Dynamo concede goal late, settle for 2-2 draw against Portland

HOUSTON – It was a tale of two halves for the Houston Dynamo Football Club in their midweek 2-2 draw against the Portland Timbers. It was the club’s first home game since May 22nd and the first in front of the new majority owner, Ted Segal.

Segal had plenty to cheer about in the first half. With Portland opting not to use most of its starters like Diego Valeri, Sebastian Blanco, and Diego Chara to name a few, the Dynamo jumped all over the Timbers. And it paid off.

Fafa Picault headed in the Dynamo’s first goal in the 15th minute, while Tyler Pasher doubled the Orange’s lead with a curling low shot in the 33rd. Houston went into halftime with a two-goal lead over perennial Western Conference contenders.

At halftime, the Timbers brought on Diego Valeri and the game shifted. No longer were the Dynamo zipping passes around and keeping possession. Instead, the team became reactive instead of proactive.

Five minutes into the second half, the Timbers got on the scoreboard on a two-man fastbreak that ended with Dairon Asprilla chipping a shot over Dynamo keeper Marko Maric. With the Timbers’ quick score, the Dynamo were on high alert the rest of the half.

Portland kept the pressure up and by the 71st minute had subbed in Valeri, Blanco, and Chara. Heading into the 90th minute, Houston had bent but had yet to break.

In the 91st minute, the dam broke when Jeremy Ebobisse rose to meet a cross at its peak and head it past Maric for the equalizer.

After the game, Dynamo head coach Tab Ramos was clearly disappointed with the result and called out the team’s lack of energy in the second half.

“At halftime, we said we needed the first 15-20 minutes of the second half to be hard so that we can put the game away because we knew that the next goal would be the most important one but we couldn’t do it,” Ramos said. “Overall, it wasn’t the kind of energy you need when you’re at home and when you need points like we always do.”

Picault agrees with his coach that in that the team’s first 15 minutes of the second half the Dynamo failed to deliver the message on the pitch that Ramos had given the players.

“The positive is that we go up on teams now – we were up 2-0 and that’s important. What we have to execute now is not allowing teams back in – it’s very simple,” Picault said.

“Coach says it all the time that the first 15 minutes of the second half are key. We have to focus, and we can’t let or allow balls through. We have to execute and do the same things we did in the first half, and we didn’t do that. It was very simple, and we can’t allow that again.”

As the second half unfolded, Ramos gave his players instructions from the sidelines. Before making any substitutions, he wanted to give the players on the pitch an opportunity to get ahold of the game again.

Unfortunately, they never did.

In the 70th and 71st minute, forward Ari Lassiter and midfielder Darwin Ceren entered the game with clear instructions.

“We wanted Ari to give us energy on the right side because we felt we needed that – Tyler (Pasher) was already looking a little tired. We told Tyler [at halftime] that we needed 15 minutes from him and then we would take him off. He was ready for that, and I thought we needed a lot more form Ari – we don’t feel we got enough from him today,” Ramos said.

“With Darwin Ceren, it was to keep the ball in the middle of the field because we weren’t keeping it at all. We thought fresh legs would do that. We thought Darwin did a good job with that, he wasn’t able to get on the ball as much as we wanted him to. That’s a little bit disappointing.”

The Dynamo (10-3-3, 13 pts) were minutes from securing all three points but instead settle for a draw that may just feel like a loss. The Orange now shifts focus to its road game at Real Salt Lake on Saturday night.