Adam Moffat and Brian Ching scored to lead the Houston Dynamo to a 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers in front of 14,475 fans Sunday night at Robertson Stadium. The Dynamo and Timbers met for the first time under cloudy skies in the Bayou City. Former Dynamo players Mike Chabala and Lovel Palmer both started for Portland while former the Timber Moffat was in the starting lineup for Houston and stole the show.
It was Moffat who opened the scoring and his account for the Dynamo in the 18th minute. On a Houston corner the ball bounced around in the box and Bobby Boswell’s shot was deflected off Kenny Cooper and out to Moffat about 38 yards from goal. The Scot settled the ball with one touch and unleashed a volley with his second touch that flew by Troy Perkins and gave the Dynamo the lead on a true golazo. It was his first goal for Houston and his first MLS goal since July 3, 2010 when he was a member of the Clumbus Crew.
Brian Ching doubled the Dynamo lead in the 27th minute after some great work by midfielders Brad Davis and Colin Clark. Davis worked on the left side and found Clark at the edge of the box. Clark fed a through ball through former teammate Lovel Palmer’s legs and Ching slotted it home past Perkins. Ching nearly added a third in the 41st minute when he stretched to reach a cross and was able to poke it on goal. As the ball rolled to the goal line, Portland keeper Troy Perkins smothered it and kept the Timbers deficit at two. The ball looked like it may have crossed the line but the game went to the half with the Dynamo leading 2-0.
Portland got on the board in the 56th minute through their captain. Sal Zizzo crossed to Darlington Nagbe who lofted a header to Jack Jewsbury. Jewsbury hit a left footed volley first time from 15 yards out that took a deflection off Houston defender Andre Hainault and beat Tally Hall. The goal was Jewsbury’s team leading 7th of the season.
The Timbers looked for an equalizer but Hall and the Houston defense kept them at bay. With the win, The Dynamo improved to 7-7-10 on the season and moved into a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference with New York. Portland fell to 7-11-5 and now sit four points behind the last playoff spot. Both teams are back in action Wednesday night as the Dynamo travel to New England to take on the Revolution while the Timbers will be at LiveStrong Sporting park to face Sporting Kansas City.
Game Notes:
- Portland forward Adam Johnson, who was listed as out for this game due to a concussion, left the game in the 40th minute and was taken to a local hospital due to a possible concussion.
- Carlo Costly got his first start for the Dynamo in his home debut and there was a nice crowd of Hondurans at the game to support him.
(image courtesy of Anthony Vasser/Houston Dynamo)
