and heated protestations -- Prus waved play on, and Chivas closed the gap to two points on second-place Houston.
Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear made three changes to the team that lost 3-1 to Real Salt Lake the weekend before at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Kelly Gray came into the team at right back in place of Craig Waibel, while Eddie Robinson returned from suspension, in place of Adrian Serioux in central defense. Chris Wondolowski made his first career MLS start, replacing Stuart Holden wide on the right of midfield.
Here's Kinnear's team (4-3-1-2): Pat Onstad - Kelly Gray (Stuart Holden 82), Ryan Cochrane (Kevin Goldthwaite 77), Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett - Chris Wondolowski (Adrian Serioux 36), Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis - Dwayne De Rosario - Brian Mullan, Alejandro Moreno. [Substitutes Not Used: Patrick Ianni, Marcus Storey, Craig Waibel, Zach Wells]
"I think my team showed great character in the second half, trying to get back into the game especially going 3-1 down. We were going to give chances to Chivas, hopefully they weren't going to take advantage of them and they didn't, and then we fought well to get back into the game," Kinnear said. "I think we should be sitting here where if we lost 3-2 it's a missed penalty kick or a saved penalty kick. But I think we should be sitting here 3-3, and that's my opinion."TEAM NEWS
Of course, most of the post-match talking points concerned the late penalty claim. "I think everyone in this room unless they're blind or a complete, 100 percent Chivas fan, knows what the answer is. For me, it's a penalty kick, and I think all of you would agree with me," said Kinnear. "I'm not going to hide from my displeasure with the performance of the man in the middle. It's two weeks in a row that we've had major decisions going against us, and it's taking points away from us, and it's taking money away from us, but there seems to be no answer."
As well, the loss of Ricardo Clark to a red card changed the game early on. "It's difficult when you only have 10 men. I felt that not just Dwayne but all the guys tried their hardest and that's all you can ask. I saw our team get down to 10 men and it was a little different," Kinnear said.
"I think for us to go on the road and actually come out in the second half with an attacking formation and then go back to a little more conservative formation to try to rest a little bit and then try and go back to a more attacking formation showed the energy they had, the commitment they had. That's why I feel sick to my stomach for them, because for all their work and all their effort there should be something earned."
It's now two losses in a row for Dynamo on their five-game road swing, both coming to Western Conference opponents. After the trip to Chicago, they face FC Dallas and the Los Angeles Galaxy away from home.
"I think the pressure is as thick as it can get for us right now. We're in a little bit of a rut right now and mentally it's pretty tough on us," Brad Davis said. "Obviously we think about the points but right now we've got to take it game by game and get our mentality back. We know we can get through this together as a team, and it would help if we had some calls go our way."
