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Wizards 1, Dynamo 1

Oct 4, 2009 - 10:40 PM HOUSTON - The Houston Dynamo clinched a playoff berth. They were just disappointed by missing a chance to get more.

Houston settled for a tie atop the Western Conference after blowing a second-half lead Sunday in a 1-1 draw against the Kansas City Wizards.

Luis Angel Landin's goal put the Dynamo ahead in the 26th minute, but Kansas City's Zoltan Hercegfalvi scored in the 73rd minute against a Houston team that was down to 10 men.

"It's a good point," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "We're happy that we qualified for the playoffs. It was a tough game, and obviously, playing with a man down really hurt us.

"We are disappointed obviously, but considering that was going on, and playing down a man for 70 minutes, it was a great effort."

Instead of taking over sole possession of the top spot in the West, Houston (12-8-8) tied Los Angeles for the lead with 44 points. Each team has two games left, including Oct. 18 when the Galaxy play in Houston.

The Dynamo wrapped up a spot in the postseason for the fourth time in as many years since moving from San Jose.

Kansas City (8-11-8) remained in sixth place in the East, six points out of a playoff spot after increasing its unbeaten streak to four games (2-0-2).

"We knew what was at stake coming into the game," Wizards midfielder Davy Arnaud said. "Three points would have been nice, but we have three games left and we are going to try and go and win all of those."

Houston played a man down starting in the 18th minute when Cam Weaver was red carded for a hard tackle from behind. Eight minutes later, however, Landin scored his first career MLS goal off Brian Mullan's cross.

"It was a nice goal, and I hope it is the first of many more to come," Landin said. "It is always difficult to play against teams that are playing desperate to get into the playoffs. Their defenders are very physical and with the ejection that we had very early on, that really complicated things. That was very disappointing.

"I would have liked for my team to win today. That would have made for a complete day."

The Dynamo were playing without leading goal-scorer Brian Ching, who was serving a one-game suspension.

Kansas City tied the game when Hercegfalvi took Claudio Lopez's pass behind the Houston backline on the right box, hitting it off goalkeeper Pat Onstad and into the right side of the net for his first MLS goal.

"Obviously we came in here wanting to get three points," Arnaud said. "We went a man up early, and we didn't push the game like we should have and they got the goal. After that, their main priority is to defend and so it's tough to break them down at times. That being said, we got the goal and gave ourselves a chance and just couldn't get that second one."

Kevin Hartman made three saves for the Wizards, who likely need to win out and get some help to make the playoffs.

"Every game that we've played we've used as a measuring stick to see where we're at as a team," Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said. "Today we fell short and it's a team you have to measure yourself against because it's a consistent, well-organized, successful team and we had to measure up today."

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Story from: STATS LLC, http://www.stats.com