CARSON, Calif. - Houston Dynamo put themselves in prime position to salvage a draw against Chivas USA in the first leg of their Western Conference Semifinal Series at The Home Depot Center on Sunday afternoon.
With less than five minutes remaining in the match, Dynamo forward Brian Ching was taken down by Jason Hernandez in the Chivas penalty area, prompting referee Jorge Gonzalez to signal for a penalty kick.
That set up a game-deciding spot kick by Dwayne De Rosario. But it was Chivas goalkeeper Brad Guzan who would come away victorious, guessing correctly on De Rosario's shot and blocking it to preserve a Chivas 2-1 win and setting up what is likely to be an entertaining second leg matchup at Robertson Stadium next Sunday.
"It makes the job a little more difficult for us. To advance we need to win by two goals," said Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear. "It sets it up for a very exciting and enticing Sunday evening next week in Houston."
All of Chivas' offense was produced on two set piece attempts, the first a free kick goal by Ante Razov just before halftime and the second a headed goal by Juan Francisco Palencia in the 68th minute. Ching halved the Chivas lead with a first-time shot in the 75th minute.
"We played well overall but two mental lapses and we're down 2-0," said Ching. "We weren't paying attention to detail on the free kicks and we're [ticked] off at ourselves for that. But we battled back and 2-1 is a hell of a lot better than 2-0."
With the exception of one defensive blunder that nearly cost Dynamo a goal - a first-half breakaway by Razov that he failed to capitalize on - the Dynamo defense held firm through the match.
"Not a lot of teams have opportunities to score on us throughout the play of the game," said defender Adrian Serioux. "It was unfortunate that we got scored on in set pieces because that's our strong point."
Serioux, who was whistled for the foul on Palencia that set up Razov's free kick goal, did not think the foul call was warranted.
"He's a good actor," he said. "If there was somebody from Hollywood watching today they should definitely pick him up."
After Ching pulled Dynamo to within a goal of Chivas, Kinnear elected to maintain his team's formation in the final minutes of the match.
"If it was a (regular season) game and we were down 2-1, we'd be sending bodies forward like crazy," Kinnear said. "But there's still another 90 minutes to play."
And those next 90 minutes are sure to be charged after a match that featured 32 fouls (23 by Chivas), three yellow cards and 14 shots on goal.
Dynamo, however, are confident that they will rise to the challenge.
"We have confidence in each other to step on the field next Sunday and believe we will go through," said Kinnear.
Added Serioux: "Our confidence is going to be a great plus for us especially with our fans. We're going to go back there and definitely get a win -- we expect nothing less from ourselves."
Danny Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
