Crew drop Dynamo with last gasp winner
(image via Billy Mears)
The Houston Dynamo and Columbus Crew met at Shell Energy Stadium for the first leg of their Round of 16 Concacaf Champions Cup match up. Both teams traded chance after chance, and each had a goal called back for offside. Columbus eventually found the winner at the death to pick up the win along with a valuable road goal. The teams will now head to Ohio Tuesday for the second leg to decide who advances to the quarterfinals.
The first chance of the match came to the Dynamo. Griffin Dorsey broke down the right in the 12th minute and whipped a pass toward Gabe Segal. The ball was just over the head of the Houston forward and Aliyu Ibrahim couldn’t quite reach the ball as it came across to the left side. Columbus then took over for a stretch.
In the 16th minute, Diego Rossi had time and decided to have a go at goal. Dynamo goalkeeper Steve Clark did just enough to tip the ball up onto the crossbar and out for a corner. In the 19th minute, Jacen Russell-Rowe got time near the top of the box as well and pinged his shot off the left post.
The Dynamo injury crisis seemed to get worse when Erik Sviatchenko went down holding his hamstring in the 20th minute. The Danish defender couldn’t carry on and he was replaced by Ethan Bartlow. Sviatchenko turned to block a shot by Rossi that was shanked wide and looked to have pulled something in his leg.
As the half wound down, the Dynamo attack began to show signs of life, spurred on by Coco Carrasquilla. The Panamanian played Segal in on goal in the 35th minute but Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte came off his line to make a save on the first-time shot.
A Dynamo corner kick nearly ended in disaster on the other end in the 38th minute. Mo Farsi cleared the ball from the Houston box and sprung Marino Hinestroza. Clark came way out of his box to try and challenge the young Colombian and got nowhere near the ball. Hinestroza tried to chip into the empty net from way out but missed wide.
Houston finished the first half with two chances. First, Dorsey was played in one-on-one but once again Schulte read the play well to come off his line and deny the effort in the 42nd minute. In the 44th minute, Amine Bassi found himself space on the right side of the box and stung Schulte’s gloves with a driven attempt. Both teams had good chances to breakthrough but they went into the break at 0-0.
The second half saw more of the same with both teams trading blows back and forth. Cucho Hernandez came on for the Crew and immediately made his presence felt. He slipped Rossi in on goal in the 52nd minute but Clark came off his line to smother the shot. Cucho then tried it himself in the 57th minute. Bartlow blocked the first shot and the rebound from the Columbus striker went wide.
Houston thought they had the opening goal in the 59th minute. A long ball into the box was headed back by Franco Escobar. The ball fell right into the path for Bartlow who unleashed a sliding volley into the side netting. The flag went up for offside and after a long VAR check the call stood. Escobar looked to be offside on the initial ball into the box. From the TV replays, it was very close, making the call on the field of offside the deciding factor.
Former Dynamo striker Christian Ramirez came off the bench for Columbus, looking to exact some revenge on his old club. He looked to have done that in the 74th minute. Ramirez checked back for the ball, got it onto his right foot and drilled a shot in off the far post. VAR was once again called on and Ramirez was deemed to be offside on the pass to him. The goal was wiped off and once again the score was back to 0-0.
As six minutes of stoppage time wound down, it looked as the game would end scoreless. A foul by Amine Bassi in the final minute of stoppage time gave Columbus a free kick. Aidan Morris swung the ball wide left to an unmarked Alexandru Matan. The Romanian drove into the box and fired the ball on goal. It went through everyone, including Clark, and into the back of the Dynamo net to give the Crew the win and a road goal.
A 0-0 scoreline, while not ideal, would have given the Dynamo a chance next week in Ohio. Now they enter the second leg knowing they have to beat Columbus and score twice to avoid extra time. It’s an uphill battle, to say the least.
