Houston Dynamo on the Road Draw 2-2 With Portland Timbers

The Houston Dynamo (8-9-8,32 pts) remain in eighth place after giving up a two goal lead late in the second half of a fixture, that had huge playoff implications at Providence Park.

Portland Timbers (11-8-7,40 pts) came out fast, putting continuous pressure on the Dynamo keeping them bogged down in their own half for the first twenty minutes. After weathering the Timbers storm, the Dynamo were able to gain some possession and slow the game down. This allowed them to create their own opportunities and they were able to stun the Portland crowd when Boniek Garcia won a header outside the box which made it’s way to Will Bruin who did well to hold up his defender and make a slick flick, to put it in the path of Garcia who neatly slotted it past Timbers net-minder Adam Kwarasey to make it 1-0.

Will Bruin then turned goalscorer minutes before the half when Brad Davis capitalized on a turnover in the middle of the pitch by providing a perfectly weighted pass to Will Bruin. Bruin then finished with a beautiful shot that found the back of the net to put the Dynamo up by two going into the second half.

Holding that lead however, proved to be futile as Darlington Nagbe and Lucas Melano both found the back of the net late in the second half. Nagbe got the Timbers back into the game when Melano placed a ball through traffic to find Nagbe who one-timed a left footed shot through Tyler Deric’s legs and into the net cutting the deficit in half. Ten minutes later, Melano equalized when Valeri powered a cross into the box where Melano deftly got a foot on it to redirect it into the side of the net.

Cubo Torres made another ten minute cameo and was the recipient of a elbow to the face from Timbers’ Diego Chara who was shown a straight red and sent off in the first minute of stoppage time. Even with Portland down a man the Dynamo were unable to find a winner.

The Dynamo put on a good performance without the help of midfielder Ricardo Clark, defender Demarcus Beasley and Forward Giles Barnes but will feel hard done by conceding two goals and leaving Providence Park with a point instead of three. Columbus on Wednesday will conclude the Dynamos’ series of three away games, four points from those three games is the best we can hope for at this point and beating Columbus would put us in a three-way tie for seventh in the standings with Seattle and San Jose. We are back home on Saturday August 29th against the Vancouver Whitecaps who currently occupy second place just a point behind the LA Galaxy.

Playoffs are rapidly approaching and if the Dynamo can’t get full points from these last few games our season will be ending early.