Giles Barnes scored the winning goal, Tyler Deric made six saves and the Houston Dynamo won in head coach Owen Coyle’s debut with a 1-0 triumph over Columbus Crew SC before a sellout crowd at BBVA Compass Stadium in the 2015 season opener on Saturday.
Saturday’s attendance of 22,351 set a record for a Dynamo match at BBVA Compass Stadium, surpassing the previous mark (22,345) set on Oct. 20, 2013 vs. the New York Red Bulls.
After an even first half, Deric kept it scoreless with three important saves early in the second half.
First, the Houston native came off his line to smother Tony Tchani’s shot from the left side of the box.
Two minutes later, Deric made perhaps his best save of the night, moving to his right before diving back to his left to parry Kei Kamara’s strong header away, denying a near goal.
Then Deric came up big again, diving to his left to stop Kristinn Steindorsson’s well-struck volley from nine yards for another vital save.
The Dynamo struck just a minute later as Kofi Sarkodie beat Waylon Francis on the right edge of the penalty area and slid a pinpoint pass in Barnes’ path before the English striker used one touch to hammer a shot over Steve Clark for the winning goal.
Barnes opens the 2015 season with a goal after finishing the 2014 campain with a six goals in his final nine games to win his second straight Dynamo Golden Boot.
Columbus nearly answered five minutes later as Federico Higuain drilled a shot from 20 yards that crashed off the bottom of the crossbar but didn’t cross the goal line.
Dynamo left back DaMarcus Beasley continued to jaunt up the sideline and came close to scoring in the 81st minute as he raced toward the near post and his shot missed the near upper corner.
Deric and Kamara continued to battle in the 84th minute as the Columbus forward’s attempted header forced Deric to bobble a delivery before punching away for a corner kick.
Kamara came close again in the 90th minute, winning another header that slipped just wide of goal.
The Dynamo remain at home to host Orlando City SC on Friday, March 13 while Crew SC returns to Columbus to play the opening match at MAPFRE Stadium versus Toronto FC next Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m.
