Better play, but skid grows
The Dynamo have felt the sting of continuous poor results throughout the last three months, but the feeling they had after their latest result was the worst one yet.
Despite outplaying Real Salt Lake for a large majority of Wednesday’s game at Rio Tinto Stadium, the Dynamo lost 2-1 Wednesday night after conceding a goal to Anderson Julio in the 88th minute.
The loss at Sandy, Utah was Houston’s fourth in a row, and it extended its franchise-record winless streak to 13 games. The result was bad not only because it was another dropped point but because the Dynamo (3-8-9, 18 points) felt like they should have won.
Forward Griffin Dorsey was a big part of why the Dynamo felt they deserved a better fate, but he didn’t want to talk about his play.
“You look at a game like that, and no matter how well you think you play, no matter how well you think the team played, we didn't win,” Dorsey said. “Right now, all we have to do is win. So, we can sit here and talk about how well certain players played, but in reality it's a team game and we're not winning.”
For the fourth consecutive game, the Dynamo conceded an early goal. This time it came in the sixth minute on a transition play by Real Salt Lake (7-6-6, 27 points).
The Dynamo made two mistakes on the play, starting with forward Fafa Picault. Picault received a pass from Adalberto Carrasquilla near the halfway line, but after a poor first touch, he never settled the ball. That allowed Real Salt Lake’s Jonathan Menendez time to win the ball from him.
The ball rolled toward the Dynamo’s goal, and Real Salt Lake’s Bobby Wood got to it just ahead of Dynamo defender Teenage Hadebe. Wood hopped over the sliding Hadebe and went up the field for a 3-on-1 break.
Near the top of the penalty area, Wood passed to Justin Meram on the left, and Meram scored past Dynamo goalkeeper Marko Maric.
“It was poor control (by Picault) coming inside, which can happen any time,” Dynamo coach Tab Ramos said. “It happened with us going forward at the same time, and that’s a difficult play for both centerbacks to have to make if they have to dive in all of a sudden at the last second.
“I think Teenage really tried, but he couldn’t make it there.”
As they have throughout their winless streak, the Dynamo had a great response. They controlled the game for the rest of the first half and really turned it on in the second half.
They finally broke through in the 51st minute when Picault headed in a corner kick serve from Darwin Ceren to tie the game 1-1.
Houston kept the pressure on through the 80-minute mark but ran out of gas. Real Salt Lake seized control for the last 10 minutes and made its best chance count.
The ball pinged around in tight quarters near the top of the penalty area and barely made it past the outstretched legs of Picault and Dynamo defender Tim Parker on its way to Julio.
Julio turned and shot to the low right corner in the 88th minute to give Real Salt Lake a victory the Dynamo felt should have been theirs.
“I thought the first half was probably, if not the best half, one of the best halves we’ve had all year,” Ramos said. “We follow that up by playing a really solid second half where we put pressure on RSL the whole time looking for the win. We had many chances to win the game, but at the moment the ball is not going in the goal.
“Honestly, I feel bad for the players because they deserved to win this game.”