Breakfast Links - May 15, 2023
(image via Houston Dash)
Good morning, everybody! There were some great results for the Houston teams this weekend and one bad one, so let’s talk about it. Here are your breakfast links to start your week.
Houston
The Dash kicked off the weekend on Friday night hosting the Portland Thorns. Having scored eight goals in their last three games, Portland was going to be a tough test. The Dash put together an incredible second half performance to make a comeback and beat them 2-1. They conceded midway through the first half from Raquel Rodriguez. Coming out of the half the Dash played inspired with Michelle Alozie at the center of everything. They found the first goal through Joelle Anderson and then Ebony Salmon had an incredible spin off her first touch to make it two. After going well over a month without a win in NWSL, this was a massive result that should inspire the team going forward.
Dynamo 2 returned home to host Real Monarchs SLC. Houston went on to win the game 3-0 Sunday night after a lengthy weather delay in the second half. The first goal was scored by Beto Avilla off some great pressing on Real Monarchs keeper Fernando Delgado. Djevencio van der Kust went and made it two right before half with his first goal for the club. Omar Alba was then sent off for the Monarchs and Diego Gonzalez capped off the scoring with an incredible goal. This was easily Dynamo 2’s best win of the season so far.
While the other two teams had incredible results, the Dynamo struggled in a very odd game. The game started with the Seattle Sounders dominating play until the eighth minute where the game was put into a weather delay for an hour. Coming out of the delay, the Dynamo looked good until an awful challenge from Amine Bassi saw the Dynamo go down to ten men. Even after being down, the Dynamo still played well defending for their lives. With about ten minutes to go, Hector Herrera made a really careless decision to foul and receive a second yellow, putting the Dynamo down to nine. Shortly after, Paul Rothrock scored the winner for the Sounders to make it an extremely frustrating night for the Dynamo. This loss ends the Dynamo’s impressive unbeaten streak at home.
Major League Soccer
This week in MLS we had one of the biggest rivalries in MLS with the struggling Red Bulls hosting NYCFC. This game was Troy Lesesne’s MLS coaching debut, and it was one to remember. Lesesne’s previous head coaching role was for New Mexico United in USL and then went on to be the Red Bulls assistant coach. In his first game as the head coach, the Red Bulls got dominated by NYCFC in possession like expected. They defended brilliantly and found a winner in the 76th minute through Omir Fernandez. This win is exactly what the Red Bulls needed to get their season going.
The other big rivalry to take place was in Austin as they hosted FC Dallas, losing 1-0. This game was almost as even as it could get with both teams struggling to create key chances. The biggest chance for most of the game fell to Gyasi Zardes as he failed to score a very easy goal. Starting off the second half, Austin attacker Rodney Redes received a second yellow to put Austin down to ten men. This gave Dallas an edge as they went on to find a late winner through Jesus Ferreira. This now extends Austin’s winless streak in MLS to eight games.
Around the World
In the Netherlands, Feyenoord won their game against Go Ahead Eagles 3-0, crowning them Eredivisie champions. This is now the 16th time they have won the competition and the first time since 2017. It was an incredible season for the team being led by their captain Orkun Kokcu. Kokcu was the center of everything for this team and added eight goals from midfield. Also, in the Netherlands, the game between Ajax and Groningen was stopped due to protests from Groningen fans over their relegation.
In Italy, the top four race continued to excite with Lazio playing Lecce to open the weekend. Lazio were down 2-1 for most of the second half until Sergej Milinkovic-Savic popped up with an equalizer in stoppage time. This point proved to be very important as AC Milan lost 2-0 to Spezia on the road. Inter Milan won their game with Sassuolo 4-2, almost securing their spot in the top four. With Lazio’s late point they also now sit fairly comfortable in the top four with a five-point gap over AC Milan.
