Houston Dyanmo fall short to Seattle on last home game of season.

A "minor" disagreement occured between the Houston Dynamo
and Seattle Sounders in the second half.
Photo by Darla S Tamulitis, La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly

Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 21, 2018) The 19,000-plus fans at BBVA Compass Stadium was hoping for a comeback late in the game, but their wishes went unanswered as the Houston Dynamo dropped a close 3-2 decision to the Seattle Sounders on Sunday evening. The Sounders went up 2-0 by halftime, courtesy of goals by Chad Marshall and Gustav Svensson, with Houston cutting their lead to 2-1 14 minutes into the second half. Defender Kevin Garcia scored his first goal of the season for Houston, with an assist by Oscar Boniek Garcia. The Honduran posted his seventh assist of 2018. 

Fourteen minutes later, Seattle regained a two-goal lead, in the 87th minute, when Raul Ruidiaz drilled the ball past Houston goalkeeper Tyler Deric. The Dynamo added their second goal in the 89th minute, when Mauro Manotas slipped the ball into the goal past Seattle's Stefan Frei, to close out scoring for the evening.

The loss dropped the Dynamo to 9-16-8 on the season and denied head coach Wilmer Cabrera his 32nd victory in Major League Soccer. He talked about the the match after the game:

“I think we played well. We played well against a very good team. It was a good game of soccer, today – where we had the ball, we created options, we attacked. They didn't create too many options to be honest with you, but the difference was set pieces and mistakes. That team didn’t make any mistakes and on the set pieces – we suffered. They had two and we had one. (DF Chad) Marshall is wonderful—for me the best in set pieces in MLS. So, I expect that but in the second half he fixed it, (DF) Kevin (Garcia) fixed that but (MF) (Gustav) Svensson was totally free —that’s concentration and the third goal that’s a sad mistake and an unusual mistake that happened. But that’s why we needed to put (GK) Tyler Deric after one year. ‘What are we going to do. We’re not going to play him?’ We have to play him. He has to go through that. We are not in the playoffs, this is the moment for him just to go and he is back, but it’s going to help him to recover and it’s going to help him to just get that fire in him for the next season.”

In the 38 games this season, Manotas leads the Dynamo with 23 goals. Tomas Martinez and Romell Quioto lead the team in assists, both with 11. Houston currently has a 1-3-0 record in October and dropped their home record to 8-6-3.

The Dynamo close out the season on Sunday, October 28 with a road match against the Los Angeles Galaxy.