Sporting KC and Houston Dynamo Play Out Electric Draw

Sporting KC entered the game against the long time rival Houston Dynamo on Saturday night desperately searching for at least a point on the road after falling to the LA Galaxy in the dying minutes of the game last week by a 2-1 final.

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Sporting KC was without Erik Palmer-Brown who was away on international duty and Seth Sinovic who is presumed to still be out with an injury. Sporting KC was able to put out the same starting eleven in consecutive weeks which was a good sign after the team played so well against LA.

The Houston Dynamo were relatively healthy with only Boniek Garcia listed as probably on their injury report.

Sporting KC came out firing when Krisztian Nemeth was able to find space and fire a shot from range around Houston goalkeeper Tyler Deric and just inside the far post to put Sporting up 1-0 in only the second minute.

The Houston Dynamo didn’t waste much time bringing things even when Giles Barnes got on the end of a ball that bounced around several defenders in the box and had a open shot that easily beat Sporting KC goalkeeper Luis Marin to bring the home side level at 1-1 in the eleventh minute.

Houston was able to pull ahead just before halftime when Brad Davis sent in a curling corner kick to the near post and Will Bruin got a glancing header to it and the ball floated across goal and into the far post to put Houston ahead 2-1 in the 45+1 minute.

As fast as Sporting KC started the first half, the Houston Dynamo started the second half when Giles Barnes dribbled towards the top of the penalty box and fired a shot to Marin’s left. The ball beat an outstretched Marin and gave Houston an insurance goal making it 3-1 in the 46th minute. Marin should have done better and looked to have plenty of time and space to make the save.

Giles Barnes was great for Houston on Saturday, but he did make a huge mistake that ultimately was the difference between a win and a draw for Houston. Barnes played a ball back to Deric but Dom Dwyer sniffed out the pass and beat Deric to the ball tapping it around him and getting tackled by Deric, Dwyer went to the ground but was able to spring back up and finish the ball into an empty net to bring Sporting KC withing one goal at 3-2 in the 74th minute.

Sporting KC continued the attack and Krisztian Nemeth was able to dribble to within feet of the goal and fired a shot back across goal but the ball looked to connect with Houston’s Jermaine Taylor’s arm and the referee blew the whistle for a penalty kick and gave Taylor a red card for denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity forcing Houston to finish the game with ten men, and giving Sporting the opportunity to equalize.

Benny Feilhaber stepped up to take the penalty kick and fired the ball towards goal and was able to beat an outstretched Deric even though he guessed right to even things up for Sporting KC at 3-3 in the 80th minute.