With Houston’s other professional sports teams struggling to find respectability, the Houston Dynamo showed it has one trait that separates it from the rest of the bunch – resilience.
It wasn’t an easy road for the Dynamo, who had to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the second half of the second leg against FC Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals and then vanquish a hot Kansas City Wizards team in the Western Conference final just to get to the Major League Soccer Cup.
Then, playing against the Eastern Conference champion New England Revolution for the second consecutive year in the final, the Dynamo allowed the first goal for the second consecutive year as well as Taylor Twellman’s 20th minute header gave the Revolution a 1-0 lead in front of a heavily pro-Revolution crowd.
But, like last year, the Dynamo responded. They didn’t have Brian Ching, but they had built so much depth that it didn’t matter.
Coach Dominic Kinnear switched from his trademark 4-4-2 to an attacking 3-5-2 formation at halftime, and Ching’s replacement up front, Joseph Ngwenya, followed a determined run in the box in the 61st minute and scored on a rebound from his own shot.
Finally, club stalwart Dwayne De Rosario, who has a legacy of goals in big games, finished the scoring with a precise header that went past Revolution keeper Matt Reis and left both the crowd and the Revolution stunned. The Revolution had allowed no goals through their first nine halves of the playoffs but couldn’t finish the job.
The Revolution sent the whole team forward in the last five minutes but couldn’t break the stifling Dynamo defense.
Dynamo forward Nate Jaqua had a few strong runs in the last 10 minutes to kill time, and goalkeeper Pat Onstad had a reflex save on a point blank shot by Jeff Larentowicz as the Dynamo ran out the clock and sent the Revolution home disappointed again.
As winners of four of the last seven MLS Cups, two of which came before it moved to Houston, the Dynamo is MLS’ dynasty club.
Despite not having their own soccer-specific stadium, not using the MLS’ designated player spot to bring in a foreign star and not hitting big on foreign talent, the Dynamo persevered.
They’ve been resilient, that’s the best compliment you can give them. It’s paid off on the field. It’s paid off in the way they’ve acquired their talent, stealing players like Ngwenya and Jaqua from teams that gave up on them.
While it’s wonderful having them so close to campus, here’s hoping the teams resiliency pays off in one more area – their quest for a soccer-specific stadium from City Hall. Houston has already built arenas for its underachieving teams, how about one for the one team in the city that wins?
