On a historic night in Fort Lauderdale, Houston Dynamo lifted its second Open Cup title in 5 years.
The Dynamo FC wins its second Lamar Hunt US Open Cup in franchise history after beating Inter Miami 2-1 in Florida. The Space City squad dominated from the starting whistle and took advantage of Inter’s defensive miscues to score twice in the first half. Miami missed its superstar Lionel Messi, who was not available for the final match because of a leg injury. This had a big negative impact on the Floridian squad. Also, another big miss for Miami was Jordi Alba. Due to all these issues, in addition to a great gameplan by Houston, the team coached by ‘Tata’ Martino, was never able to find its game on Wednesday night.
Dynamo superiority was reflected when the first goal of the night came for the Orange. Defender, Griffin Dorsey blasted the ball from inside the box at the 24th minute to beat Miami’s GK Drake Callender for the partial 1-0. Nine minutes later, Amine Bassi converted from the spot to double the lead for the Texan side, after Nelson Quinones was fouled in the box.
After the goal, Miami had a little more possession of the ball at midfield, however, they were not able to create opportunities to score. On the other hand, Dynamo created chances, but they failed to add more goals to the scoreboard.
The second half started the same way as the first one. The Orange was dominating the rhythm of the match but were not able to score more goals. Miami on the other side, started to advance and therefore gained the controlled of the midfield. Even though they found a late goal via Josef Martinez at the 92’, their attempt to comeback failed short and the Houston Dynamo wins another title to remain as the most successful franchise in the state of Texas.
Now, Houston’s focus returns to MLS action as they want to finish the season strong to secure a top three spot at the MLS playoffs and earn home field advantage in the Western Conference. Miami, on the other hand, wants to keep pushing to earn a spot at the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. However, it will be a difficult task if Messi does not get healthy soon, as his side really needs his magic to win points to advance and battle for the MLS title.
