The Houston Dynamo kicked off the 2023 season on the road falling to FC Cincinnati 2-1 at TQL Stadium. While the result is all too familiar, the overall performance showed promise.
Houston led the possession battle, 62 to 38, took seven shots on target to FC Cincinnati’s five, and had a slightly higher XG. Add more passes and a higher passing percentage; statistically speaking, Houston beat FC Cincinnati in every category except for one. The most important one — the scoreline.
Winning the stat battle doesn’t translate to a victory and three points. Simply put, FC Cincinnati were clinical with their scoring opportunities.
It started in the 19th minute. FC Cincinnati forward Sergio Santos broke the nil-nil game when he found space and dribbled down the left wing. He passed to ball to Obinna Nwobodo, who found Alvaro Barreal in the middle, Barreal then slipped a pass to Santos. The Brazilian’s first touch let him evade Ethan Barthlow to shoot it near post for the score.
The Dynamo leveled the game minutes before the halftime whistle, and it came from one of four newcomers to the team.
Houston captain Hector Herrera sent a corner kick to the far post, where left-back Tate Schmitt met it to head it into the back of the net. But FC Cincinnati would reclaim the lead at the start of the second half in the 47th minute.
FC Cincinnati playmaker Luciano Acosta played a backheel pass to a streaking Barreal, who then played a cross into the box. The ball bounced around and rolled to Nwobodo. The midfielder shot it through the traffic in the box, with the shot deflecting off Teenage Hadebe and into the back of the net.
Houston pushed for the equalizer, but it never materialized.
Despite the loss, new Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen was encouraged by the performance, adding that there were a lot of great individual performances on the team and collectively. And he saw plenty of positives from the game.
“Defensive structure and transitions were pretty good on the defensive end. Offensively, I thought the way we dictated the game’s final third. Our entries were good, set pieces were very good all night. We gave them trouble with those,” Olsen said. “Hector (Herrera) was fantastic. There’s a lot of positives, but still, you leave wanting a little bit more.”
For a team with one of its biggest roster overhauls in recent memory — adding 13 new players — the early season will undoubtedly bring learning lessons as players learn to play together on the pitch. Olsen admitted as such in the post-game conference.
“We had to learn a few lessons throughout this game. I think we were undisciplined,” Olsen said. “And that cost us today.”
Midfielder Arur, one of the newcomers to the club, said it took the team a bit of time to read the match. He added that the midfield trio of himself, Coco (Carrasquilla), and Hector (Herrera) complement each with their different characteristics.
“We’re gonna just keep improving,” Artur said.
Still, it’s one game. One game doesn’t change the Dynamo’s Western Conference bottom-dwelling residency over the past seasons. In a tough Western Conference, the Dynamo are going to need every single point possible if they want to climb the Western Conference standings and make a return to the MLS Playoffs. And Olsen knows that.
“The difficult part of this match is we take away nothing from a point standpoint,” Olsen said.
It’s one game. One loss. One good performance. On another night, Saturday’s performance by the Dynamo perhaps gets them all three points, or at least a draw. If the Dynamo can replicate and surpass their performance from the season opener, it could bode well for the Bayou City team.
“The season is long, you know,” Schmitt said. “If we continue putting out the performances that we did today, we’re going to be in a good spot come the end of the year.”
Jesus Acevedo Jr. is the Editor-in-Chief of The Bayoucitian. He’s an award-winning bilingual journalist from Houston, TX. A graduate of the University of Houston, he has written for the Houston Chronicle, La Voz de Houston, MLSsoccer.com, and ProSoccerUSA.
Before becoming a journalist, Jesus spent his early 20s drumming his way across Houston with two bands — Shortcomings and InsertNameHere. The memories that Jesus made as a musician were the seeds that started the idea for the comedy, Houmans: The Series.
[…] Houston has lost its first two games to start a season for the first time in club history. The 3-0 loss to the New England Revolution was a far cry from the club’s strong showing against FC Cincinnati in a 2-1 loss. […]