Early blunder sets up goal as winless streak reaches 5
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Moral victories do not count for much, but considering the circumstances of Saturday night’s match the Dynamo will take anything they can get.
The Dynamo went down a man and a goal early in the first half but kept the suspense alive until the final whistle before falling to the Columbus Crew 1-0 at Mapfre Stadium.
The Dynamo (1-4-2) extended their winless streak to five matches. They have lost four of those and remain in last place in the Western Conference. Columbus (2-3-2) won its second consecutive game.
Throughout the season the Dynamo have dropped points for various reasons.
So when they bounced back on Saturday with a quality performance despite being down a man they felt like it was not as bad as it could have been.
“The heart and the spirit and the fight we showed tonight for 75 minutes against a very, very good side was very pleasing,” Dynamo coach Owen Coyle said. “If we perform at that level with 11 men, we’ll be winning week in and week out .”
A promising start turned sour for the Dynamo in the 18th minute when goalkeeper Tyler Deric was sent off for denying Federico Higuain of a goal-scoring opportunity.
The foul occurred in the box, leading to a penalty. Kei Kamara converted in the 21st minute.
The fact that Higuain got into that situation was a bit unlucky for the Dynamo. Kamara played a onetouch backward pass as the attack moved quickly forward, but with no time to react Dynamo defender Sheanon Williams deflected it behind the defense.
Higuain was all by himself and turned to run onto the fast-rolling ball. He touched it once at the top of the box before Deric stuck out his feet but then dove with his hands and made contact with Higuain’s feet.
Williams and Raul Rodriguez had raced back to the goal line and would have been there to stop a shot if Higuain took one on his next touch from a short angle.
Coyle and Deric did not question that it should have been a penalty but disagreed with the red card. Coyle said he will consider appealing the call.
“The terminology for red cards is to deny a clear goal-scoring opportunity, which it was not,” Coyle said. “Higuain is a wonderful player, but I’d be struggling to think Messi would score on that with his first touch when we’ve got two men back to the line.”
Goalkeeper Joe Willis subbed in at that point. The Dynamo played the last 70 minutes down a man.
The Dynamo were competitive over that duration but did not have many dangerous scoring opportunities. They did have a couple chances in the first 15 minutes when both teams were at full strength.
Giles Barnes had a shot from close range denied by goalkeeper Steve Clark. Midfielder Ricardo Clark had an on-target shot deflected into the cross bar by a defender.
Coyle followed through on the changes he promised after the folly-filled loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy on April 15. The Dynamo began the match with five new starters.
Midfielder Collen Warner and center back Agus made their Dynamo debuts. Deric and defender Sheanon William made their season debuts.
Boniek Garcia moved into the left wing spot that Barnes had occupied. Barnes started at forward for the first time since last May.
The new starters replaced Will Bruin, Chaco Maidana, David Horst, Jalil Anibaba and Joe Willis. Corey Roepken is a freelance writer.