Úlfarsson, Quintero star in skid-snapping victory
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DYNAMO AT PORTLAND TIMBERS
When/where: 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Portland.
Having fallen below the playoff line, Houston made a concentrated effort Saturday night to pull in the full three points at home against Chicago.
Dynamo coach Paulo Nagamura made a decision to give a start to Thor Úlfarsson as an attacker. Úlfarsson made the most of the situation, scoring the breakthrough goal in the Dynamo’s 2-0 victory at PNC Stadium to end a two-game run of bad results in MLS play.
“A real good solid performance for the team and a clean sheet. There’s really nothing to complain about,” Úlfarsson said.
Úlfarsson’s second goal of the season — in his fourth start — came in the 23rd minute against highly touted 18-year-old goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina.
Houston (6-7-3) was the better team in the first half, getting to halftime with a two-goal lead when Darwin Quintero scored in first-half stoppage time. Quintero’s sixth goal struck a blow to the Fire, who are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Dynamo goalkeeper Steve Clark stopped all four of the shots fired his way en route to his fifth clean sheet of the season.
A 56th-minute goal by Sebastián Ferreira was negated by an offsides call, which would have put the Dynamo up three goals.
“A good performance in the two halves,” Nagamura said. “We had a lot of chances where we could have scored a couple more. But pleased.”
The game, played before a crowd of 13,081, was contested in 90 degreeplus temperature, matching two first-year coaches trying to rebuild teams.
Winning at home will be critical to the Dynamo’s success. They have their work cut out for them to get above the playoff line with 18 games remaining. Houston is 4-2-3 at PNC.
“We’ve talked about how important it is to have a (winning) home record, a very good home record,” Nagamura said. “It’s important to put us in a good position to find the playoffs.
“In the first half of the season, we were OK, we could have been better.
This game was huge, and our guys responded well.”
Earlier in the season Úlfarsson had missed several clear chances. On Saturday, he played a large role in the victory.
“What we did today was effective,” Nagamura said. “Thor did well, he played both sides of the ball well, and he gave us a goal. We want guys to perform on both sides.”
Quintero’s goal came after he slipped through the Fire defense and connected on a cross from Adam Lundqvist for a strike into the far post in the second minute of stoppage time.
Houston was outshot 17-11 but enjoyed a 5-4 edge in shots on target. The Dynamo possessed the ball 53 percent of the match.
“We kept the ball really well,” Úlfarsson said. “That’s why we got the result.”
The Dynamo have a midweek trip to Oregon to face the Portland Timbers on Wednesday. Houston returns to PNC on July 3 to host Charlotte FC as part of Americana weekend.