For 90+ minutes, the road weary Houston Dynamo battled and braved first-place Columbus at the Crew’s home confines, but two swift penalty kicks were all it took to erase the Dynamo’s enduring effort as the team was forced to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Indeed, the outlook appeared too good to be true for a Dynamo squad fresh off a 3-0 thwacking against Sporting KC and still winless as visitors in the 2011 season. Columbus’s Emmanuel Ekpo was sent off in the game’s 11th minute for a high forearm to the face of ex-teammate Adam Moffat, which stirred belief in the Houston side.
The Dynamo used its man advantage to outshoot the Crew 17-6 and record 71 percent of possession on the evening. Bobby Boswell and Will Bruin returned to bolster the starting lineup, but Houston would draw on goals from two uncommon sources in its attempt to squelch the Crew.
Midfielder Je-Vaughn Watson notched his first MLS goal in the 34th minute when the 6’1” Jamaican leaped over Columbus’s Chad Marshall to drive home a header via the service of his fellow countryman Jermaine Taylor. Taylor broke through on the right flank before finding Watson on the left post to stamp a 1-0 lead for the Dynamo that the team would carry into halftime.
The Columbus Crew stayed compact coming out of the intermission, not about to fall uncharacteristically for its third-straight match. The home side’s gritty effort paid off when Eric Gehrig flung a hopeful cross into the Dynamo box that controversially hit the arm of Cam Weaver. Referee Chris Penso pointed to the spot, and veteran Andres Mendoza comfortably converted past Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall to level the score at 1-1 in the 64th minute.
Only 12 minutes later the Dynamo cringed again as Penso signaled toward the penalty spot, this time after Watson kicked the Crew’s Dilly Duka in the stomach off a Columbus corner kick. Mendoza succeeded in duping Hall for the second time to give the Crew a surprising 2-1 advantage in the 76th minute. Mendoza’s tally marked his 11th of the season and lifted the forward into a tie for fourth place on the MLS goal chart along with San Jose’s Chris Wondolowski.
Nevertheless, the Dynamo’s “never say die” mentality paid off late for the team to salvage at least a single point from the match. Calen Carr’s 86th minute finish marked the eighth time that the Dynamo has scored within the game’s final seven minutes. Danny Cruz slipped Geoff Cameron into space, and Cameron, making his 100th career start for the Dynamo, slotted a low cross toward the penalty spot. Carr jumped on the receiving end and buried the ball into the roof of the goal to seal the 2-2 score line and notch his first goal in nearly a year.
With the result, both teams were able to make moves in the upward direction in the Eastern Conference standings. For the Crew, the team shook free from Sporting KC to become the sole holders of the first-place spot. Meanwhile, the Dynamo climbed to a third-place tie with the Philadelphia Union, although the Union holds a game in hand over Houston. The Crew heads to take on Philadelphia on Saturday, while the Dynamo will return home to host the San Jose Earthquakes.
