The Houston Dynamo welcomed the Portland Timbers to BBVA Compass Stadium for the first night match at the new downtown stadium and the only meeting between the two teams this season. Forecasted rain showers held off and it turned out to be a beautiful night to showcase the Dynamo’s new home. What happened in the 90 minutes on the pitch was far from beautiful as the teams played to a 0-0 draw.
At this point if you stop reading, I’ll understand. This recap won’t be anything too inspiring, thanks to the play on the pitch early on. The first half was nothing more than a boxing match where the two fighters bounce around the ring and maybe throw an occasional jab. This was the Dynamo and Timbers for the first 45 minutes. With starters Brian Ching, Adam Moffat, and Andre Hainault on the bench to start, the team lacked something.
The second half started off slow again but turned out to be quite exciting in the end, especially for a 0-0 score line. The big talking point from this match came when Calen Carr looked to have gotten behind the Timbers defense only to chopped down by Futty Danso. What could have easily been a red card was not even whistled for a foul. Referee Chris Penso and assistant referee Chris Strickland, who was five yards away, apparently saw nothing.
Houston pushed hard for a winner in the final 10 minutes and their best chance came in the 87th minute. Ching, on as a substitute, played a perfectly weighted through ball to Carr who found himself alone on goal with Timbers keeper Troy Perkins. Perkins came out and stuffed Carr’s shot to make sure both teams walked away with one point from the match.
For Portland, Captain Jack Jewsbury had to leave the match at halftime and was replaced by former Dynamo Mike Chabala. Jewsbury suffered an apparent hip injury in a collision with Brad Davis during the first half. A foul was called against the Timbers captain and trainers attended to both players. Jewsbury was unable to shake off the injury and will be further evaluated today.
After three matches in seven days the Dynamo could really use a break. They’ll get one, for 3 days. For their fourth match in eleven days the team returns to the road to take on the New England Revoultion. The same problems that plagued the Dynamo for a long stretch last year have returned again, the inability to score. When Brad Davis, an outside midfielder, is your biggest offensive threat you have a problem. The forwards must start finding the net. Will Bruin put together a nice stretch recently but he is too streaky. The Brian Ching story is a great one but without production he becomes just another over-the-hill forward who occasionally wins balls in the box. Kandji brought something to the game last nice and I’d like to see him get another start up front Saturday. Whatever coach Kinnear does it needs to produce goals before the “new” of the stadium wears off and the old blemishes start to show themselves again to the fanbase.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
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