HOUSTON – Two first-half goals sealed the Houston Dynamo’s fate in their match against the LA Galaxy. An eventual 3-0 win by the visitors.
In the 39th minute, Houston conceded a penalty, with LA’s Sacha Klejstan converting soon after. Minutes later, in the 46th, Efrain Alvarez crossed the ball into the box, but Zarek Valentin intervened to block but instead deflected to the back of his own net.
The Galaxy added a third goal minutes into the second half via a Kevin Cabral goal.
Here are three thoughts from the game.
Eliminated from playoff contention
There was a noticeable difference between the Dynamo team that played Wednesday night against the Galaxy and the one that beat the Seattle Sounders 2-1 on Saturday. There was less crispness in the attack and less cohesiveness on the defensive side.
Houston Dynamo head coach Tab Ramos opted for a 3-4-1-2 formation, which he used against the Sounders. No double he was hoping for a similar result. The difference, when Saturday’s game kicked off, Houston still had a shot — a long one — at making the playoffs.
When the Galaxy netted their two goals and then quickly added a third, it deflated the Dynamo’s will to push for a comeback.
“It was the mental factor knowing that we were obviously out of the playoffs,” Darwin Ceren said on one of the deciding factors that led to the Dynamo’s loss. “The fact that they scored two goals, then a third goal to go up 3-0. Mentally, the team gave up.”
Ceren added that the team worked hard to score, but he felt that the team had already given up mentally.
Squad rotation
In his mid-week media call, Ramos said that some players who haven’t seen the pitch could be rotated in with the Dynamo eliminated from playoff contention. On Wednesday, that’s wasn’t the case from kick-off. Ramos opted for a nearly identical starting XI that took on Seattle.
As the game went on, Ramos did substitute Ian Hoffman at the 80th minute.
Addressing the possibility of seeing some of the Dynamo’s younger players, Ramos said that players have to show that they’re ready to contribute to the first team.
He praised Hoffman’s performance with the Dynamo U23 team and called him the best player on the team anything he’s with them. Additionally, he said Ethan Bartlow’s play Wednesday with the U23’s showed that the game is easy for him.
“There’s no particular timeline on that,” Ramos said.
“I think it goes first to everybody who deserves a fight. That could be young or old. And with everything being even, of course, we’re going to go with the younger players and give them the opportunity. I think Ian gets more time, and it’s likely that we throw one or two [young] players over the next couple of games.”
Adam Lundqvist returns to action
The one bright spot in Wednesday’s match was the return of Lundqvist. The left-back entered at halftime and finished the game out.
Lundqvist dislocated his kneecap in the Sept. 18 match against FC Dallas. The kneecap had to be popped back into place.
“From my end, I was really happy to be back and to lace on the boots again and be out there competing with the boys. So for me, there are a lot of positive things,” Lundqvist said. “Even though collectively there is a lot of stuff we need to figure out and be better. For me, I am very, very happy to be back, and I really missed it.”
Houston is a better team when Lundqvist is on the pitch. His crossing and defending abilities at the left-back position are unmatched by anyone on the roster.
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.