Breakfast Links - October 2, 2023

(image via Diego Martinez)

Happy Monday everybody! Hope everyone has the perfect start to their week with your links to recap this past weekend.

Houston

The Dynamo opened the weekend with a 0-0 result at home to FC Dallas. The Texas Derby ended up being an uneventful game with not much intensity. It was a letdown following the excitement on Wednesday night. There were some positives as the defense played brilliantly once again. Steve Clark earned his league tying 12th shutout. This now equals Tally Hall’s record for most shutouts in a season for a Dynamo goalkeeper. Steve has three more games to beat that record and beat out Stefan Frei for the league lead.

The Dash were up next and found themselves in a must win game on the road to Gotham. The players responded to the pressure with a great performance, winning 2-0. Michelle Alozie scored a brace as she continues to breakout as one of the best attackers on the Dash. Jane Campbell was brilliant in goal with another great performance. The offense is finally clicking, and the team needs to win the next two games to stay alive.

Houston Dynamo 2 played their first playoff game after barely qualifying on the final day of the regular season. Unfortunately, they were one and done for the second year in a row. Like last year, they fell on the road to the Tacoma Defiance.  This was not a close contest for most of the game as Tacoma were up 4-1 shortly into the second half. Dos clawed their way back to within one goal after scoring two goals in two minutes. To some, this might have been a disappointing season for Kenny Bundy’s squad but there were lots of positives and Kenny involved a lot more of the younger players the club wants to start focusing on.

MLS/NWSL

After winning the wooden spoon three seasons in a row, FC Cincinnati have hit another massive milestone in their rebuild winning the Supporters’ Shield. With only four games to go, Cincinnati played Toronto FC and just needed three points to win the shield. They went up 2-0 early thanks to Brandon Vazquez. Their lead was quickly cancelled out when Jonathan Osorio scored a brace to make it 2-2 just before half. Cincinnati never gave up and found the eventual winner from Aaron Boupendza. The Supporters’ Shield is now back in the East and Cincinnati looks like real contenders for MLS Cup.

Out West, draws were the theme of the week with eight western conference teams only picking up a point. While the Dynamo dropped points, the other results went in their favor with Seattle, San Jose, Minnesota, Portland, LA Galaxy, and Vancouver all tying. St Louis destroyed Sporting Kansas City 4-1 to put SKC’s playoff hopes in severe doubt. Austin has all but fallen out of the playoff race as well with a 1-0 loss to Colorado.

In NWSL the playoff race is heating up with multiple playoff teams dropping crucial points. OL Reign and North Carolina played to a 1-1 draw in a game where neither side could afford to drop points. OL Reign has now failed to win in three straight games, making them serious contenders to fall out of the playoffs. Tonight, Orlando Pride and Angel City play their most important game of the season as both teams can find themselves in the playoffs after tonight with big wins.

Around the World

More refereeing controversy in England as there were some serious errors in the game between Liverpool and Spurs. The game ended 2-1 in favor of Spurs as Liverpool were down to nine men. Liverpool fans will debate the red cards, but what was not debatable was that Luis Diaz scored a goal that was unfairly ruled offside. This result saw both Spurs and Arsenal jump Liverpool in the standings. Manchester City also lost to Wolves, cutting the gap between them and the North London clubs to one. Manchester City travels to Arsenal next Sunday.

Bayer Leverkusen continued their dominance at the top of the Bundesliga table with a 3-0 victory away to Mainz. Alex Grimaldo scored another goal as he is looking like a top fullback in Europe this season. Title contenders Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig played to a 2-2 tie in a game neither wanted to drop points. The first half was all about Leipzig as they went into halftime 2-0 up. The second half was all Bayern as they got the two goals needed to tie the game.

The title race in Italy between the two Milan clubs continued as both earned a huge three points this weekend. AC Milan beat struggling Lazio 2-0 with Christian Pulisic scoring yet another goal. Inter won 4-0 over Salernitana with Lautaro Martinez scoring all four goals off the bench in the second half. Napoli continued to trail the Milan clubs with a 4-0 win of their own with four different goal scorers.