HOUSTON - Houston Dynamo finally put an end to their three-game losing skid. And it came in the best possible fashion, as the Orange came from behind to dispatch intrastate rivals FC Dallas 2-1 on Sunday at Robertson Stadium.
The win pulls the Orange three points closer to the Western Conference-leading Hoops.
"We've gotten closer, but there's still a lot of work to do," said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. "We've worked our way up a little bit, but we've still got a ways to go."
The Dynamo locker room was quiet at halftime, and Ricardo Clark took exception to FC Dallas' lone goal by Abe Thompson. In the second half, Clark, playing in his final game before leaving Dynamo to play for the U.S. national team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, came out with fire and helped lead the Orange to the victory.
Clark scored the game-tying goal in the 51st minute after getting a pass from Brian Mullan in the right side of the area and hitting the right corner of the net. Clark then assisted on Joseph Ngwenya's game-winning goal in the 66th minute. Clark received a pass from Corey Ashe and sent a through ball to Ngwenya, whose bending shot from outside the area rounded FCD 'keeper Dario Sala and found the bottom right corner of the net.
"I have to take the blame on my part for the first goal, and I was disappointed," Clark said. "I think it was a drive for us in the second half to step up. As a team, I think we showed a lot of character. We got the two, and it was all over from there. We took it to them after that.
"It was definitely a relief (to get the goal). After my goal, we still needed one more goal and we had 40 more minutes to play, so that's what I was thinking."
In the 78th minute, FC Dallas had a chance to tie the score when Arturo Alvarez latched on to a back pass from Richard Mulrooney at midfield and raced in along. Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad took out Alvarez with a hard tackle right on the edge of the area, and was shown a red card by referee Michael Kennedy and ejected from the game.
Onstad, who had played every minute for Dynamo the last two years, was relieved by Zach Wells. After the game, Onstad said denying the game-tying attempt was the only thing he was thinking about on the play.
"The sacrifice was worth it," said Onstad, who was making his 74th straight start in goal. "If I don't take him down, Arturo is likely to score and there is not a lot of time to for us to try and come back to win it. I think it's a different story if we're in the first couple minutes of the game because you might let him go and fight back. But, in this case, I had to take him down, and I'm glad he didn't get hurt. Even happier that we got the win."
The win was important for Houston for a number of reasons, but the Orange were happy with the win because they came back against the West-leading Hoops after falling behind at the half.
"We've been through that situation a couple times this season being down at the half, but nobody put their head down," said Mulrooney. "We knew we could come back. We did in the Colorado game. To come back from behind in this league is tough. Most times you can come back and get a tie, but to come back and get a win against a team like Dallas ... we'll take our three points and learn from it and come back and play again on Thursday."
Jeremy Rakes is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
