Houston Dynamo FC and FC Cincinnati battle to 1-1 draw

Photo  by
Darla Tamulitis, La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly 
Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (July 3, 2021) The Houston Dynamo FC is quickly becoming the "King of the Draw" during the 2021 Major League Soccer season. On Saturday evening, they added another point to their season total with a 1-1 draw against FC Cincinnati at BBVA Stadium. The draw was the fourth consecutive draw by the Dynamo.

Both teams picked up one point in their season total, which kept them relatively in the same place in the MLS standings. The uniqueness of this game was in the sequence of the scoring and the flow of play in the game.

Houston found gold early in the game with their fastest goal of the season. In the third minute, Sam Junqua skipped a pass across the field to Tyler Pasher, who quickly drilled the ball into back of the net to take a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later, Cincinnati midfielder/forward Alvaro Barreal scored from 12 yards out to even the score at one-all.  

For the remainder of the match, both teams battled back-and-forth with neither finding an opening to allow them to take the lead. Rough and aggressive play was the norm for the reminder of the match with numerous "incidents" drawing negative reactions from the crowd when yellow cards were not issued.

Houston head coach Tab Ramos commented after the match about the four consecutive draws by his team.

"I mean, it depends how you look at them. Obviously, we're trying to win the games and I think you could see that day. The idea is to win, I didn't think we played well away at Real Salt Lake and got that draw, but we got a good result and played pretty well against Portland at home. We should've gotten a win there and today we should've got a win too. So, there's only so much I can ask of the team. At the end of the day, I think they made a great effort today and today should've been three points."

Pasher also weighed in on the draws.

"Yeah, I think we are all disappointed because at home, we set a standard that we win every game at home and it has been frustrating but, the positive note from it is that we are so close to being there. These past few games we could be going up three or four goals in the first half. It's just a series of unfortunate events that we are continuing to work on and work through and get better each day, at least we are walking away with a point and hopefully we start putting more goals away and winning at home and on the road."

Next up for the Dynamo is a Wednesday, July 7 meeting with the Seattle Sounders with an 8 p.m. kickoff.