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Wizards, Dynamo play to tie

Sep 2, 2007 - 4:03 AM By Jeremy Rakes PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Houston continues to hold on to first place in the Western Conference, but its lead hasn't been growing by much for the second straight week.

The Dynamo played to a 1-1 tie against the Kansas City Wizards at Robertson Stadium on Saturday night.

With Dallas losing to D.C. United, Houston (11-7-6, 39 points) increased its lead in the West by a point and now leads FC Dallas and Chivas USA by three. Kansas City (9-9-6, 33 points) now has 33 points, but it trails New York by three points for third in the Eastern Conference.

"It's still a valuable point," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "With Dallas losing, we've still gained a point. You'd like to stretch your lead if you could, but it didn't happen. The guys showed good attitude coming out in the second half."

Houston tied the score in the 69th minute when Dwayne DeRosario led Joseph Ngwenya with a pass into the box, and Ngwenya beat the Kansas City defender and let one go to beat Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman into the right corner of the net.

"We were trying to tell the guys up front to be a little more mobile," Kinnear said. "It was Joseph's second run that really got away from Nick Garcia. I thought it was an excellent run and an excellent goal."

"I tried to take the guy away, and that was just a great ball by Dwayne," Ngwenya said. "He led me in with it. It's easy to score with that kind of ball.

Kansas City got on the board just before halftime as Eddie Johnson got a crossing pass from Scott Sealy. Johnson was sliding into the goalkeeper's box when Sealy gave him the pass in front of an open net, and Johnson kicked it in to give the Wizards the 1-0 edge.

"It was a tough game," Johnson said. "We knew it was going to be a tough road trip. They were real physical today, and they made it difficult for us."

Things were heated throughout between the two teams as referee Ramon Hernandez issued three yellow cards in the span of five minutes in the first half, and then issued three more yellow cards to start the second half.

In the 26th minute, Ngwenya was tripped from behind in the box by Jimmy Conrad, and Ngwenya stayed down for a minute. When he got up, he made it clear that he wanted a yellow card on Conrad, but instead Ngwenya was booked for dissent.

In the 29th minute, Conrad did get a yellow card for throwing Ngwenya to the ground. Houston's Richard Mulrooney was issued a yellow card in the 32nd minute after he made a hard tackle.

As the second half started, Sealy made a hard tackle on Houston's Ryan Cochrane and a scuffle between the two teams broke out but no punches were thrown. When the officials broke it up, Robinson and Kurt Morsink were both issued yellow cards for Kansas City.

In the 50th minute, Houston's Patrick Ianni was issued a yellow card for pushing and holding, and in the 61st minute, the Wizards' Jack Jewsbury was booked for pushing and holding Ricardo Clark.