Houston Dynamo 3-Vancouver Whitecaps 2
The good movements keep rolling for the Orange as they beat Vancouver to remain undefeated this season after three weeks. The key players for the Dynamo were Jose ‘Memo’ Rodriguez and Alberth Elis, who combined in offense, in a match where the team was trying to bounce back after being eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League.
On the other hand, Vancouver has suffered its third loss of the season and remain pointless at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.
The Canadian team was not finding itself in Texas on Saturday afternoon. They struggled to control the ball and have long possessions to help them create offensive options. In addition, the Pacific Northwest team found themselves losing early in the match when Houston’s Alberth Elis found ‘Memo’ Rodriguez inside the box for the 1-0 at the 15’. And even though, the home team had several chances to increase the lead, the away team found the equalizer when they were awarded a penalty kick at the 35’. Freddy Montero converted the PK into the 1-1 for the visitors.
However, the Dynamo went up on the scored again only seven minutes later when Alberth Elis scored via another PK at the 42’ for the partial 2-1 at the half.
The second half started better for the Whitecaps. They were pressuring the Dynamo on their own side of the pitch causing Houston make mistakes in defense. One of those mistakes was capitalized by the Canadians when Lass Bangoura tied everything up at the 54th minute.
Houston needs to be a strong team especially at home if they want to qualify to the playoffs. So, coach Wilmer Cabrera made some substitutions to be more vertical and have better chances to get the win in front of a small, but energetic home crowd. But the key for Houston was not coming from the bench, Rodriguez and Elis combined again to score the final 3-2 at the 73’ after ‘La Panterita’ found ‘Memo’ inside the box for his third goal of the season.
Now Houston will have two weeks to prepare for their first away match of the season when they traveled to Colorado to face the Rapids on March 30th, whereas the same day Vancouver will host their Cascadian rivals the Seattle Sounders.
US
2018 World Cup
