HOUSTON – The Houston Dynamo relinquished a one-goal lead to an in-state rival for the second week in a row, resulting in a 2-1 loss.
Last week, it was FC Dallas protecting their home turf. On Saturday, it was Austin FC getting all three points at PNC Stadium.
The loss is Houston’s third of the season and second in a row. Houston (3-3-3, 12 points) started the game on the right foot taking a 1-0 lead in the 5th minute but couldn’t add to the lead.
Here are three observations from the match.
Ferreira’s Golazo
Houston couldn’t have asked for a better start to the match.
In the 5th minute, Austin FC goalkeeper Brad Stuver came way off his line to clear a ball meant for Darwin Quintero. The clearance went to Adam Lundqvist, who chested it towards Sebastián ‘Sebas’ Ferreira.
As the ball was coming to him, Ferreira only had one thought — shoot the ball. It didn’t matter that he was right at midfield.
“Since I saw the goalkeeper so far off his line, I had already planned to kick toward the goal,” Ferreira said. “Luckily, it went in.”
Ferreira has never kicked the ball that far or scored any goal from that distance.
“For me, it is the best goal I have scored in my career,” Ferreira said. “My career is still relatively short, I am young. I hope to score even better goals.”
The golazo aside, the goal is Sebas’ fourth of the season. He’s scored four goals in the past four games. After a slow start to the season, Sebas is starting to find the back of the net.
“We’ve been talking about this every week, and I’ve been saying the same thing. I’m going to keep saying the same thing— Sebas has been adapting (to MLS),” Houston Dynamo head coach Pablo Nagamura said.
“He’s been getting better, better performances. I think the goals will help boost his confidence. Today, he scored a great goal, but we need more.”
To his credit, Sebas knows he needs to score more. While he’s happy about the goal, it’s not as sweet since it didn’t translate to a win.
“I would have enjoyed it [the goal] more with a win,” Ferreira said. “Personally, I’m happy, but the group comes first. I’m very hurt because we lost at home. We will continue working to get the three points as a visitor in the next game.”
Dropping back
Houston sat back and conceded possession after going up 1-0 in the 5th minute, choosing to hit Austin FC on the counter. That was not how Nagamura wanted the Dynamo to play.
“Players have to understand that we can’t just accept, that because we scored early, we cannot play with no urgency or no commitment to keep pushing the game as well,” Nagamura said.
When Houston defended, it did so in a low block that resembled a 4-4-2,
Houston lost the possession battle 60.7 to 39.3 percent as it defended in a low block, but its chances were few and far between. The Dynamo defense stifled Austin until the visitors broke through in the 39th minute.
“After we scored, we dropped too much, and we stopped playing the way that we wanted to play on a hot day,” Nagamura said.
“It is really tough when you’re just defending, defending even though we were really, really dangerous directly and with our counterattack.”
Defending the lead
In back-to-back games, Houston has now failed to defend a lead. It’s worse yet that both games were against their in-state rivals.
On Saturday, Houston had a couple of moments where it turned off and, as a result, lost the lead and the game.
“We, as a group, have to make sure we are being accountable to each other and make sure that we minimize those moments because teams will capitalize on those moments,” Nagamura said. “This afternoon, we had a few plays that we turned off, and we paid the price.”
Tim Parker couldn’t speak in full length on the goals conceded. He said he wanted to look at the goals and assess what went wrong.
What frustrates Parker is that the result of conceding two goals gave Houston consecutive losses. It also marks the first home loss of the season for the Dynamo.
“It’s disappointing, the performance, but it’s something that we have to do,” Parker said. “We have to be positive, we have to look forward to the next game, go in and self-reflect over the next day, and we’ll look at stuff tomorrow and the next day and evaluate ourselves.”
Houston has a week to assess its back-to-back losses before heading to Washington, D.C., to take on DC United Saturday, May 7.
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.
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