McGlynn Haunts Former Club as Dynamo and Union Draw
(image via Ricky Vega)
The Houston Dynamo were back at Shell Energy Stadium on Saturday night looking to rebound from Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to Vancouver. The Philadelphia Union, atop the Supporters Shield standings in Major League Soccer, came to town looking to pile more misery on the Dynamo.
Ben Olsen made some changes to the starting lineup from the midweek. Junior Urso started for the suspended Brooklyn Raines. Griffin Dorsey, Ondrej Lingr, and Sebastian Kowalczyk also made the eleven.
Philadelphia got the scoring started with a mistake from Houston. Center back Jakob Glesnes sent a ball into the box that Dorsey tried to chest down to goalkeeper Jonathan Bond in the six yard box. Instead, Alejandro Bedoya got to the ball first and stabbed it in to put the Union ahead 1-0 in the 15th minute. The Union players all ran to the corner flag to celebrate and did Jack McGlynn’s mask celebration. Their former teammate must have taken that to heart because he had his own retribution later.
The Dynamo nearly responded just minutes later. Kowalczyk was played in on goal, and he stayed onside to race all alone toward the box. The Polish attacker tried to chip Union goalkeeper Andrew Rick but it went all wrong and was a simple catch for the man in net.
In the 29th minute, McGlynn struck a shot from distance that Rick spilled. Ezequiel Ponce got to the rebound first and Rick made another save. The offside flag went up shortly after, so the goal would not have counted.
Ponce was nursing an injury from early in the match and he finally had run his race after 36 minutes. Duane Holmes replaced the DP striker with Lingr moving to the number nine position.
On the stroke of halftime, the Dynamo thought they may have won a penalty kick. Holmes went down just on the edge of the box and VAR was called to take a look. After a long review the referee determined that the contact happened in the box but Philadelphia midfielder Jeremy Rafanello got the ball first so there was no penalty kick.
Minutes later they did get the penalty kick after all. McGlynn had a dangerous free kick just outside the box and the Union’s Jesus Bueno blocked the shot with his arm. There was no review needed this time and McGlynn immediately grabbed the ball. He sent Rick the wrong way with the penalty to tie the game in the 10th minute of first half stoppage time. McGlynn ran to the supporters and kissed the Dynamo badge, a direct shot at his former club on the other side of the field.
Things settled down in the second half as both teams battled in the midfield, trying to find scoring chances. In the 69th minute, a Dynamo cross into the box was looking for the head of Franco Escobar. The Argentine jumped for it and came down awkwardly. He stayed down for a few minutes and had to be helped off the field, unable to put any weight on his leg. He was placed in a wheelchair and taken back to the locker room.
Both teams had good chances just minutes apart a few minutes later. A great ball in the box in the 76th minute was met by the head of Griffin Dorsey but it smashed off the cross bar and came out. Just a minute later, the Union broke the other way and played a ball in that Bueno could not keep on frame and headed wide of the goal.
VAR once again got involved after a penalty kick was awarded to the Union in the 85th minute. Pablo Ortiz took down Bruno Damiani in the box. The referee had a look at the monitor and came back to rule that it was a penalty, but Philadelphia committed a foul before that, meaning there was no penalty kick.
Eleven minutes of stoppage time were added to the second half after all the stoppages. Francis Westfield and Lawrence Ennali clashed in the ninth minute of stoppage time. Westfield butted his head at Ennali as they came face to face and he was shown a straight red card. Artur smashed the post from distance in the 13th minute of stoppage time for the last action of the match. Neither team could find a winner in the added time, however, and the final whistle blew on a 1-1 draw.
The Dynamo will finish up this three-match homestand on Friday night when they welcome the LA Galaxy to Shell Energy Stadium. While they took a step forward in this match with one point, they desperately need to start collecting wins and three points.
