Dejan Joveljic brace sends Dynamo to home loss
(image via Omar Duran)
The Houston Dynamo wrapped up a busy month of May with a home match against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night. Houston came into the match in good form while Kansas City was still rebuilding under an interim manager. But this is Major League Soccer, and you can never take any match for granted.
The Dynamo nearly opened the scoring just three minutes into the match, and really should have. A cross into the box found the head of Ezequiel Ponce from close range but his header was at Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper John Pulskamp, who made a great reaction save. Jack McGlynn tried on of his signature left-footed efforts from outside the box but Pulskamp once again got down to make the save.
Houston’s pressure paid off in the 13th minute. Ondrej Lingr did well in the left corner of the field to get free. He fed Sebastian Kowalczyk who turned on goal and curled a perfect shot into the back post to give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead.
Houston continuted piling on the pressure in attack, looking for a second goal. Ponce tried a long distance shot that Pulskamp saved in the 28th minute, and a beautiful build up in the 38th minute saw Pulskamp come off his line to deny Griffin Dorsey.
Sporting came to life toward the end of the first half. They looked to possibly have a penalty kick when a ball into the box came off Griffin Dorsey’s hand in the 40th minute. A long VAR check finally decided there was no penalty.
On the stroke of half time, the visitors got their equalizer. Dejan Joveljic had too much time at the top of the box and was able to slot his shot into the bottom corner, past Jonathan Bond to make the score 1-1 in first half stoppage time and send the teams to their locker rooms.
Kansas City came out for the second half much like Houston did for the first, on the attack. Bond made a big save on Joveljic to paw away a shot from close range. Joveljic wouldn’t be denied his brace in the 52nd to give SKC the lead. A corner was headed off the cross bar and the rebound popped up into the air. Joveljic acrobatically volleyed it into the back of the net to make the score 2-1 to the visitors.
With a one goal lead intact, SKC bunkered in to try and protect the result. Houston sent waves of attacks at them. A McGlynn effort from distance was saved easily in the 64th minute. Felipe Andrade chipped a ball in toward Junior Urso in the 68th minute but he couldn’t get a header on target. A minute later, Kowalczyk went down in the box and referee Jair Marrufo waved away the penalty shouts, much to the chagrin of the crowd at Shell Energy Stadium.
After Felipe Andrade headed a corner over, Lawrence Ennali made his long-awaited return to the field after tearing his ACL last season. The German did well in the 87th minute to zig and zag and find Ponce at close range but the striker’s flick went just wide.
Moments later, Sporting Kansas City got their third to seal the match. Daniel Salloi got into the box and pulled back for Santiago Munoz. The Mexican tucked his shot into the side netting to make the score 3-1 and finish off this match.
The final whistle blew on what can only be described as a very bad loss at home for Houston. After this busy spell of play over the last month, they will now get some time off. The Dynamo’s next match will be June 14, back at home against CF Montreal.
