Held scoreless over the first 60 minutes of play, Houston Dynamo quickly made the most of a man advantage and scored two goals in the final half hour to defeat Chivas USA 2-0 on Sunday evening at Robertson Stadium and advance to the Western Conference Championship with a 3-2 win on aggregate in their semifinal series.
Brad Davis scored on a penalty kick and Brian Ching scored the series-winning goal on a header in stoppage time, ending Chivas USA's season and bringing Houston one step closer to the MLS Cup Final.
The first half of the game was relatively calm, but the intensity picked up in the second half. Seven cards were issued in the second half of the contest, including a red card to Chivas forward Juan Francisco Palencia, ejected for fighting in the 58th minute, and a bench-clearing scuffle marred the end of the game.
The first half started dangerously for Houston, as Chivas USA midfielder Juan Pablo Garcia took the ball only seconds after the kickoff and dribbled through the Dynamo defense to the top of the box. Luckily for Houston, defender Wade Barrett used a perfectly timed slide tackle to slip the ball away from Garcia.
Through much of the first half, neither team managed a sustained presence in the other's half. Dynamo seemed to have the early advantage in scoring opportunities, earning three corner kicks in the first 20 minutes to none for Chivas. None of the kicks proved very dangerous however, and all were quickly cleared back into the midfield.
The first shot of the night came from Davis in the 23rd minute. Davis corralled a loose ball and fired a low shot from 25 yards out, forcing a diving save by Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
Three minutes later, Houston threatened to score again when Davis sent a cross into the box in the direction of Dynamo midfielder Dwayne De Rosario. De Rosario lined up for a bicycle kick, but whiffed on the attempt, allowing Chivas USA to clear.
Houston kept Chivas without a single shot at goal in a largely uneventful first half, but went to the locker room scoreless and needing at least one goal in the second half to keep their hopes of advancing to the Western Conference Championship alive.
In the second half, Dynamo came out with a sense of urgency, keeping pressure on the Chivas defense in the early going. Two Davis corner kicks at the 48th and 50th minutes represented the best early chances for Houston, but the first was punched out by Guzan and the second was easily cleared by the Chivas defense.
The game reached playoff intensity in the 56th minute, when Chivas USA defender Lawson Vaughn drew a yellow card for arguing a call. One minute later, Palencia was given a yellow card for a hard tackle on De Rosario.
While Dynamo trainers were tending to defender Adrian Serioux, who had been knocked down on the play, Palencia and a few Houston players, including midfielder Ricardo Clark, began a scuffle at midfield. The fight was quickly broken up, but Clark was given a yellow card and Palencia was shown red by referee Michael Kennedy and was ejected from the game.
In the 63rd minute, Chivas USA defender Tim Regan was called for a tackle from behind on De Rosario inside the penalty area, receiving a yellow card on the play as Kennedy made no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Garcia also received a yellow card for arguing the call.
Davis lined up to take the penalty kick -- De Rosario had seen one saved by Guzan in the first leg that kept the score at 2-1 and maintained the Chivas advantage -- but this time he put his shot to Guzan's left and into the back of the net, evening the series at two goals each.
Chivas USA forward Sacha Kljestan tried to restore his team's series lead with Chivas' first shot of the night, an attempt from the top of the box in the 67th minute that Onstad saved with a stretching dive to his left. Kljestan also had the second and final shot of the game for Chivas in the 88th minute, a free kick attempt from 25 yards out that sailed well over the crossbar and into the crowd.
Just as the game seemed destined to roll into the half hour of extra time, Dynamo hit for series-clinching goal two minutes into stoppage time. De Rosario took the ball towards the corner and sent in a cross to Eddie Robinson, who was unmarked at the back post. Robinson headed the ball down, but was off target, sending it back only into the middle of the goal area.
No Chivas defenders were able to reach the ball in time to prevent it from bouncing high into the air, where Ching leapt up to meet it and headed it into the back of the net for the series-clinching goal.
Houston goes on to face the Colorado Rapids in the Western Conference Championship at Robertson Stadium in Houston on Sunday, Nov. 5. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. CT.
Lucas Ogden-Davis is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
