Dynamo 2sday: Dos suffer second straight home loss
(image via Houston Dynamo FC)
Houston Dynamo 2 suffered another home loss at SaberCats stadium Sunday night, losing 2-1 to San Jose Earthquakes II. This was the fourth defeat in seven games in Houston for Kenny Bundy and Dos this season.
Coach Bundy put out a strong line up that featured 4 first team players with goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell, defenders Chase Gasper and Brad Smith, and midfield youngster Brooklyn Raines. The rest of the starting eleven was composed of captain Talen Maples, Juan Castilla, Yair Gonzalez, Jathan Juarez, Diego Gonzalez, Jacob Evans, and Zeke Soto.
The first minutes of the game had the teams going back and forth in possession, but it didn’t take long for the first goal to appear on the stat sheet. Unfortunately, for the fans in attendance, it came from the visiting team. Forward Jose Serrano made a diagonal run towards the left side of Tarbell’s goal, crossing it towards the 6-yard box to assist Eduardo Blancas who risked his body to smash the ball into the back of the net.
Dos was able to find the tie breaker 5 minutes after going down a goal. The squad was applying a high press on Quakes II, which created a mistake in their build up. Brooklyn Raines found a wide-open Brad Smith outside the box, who rocketed the ball towards the opponents’ goal and hit the side netting to make the score 1-1.
The match continued to be fluid for both teams when a great through ball by Quakes midfield Roberto Hategan split by the Dos defenders, setting up Rodolfo Castro in front of goal. Tarbell was able to get a hand on the ball, but the shot was just too strong for the keeper to make a save on it, giving San Jose the lead once more. Houston kept pushing forward in their attack when a loose ball near the opponent’s box was volleyed by Brooklyn Raines. The shot crashed off the crossbar keeping the game 2-1 at the half.
The second half was a lot of Dos trying to get the equalizer that never came. Isaiah LeFlore had the last shot of the game on a scoring opportunity that came in added time, but it went just over the goal. The defeat gives Houston back-to-back losses, both at home. “Disappointment in the result, but it’s another game where we created enough opportunities to score multiple goals,” Dynamo 2 head coach Kenny Bundy said after the match. “We made two mistakes defensively, and we knew that they were going to be really sharp in their attacking transition. I’m disappointed, and I think the boys are disappointed because these games that we're dropping points in, we don't ever feel as if they're games that we shouldn't win, which I guess is a good thing, but we’ve got to figure that out.”
Captain Talen Maples also spoke after the match and, even in defeat, felt there were positives the team could take from this match. “There’s so many positives,” Maples said. “We kept the ball a good span of time against a good
team who likes to keep the ball as well. San Jose's a very good opponent. They have a lot of Good players, and they have a lot of good ball players too. The fact that we kept the ball the majority of the game, we put them in hard spots, and we turned them over in really good areas, that was really good. When our press was good, it was really good. When we built up, it was really good. We had no problema going from centerback to our forward. To be fair, we kept them out. We didn't give them many chances. They scored two, and I think they only had two shots in the first half, and they scored them. In the second half, we blocked a bunch. I think they had had one shot on target in the second half, so a lot of good takeaways, but we can still tighten up.”
Now all focus shifts to next Sunday's match where Dynamo 2 will travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on Tacoma Defiance.
