For the second consecutive week Houston missed a chance to extend their lead ahead of both FC Dallas and Chivas USA in the Western Conference by more than a point, after playing to a 1-1 draw against the Kansas City Wizards at Robertson Stadium.
Last Saturday, Houston battled to a 1-1 draw against Columbus, and Dynamo were left frustrated and disappointed in their locker room. Again Saturday, Houston was left frustrated and disappointed as they let a possible three points slip through their fingers.
"What was disappointing about it was how we came out in the first half," said Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad. "We didn't play very well. At this stage in the season, we need to get our performances going in the right direction. Right now I don't know what way we're going."
Dynamo came out sluggish again Saturday, and Kansas City took advantage in the first minute of first-half stoppage time when Eddie Johnson scored after a defensive miscue. On a clearing attempt by the Orange, Michael Harrington picked off the ball and slid to Scott Sealy. He drew the defense to the left side of the box and then sent in a centering pass to Johnson, who steamed in ahead of a defender to knock it into the net.
"Everyone is disappointed. It's been four or five games here in the MLS where we have had a bit of a struggle getting points," Patrick Ianni said. "Obviously, we've had injuries. I think the team as a whole expects to do better as a whole."
The goal was just part of Dynamo's frustration as referee Ramon Hernandez issued seven yellows, all sandwiched around the goal.
"As far as the referee, he didn't have control of the game the whole time," Ianni said. "But, that's neither here nor there. We have our job to do on the field, and the result of the game should have nothing to do with the referee. It wasn't like he made a bad PK call or anything like that. The goal they had was very preventable. We could have made a few more chances, especially on set pieces."
Houston got the goal back in the 69th minute. Dwayne De Rosario took the ball deep in the Houston half and raced forward before splitting the Kansas City defense with a pass as Ngwenya precisely timed his run behind the Wizards back four. Ngwenya got a step on center back Nick Garcia and fired home a shot from the top of the area.
"Being down 1-0, it was important to get the goal," Ngwenya said. "I tried to take the guy away, and that was just a great ball by Dwayne [De Rosario]. He led me in with it. It's easy to score with that kind of ball."
Houston was without forward Nate Jaqua, who was suspended due to yellow card accumulation, and Brian Ching missed his second consecutive game due to injury. Craig Waibel was on the substitution list, but he was not going to play, Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said.
For those reasons, Kinnear made several changes to the starting lineup in order to keep what he thought was the best team on the field.
"To be honest, looking at our squad and where we're at, I tried to put the best team on the field," Kinnear said. "Ryan (Cochrane) has played right back before just not much. I wanted to make sure we were solid defensively, and I thought we were. The goal came from a bad giveaway. Defensively, I thought we were solid.
"To keep Richard (Mulrooney) on the field, it was important to get him into the midfield with (Ricardo Clark) and push Rico up. The only thing that I didn't like doing was to take Dwayne out of the midfield and put him up front. It wasn't ideal. We spoke about that, and I told him it was only temporary. I looked at how I thought I could get the best team on the field, and that was the reason for the moves."
With Dynamo missing out on another chance to get three points, they will look ahead to next Saturday against Real Salt Lake trying to get the three points they have missed out on the last two weeks.
"We look at it as two points lost and a point won," Ngwenya said. "We wanted to come out and win. We weren't fortunate enough to get the first goal. At the end of the day, we have to keep it in perspective and get three points against Salt Lake."
Jeremy Rakes is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
