Dynamo shows how to chill Fire
Houston taught the Fire it still has something to learn about winning in Major League Soccer.
The Fire entered Saturday night's game at Toyota Park as one of the hottest teams in MLS, and the Dynamo had been struggling all season.
But that changed quickly, and the result was a 2-1 Houston victory in front of 17,183 soggy fans who saw their team fall to 5-2-1 (16 points).
The Fire's possession game looked sharp and the offense dangerous to start the game, but it was Houston that scored first.
Ricardo Clark's strike from about 27 yards deflected off Fire midfielder Chris Rolfe and sent goalkeeper Jon Busch scrambling back to his left. He didn't get there in time, and two-time defending MLS champion Houston (2-2-4, 10) had a 1-0 lead.
That goal seemed to change everything.
"A little bit. I think it kind of stunned them, especially the way it happened," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "I think we kind of carried the play a little bit after that."
"We started really well," Fire defender Brandon Prideaux said. "We were really unlucky to give up that first goal. It was really against the run of play. They get the first goal and we're down, kind of chasing the game, spending a lot of energy trying to even it up.
"The second half we just got away from passing, moving and just didn't keep the ball enough."
The Fire has been notable for not relying on any one player for its scoring this season, spreading the wealth. Saturday was Calen Carr's turn.
Carr was a surprise starter for the red-hot John Thorrington, a scratch with a bulging disc in his back. Thorrington is day to day, Fire coach Denis Hamlett said.
Carr evened the game off a 28th minute Cuahtemoc Blanco free kick, nodding the ball inside goalkeeper Pat Onstad's near post past a lunging defender and into the net off a bounce.
But even that goal didn't seem to restore the Fire's possession game. As forward Chad Barrett noted, the balls that found him on the ground early came via the air late. That's not his strength, and he didn't have anyone to flick the ball to anyway.
"The first half we took it to them and we created some good chances and didn't finish," Hamlett said. "The second half we stopped playing, stopped moving. It was an even game until the end."
The Fire seemed content to keep it even toward the end, but Houston was thinking about a win. Bobby Boswell gave the Dynamo the lead with an 82nd-minute goal off Richard Mulrooney's quick restart deep in the Fire's end of the field.
"It was a handful of things," Prideaux said of the Boswell goal. "We fouled in our end, which we try to limit. And then we didn't get a guy on the ball. We need to do that a little bit quicker. And they took it quick and we weren't organized enough. So it was kind of a combination of all those things."