Manotas' late goals secure draw for Houston Dynamo

Photo by JB Fletcher, BigShot SnapShots
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (August 17, 2019) Two goals in the final minutes of the match powered the Houston Dynamo to a 2-2 draw against the Colorado Rapids at BBVA Stadium on  Saturday evening.

The 15,000-plus fans in attendance saw Colorado jump out to a 2-0 lead at halftime on Star Wars Night; and witnessed the Mario Manotas  (No. 7, shown right) score the two Houston goals within five minutes of each other. The Rapids took an early lead when forward Diego Rubio found the Dynamo out of position and blasted the ball into the net, in the seventh minute, for his eighth goal of the season. He also nailed the second goal of the  season; sliding it into the net in the 39th minute to put the score at 2-0 at halftime. Houston controlled the ball 66% of the time in the first half, along with taking 15 shots against Colorado's five. Unfortunately for the Dynamo, two of those five shots hit the mark, to take the two-goal deficit into the locker room at halftime.

Houston battled back in the second half, and maintained their possession advantage from the second half, to secure the draw under interim head coach Davy Arnaud. With the draw, the Dynamo raised their record to 9-13-4 (31 points) and maintained their ninth place standing in the Western Conference. The draw snapped a four-game losing streak for Houston and ended a three-game losing streak at BBVA Stadium. Arnaud was quoted about the start of the game.

“It’s obviously not how we wanted to start the game. It was not an ideal start. For me, you know, the structure that we’ve been on, the week that we’ve had, after that kind of start – there could not have been a bad response. We could of hung our heads and given up but I couldn’t be prouder of our group and their response in the second half. I thought it was fantastic. I thought it showed character. I thought it showed a commitment to the team. The kind of things that we have been talking about this week and how important we are for us to be our foundation for who we are going to be. They showed every single bit of that and for me that’s the biggest take away. The way that they came back in the second half and responded was fantastic.”

Photo by JB Fletcher, BigShot SnapShots
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved

With the two scores by Manotas, in the 74th and 79th minute, the Colombian forward recorded his eighth career multi-goal game; which ties Will Bruin for the most in club history. Manotas needs ten goals in all competition to tie Brian Ching (69) for the club's career scoring record. He stated:

”Thank God, after that many shots we were able to put some away. Unfortunately, we paid for those mistakes we made. We scored the goals ourselves. This can only happen every  hundred years, as a Colombian writer said. We are now moving forward.”

Next up for Houston is a Saturday, August 24 road match against FC Dallas. Dallas in currently in eight place in the Western Conference with a 10-10-7 record and 37 points.