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Dynamo move into tie for first with win over FC Dallas

Sep 30, 2007 - 10:58 PM By Ken Costlow PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FRISCO, Texas (Ticker) - As FC Dallas has learned many times before, close is never good enough against the Houston Dynamo.

A late first-half goal from Dwayne De Rosario and second-half tallies from Eddie Robinson and Stuart Holden propelled Houston to a 3-0 victory over FC Dallas on Sunday at Pizza Hut Park.

The Dynamo (14-7-6) overtook Chivas USA for the top spot in the Western Conference standings with the win.

FC Dallas (12-11-4) suffered its fifth loss in the last seven matches and remained in third place in the Western Conference race.

It was also the Dynamo's fifth win in eight meetings with their intrastate rivals but their first victory at FC Dallas' home field, having only drawn twice in three previous contests.

Houston won three of the four meetings with FC Dallas this season.

Despite the apparent one-sided edge his team enjoys over FC Dallas, Houston coach Dominic Kinnear does not feel his team has any kind of psychological advantage over its cross-state rivals.

"I don't think there is mastery over any team in this league to Dallas," Kinnear said. "They gave us problems today. I thought in the second half, we were really disciplined defensively and I thought we had more breakouts and got more people forward. You try to get the ball up the field as quickly as possible. (FC Dallas) looked pretty tired, so we took our chances."

De Rosario got his goal in first-half stoppage time, playing a carom off FC Dallas' Pablo Ricchetti. The midfielder blasted a shot from 12 yards to the right of the goal into the back of the net to put the Dynamo up, 1-0, at halftime.

In the 62nd minute, Robinson was left unmarked at the left post on a Richard Mulrooney corner kick and made a sliding shot to double the Dynamo's cushion.

Then, Holden found himself open after a cross from Brian Ching and scored the third goal of the match with six minutes remaining.

"I kind of shouldered the ball a little bit and nudged it away from (Clarence) Goodson before he could lunge for it," Ching said. "I don't think I played a particularly good game, but it's nice to get an assist on a goal like that."

It was Holden's first action since August 4, when he suffered a right ankle contusion against Real Salt Lake. He came on as a substitution for Corey Ashe in the 68th minute.

FC Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty expressed the frustrations of the entire team for not only giving up a goal late in the first half, but failing to get any kind of sustained attack going against its biggest nemesis.

"We should have reacted to it better coming out in the second half, but things just aren't falling our way right now," McCarty said. "We're in the middle of an unlucky patch and we need to find a way out of it."

FC Dallas' frustrations were compounded late in the match when tempers boiled over into a fracas in front of the Dynamo's goal. Houston's Ricardo Clark and FC Dallas' Carlos Ruiz were both sent off - Clark with a straight red card and Ruiz with his second yellow of the game.

Ruiz already was going to have to serve a one-game suspension due to yellow card accumulations, but further disciplinary action could be coming to both players.

Clark appeared to take a kick at Ruiz while he was on the ground at the beginning of the melee.

Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad made one save for his ninth clean sheet of the season.

Houston outshot FC Dallas, 13-9, and held a 7-1 edge in shots on goal. FC Dallas left back Blake Wagner made his MLS debut in the match, taking the place of Chris Gbandi, who had to sit out due to a suspension for caution accumulations.