Dynamo 2sday: Dos drop season opener in Austin
(image via Austin FC)
With great expectations off the back of the great results from the inaugural season in 2022, Houston Dynamo 2 made the trip to Austin to welcome the newly formed Austin FC II to MLS NEXT Pro.
Head coach Kenny Bundy spoke earlier in the week about getting the year started versus Austin FC. “It’s exciting, everyone is ready to go. It's been an extremely long pre-season, which we knew it was going to happen based on last year. But I think everybody is excited to go and play.”
This match came about a week after the Austin FC first team suffered defeat in orange territory to the Houston Dynamo FC first team with goals from Amine Bassi and Hector Herrera. So, this matchup had a little extra spice to it. The match was what everyone would have expected from a season opener/rivalry match. There were goals, a comeback, lots of fouls, a good number of yellow cards, a red red card and an acrobatic finish that almost ended the game in a tie.
The first goal in the match came at the beginning of the second half. The goal was basically a testament to what this squad, under Kenny Bundy, did all last year. It seems like the high pressure with intensity continues to be a key factor that leads to turnovers deep in opponents’ territory which leads to quick counters and most times the ball ends up in the back of the net.
As Beto Avila pressured the center backs and forced them to make a difficult pass both Papa N’Doye and Isaiah Reid blocked the flanks and removed the ability to use the width of the field as outlets, and instead forced a pass thru the middle of the field. This is where the midfielders came into play. Jacob Evans and Diego Gonzalez fully supported the pressure by stepping into the defensive areas of Austin and cut out those passes in their tracks. Gonzalez was able to anticipate the pass from the center back to the midfielder and without thinking twice threaded the needle between the left back and the left center back to set up N’Doye one on one with the goalkeeper. Papa did what he does best and finished the chance at the near post to put Houston up 1-0.
Austin, in their first match, put out a great effort, as they managed to comeback from the 1-0 deficit. Both goals, one in the 64th minute and the other in the 83rd, were almost carbon copies but from different flanks. Austin got runners free on the flank and they carried the ball to the end line before passing back to the penalty spot. Valentin Noel had a tidy finish for the first goal and his second was almost identical. Dynamo 2 goalkeeper Xavier Valdez had a good response to the shot but gave away a rebound that unfortunately landed back at the feet of Noel and he converted for his brace and eventual game-winner.
Avila would end up getting his second yellow card towards the end of the match and left the team to fight the last few minutes with 10 on the field as he was sent off. Academy product Zeke Soto almost equalized for the Dynamo during the last play of the match. He found himself in the air with an acrobatic shot on goal but Austin goalkeeper Damian Lasn was able to react to the rebound header from Talen Maples and secure the victory for the home side.
Bundy spoke after the match about the performance and where the team will look to improve. “Tough result,” the Dynamo 2 head coach said. “The message after the game was ‘the game comes down to moments and we’ll evaluate that next week ; One of our core values is progress, and to continue to push to be better. We can look at some of these moments that happened for us, not only good moments but bad moments and improve on those. I thought in the first half we had done enough to score at least one goal. We were excellent on set pieces. We created some great opportunities playing between the lines.We lacked a little bit of composure around the box. Going in at half time, it was about the first 15 minutes. Coming out we had the right mentality and we caught them with our press. It was a great transition goal for us to go up 1-0. It comes down to those moments that we concede chances, and they were clinical with their finishing. They are very organized and when they broke on us two times, they were able to finish. At the end of the day, even up until the 96th minute, we created three chances that could’ve gotten us back into the game with at least a draw. Those are things we are going to evaluate and improve on.”
The next match for Dynamo Dos will be at home on Sunday, April 2nd as Houston hosts Colorado Rapids 2 in the home opener. Colorado is coming off a 2-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City II in their first match.
