The Houston Dynamo sped off for Kansas City looking to pluck three points from its match at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Instead, the team spluttered away from the stadium picking thorns out of its side, as Sporting KC stuck three goals to the Dynamo in an exhausting 3-0 defeat.
Perhaps Houston needed to prepare better for its trip. After all, Sporting KC has had a snug grip on its home points this season, having only fallen twice in 14 home games. Couple this with the Dynamo’s winless road record, and it would appear as if the team was trekking into treacherous territory.
And they were. From the get-go, Sporting KC put the pedal to the medal, while the Dynamo was still jiggling its keys in the ignition. Not only were the team’s keys stuck, but Houston’s battery would soon be dead kudos to Sporting KC striker Teal Bunbury.
Bunbury punctured the Dynamo backline to notch his sixth and seventh goals of the season, two more than his rookie campaign a year ago. The offensive juggernaut wasted no time in welcoming the visitors to the Kansas abode. After nearly jumping ahead off an Omar Bravo effort in the seventh minute and Jeferson’s attempt in the eighth minute of play, Bunbury made certain that the third time was the charm in the club’s ninth-minute crack. Graham Zusi began work for his team-leading fifth assist deep in Kansas City territory, before penetrating space and delivering a curling service into the center channel. Bunbury’s pace was too much for Dynamo defender Andre Hainault, leaving Bunbury free to take a touch prior to poking the ball past onrushing Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall.
Houston was lucky to escape the home crew’s attacking barrage, as Jeferson and CJ Sapong both sent shots whooshing past the woodwork. Indeed, things weren’t all that bad in the 30thminute when the Dynamo’s Carlo Costly had an opportune chance to level the score line. Costly wiggled into space, neatly turned the corner, and had his shot not banged off the post past an already-defeated Jimmy Nielsen in the Sporting KC goal, well, Houston might have seen a glimmer of hope in erasing its season-long road humiliation.
Instead of a brighter future, the Dynamo’s headlights soon dimmed and its hopes diminished when Costly was shown a red card in the 64th minute for his tackle on Chance Myers.
With 10 men and a rapidly-depleting gas tank, Houston aggressively pressed forward in an effort to steal a quick equalizer before its tank hit empty. As a result, the team stood no chance of retreating when Sporting KC’s Julio Cesar connected with Bunbury on a driven clearance that sliced the Houston defense. Bunbury collectedly punched a left-footed finish past Hall to double his side’s lead in the 73rd minute.
Having pulled his weight for the day, Bunbury was replaced with Kei Kamara, but Kamara offered no rest for the drained Dynamo. Zusi’s playmaking abilities once again pulled the goal scoring trigger when he released Kamara into space. The substitute slid the ball across the box where Sapong had no trouble converting his six-yard shot to make it 3-0 in the 79thminute.
Houston’s defeat cost the team a crucial three points in the Eastern Conference playoff race as regular-season action closes in on the finish line. Worse yet, the sorry squad has no time for a pity party, as its next road venture takes the team to first-place Columbus on Wednesday. The Crew is coming off an uncharacteristic 4-2 defeat at home to last-place Toronto FC, a club that had never defeated Columbus in its three-year history. If Houston can accomplish the same three-point feat, it will leapfrog Philadelphia to sit at third place in the Eastern Conference. The Dynamo will conclude the busy week at home this Saturday, against a struggling San Jose Earthquakes squad that has won just two of its last 15 matches dating back to mid-June.
