni 64), Wade Barrett - Brian Mullan, Ricardo Clark, Stuart Holden (Brad Davis 75) - Dwayne De Rosario - Franco Caraccio (Kyle Brown 55), Brian Ching. Substitutes Not Used: Chris Wondolowski, Tony Caig, Geoff Cameron, Craig Waibel
• "I don't think we had a good game tonight. We were sluggish in the first half, a little hesitant going for the first and second balls. And when we got the ball we weren't clearing our lines quickly enough," Kinnear said. "Even in the second half we really didn't start pushing forward until the 70th minute or so. We made some mistakes and they punished us."
TEAM NEWS
• All week long Kinnear was preaching the necessity of treating the return to San Jose like just another road game, just another business trip. But the message might not have gotten through.
• "It should have been another game to us but I think guys let the fact they were looking for tickets for friends and family," said defender Eddie Robinson. "They went to eat dinner with them and it kind of got in the way. Dominic was saying all week we are not getting plane tickets to come here and visit. We're supposed to be here and play a game."
• "I don't think our boys were ready coming back. There is always going to be a buildup coming back here. A lot of questions were about our return and I don't think it was a distraction to our preparation," Kinnear said.
• The game changed when Robinson left the field in the 64th minute with an injury.
• "I got a hip pointer or something," he said. "It's just a knock. I went for a ball and Ryan Johnson just caught me with an elbow. I was waiting for the pain to go away to subside and it never did, so I had a hard time standing up straight."
• Two minutes later, Kei Kamara put the Quakes into the lead. "Anytime you lose Eddie, you're losing a good player, a good guy in the air," Kinnear said. "On that play, there was a little too much room when the ball fell. We were a little bit hesitant in going for the ball, and that hesitancy cost us."
• Brian Ching scored his second goal of the season, turning home a cross from substitute Brad Davis. "We play best when we get balls wide and put them in the box, and unfortunately we didn't start doing that until we were down 2-0," Ching said. "We were out of our rhythm tonight. We didn't come to play, and we got punished for it."
• With their first two victories of the season following a draw, the Dynamo were in a position to move right back atop the Western Conference.
• "We'll have to look at the tape and see what we did wrong," Dwayne De Rosario said. "The way we started, the first half, was just not the way we usually go about things. We didn't get stuck into tackles and we didn't move the ball around sharply, and it was like we were being too nice. We need to let the past be the past and anytime we come here we need to focus on doing one thing: work hard and get your tackles and get a result."
