We’ll Meet Again
May 30th, 2008 . 8:47 pm . By: John CarltonThe outcome of the Texas Derby, and the fate of the 19th century cannon El Capitán, will have to wait until late June when FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo meet for a third and final time during the 2008 MLS regular season. On Wednesday night at Pizza Hut Park, the teams played to a 2-2 draw, making the series 5-5 on aggregate after the first two encounters. FC Dallas forward Kenny Cooper opened the scoring in the 35th minute. Pablo Ricchetti lofted a long ball down the left flank, which Cooper beautifully one-touched with his right foot toward the penalty area. After creating the necessary space, Cooper finished the job with a lovely bending shot toward the right post. The goal was Cooper’s sixth of the season. Prior to the goal, FC Dallas had spurned several chances. Colombian midfielder Juan Toja, returning to the starting eleven after being benched last Saturday, saw his shot go wide from the top of the box in the 19th minute. Later in the half, Marcelo Saragosa couldn’t capitalize when he tried to run onto a useful low cross from Cooper and muffed his shot wide right. Houston’s attack was slow to get into gear, but they did have eight shots by halftime. The Orange regrouped and looked more dangerous in the second half. In the 58th minute, they scored the equalizer off a fine, flowing play. Dwayne DeRosario dribbled down the right sideline before launching an early cross to the chest of Brian Ching, who showed wonderful control in knocking the ball to his feet and turning to feed a short pass to the onrushing Corey Ashe. Ashe could do little but score with the ball at his feet from 3 yards out. The Red Stripes fought back in the 69th minute when defender Drew Moor scored off a corner kick. Andre Rocha hit a high, curving in-swinger from the right corner and Drew Moor, who came in unmarked, rose to connect his forehead squarely to the ball, knocking it into the net on one bounce. It was Moor’s first goal of the year. The game changed in the 78th minute when Marcelo Saragosa chased a high cross from Juan Toja into the box and ran into the back of Dynamo defender Eddie Robinson. Robinson, who had purposefully stopped in his tracks to invite the contact, turned around and shoved Saragosa to the ground. After the referee arrived, he curiously issued yellow cards to both Robinson and Saragosa. Then the referee gave a straight red card to Andre Rocha for violent conduct, supposedly for the afters. It was Robinson’s second yellow card, leaving the teams to fight the rest of the way 10-on-10. In the final minutes, the Dynamo poured on the pressure. DeRosario and winger Brad Davis were active, in particular. The pressure paid off in stoppage time when Dallas appeared too tired to step up and mark players in the midfield. Houston easily worked the ball into the right corner where Corey Ashe beat a Hoops defender towards goal and hit a nice cross to the far post. Brian Ching pushed Drew Moor in the back to gain access to the ball, but headed his point-blank effort off the crossbar. The rebound fell to the opportunistic DeRosario and the Canadian slammed it into the back of the net to force the draw and end the game. FC Dallas will feel hard done by the result, but sharing points with their in-state rivals means they will live to fight another day. Houston Dynamo (2-3-5) vs. FC Dallas (3-3-4)May 28, 2008 — Pizza Hut Park Scoring Summary: Houston Dynamo — Pat Onstad, Craig Waibel, Bobby Boswell, Eddie Robinson, Geoff Cameron, Brian Mullan (Corey Ashe 46), Dwayne De Rosario, Richard Mulrooney, Stuart Holden (Chris Wondolowski 85), Kyle Brown (Brad Davis 58), Brian Ching, Substitutes Not Used: Tony Caig, Franco Caraccio, Mike Chabala, Patrick Ianni FC Dallas — Dario Sala, Drew Moor, Duilio Davino (Aaron Pitchkolan 46), Adrian Serioux, Pablo Ricchetti, Marcelo Saragosa, Juan Toja, Blake Wagner, Andre Rocha, Kenny Cooper (Abe Thompson 88), Dominic Oduro (Arturo Alvarez 72), Substitutes Not Used: Eric Avila, Ray Burse, Michael Dello-Russo, Anthony Wallace
Misconduct Summary: referee: Alex Prus No Comments No comments yet. Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||