ReAL Uninspiring but Effective

The Dynamo got the 3 points to maintain their second place position in the Western Conference. They trail Dallas by 3 in the standings.

Dynamo dominated the first half. In the opening minutes, DeRo seemed to be fouled in the box, but the official decided it was too early to bestow a PK. He did bestow one late in the first, but the curse on our forwards seemed to endure as Cerritos was denied on the resultant kick. Thankfully Mullan was there to clean up the trash and give Dynamo the deserved lead.

I don't know if it was the mugginess or a particularly de-motivating halftime speech by Kinnear, but Dynamo was flat the second half. There were brief flashes of penetrating offense, but these were separated by long stretches of mediocrity where even our strength, the possession game, was off. The SLakers looked to be unjustly denied a legitimate equalizer approaching the hour mark, but that seemed to be a moot point after Moreno broke the curse and acrobatically knocked in a beautiful Mullan cross with about 7 minutes left in the game.

A sloppy tackle by Cochrane in the box gave the visitors a PK, and Kreis is always money on those. That goal in the 88th was as close as the SLakers would get, but it makes their earlier revoked goal seem all the more poignant. More offensive production by Dynamo could have erased any questions of the worth of this victory, but we were lacking life in every aspect of our game in the second half. I hope this is not due to the humidity, because then it will be a long stretch of uninspiring soccer as the season -- and the summer -- wears on.

Kudos to Mullan for his goal and his assist, and thank you Moreno for what seems to be breaking the curse.

An aside: watching so many World Cup matches pitting the best players and teams really made the MLS play appear pedestrian. Hopefully that's true of any league when compared to World Cup play (particularly when the World Cup players have been removed from the league). Still, Dynamo play some of the best soccer in the league ... second half of last night's game excepted.