SALT LAKE CITY -- With the chance to move to the top of the Western Conference, the Houston Dynamo needed three points against Real Salt Lake on Thursday night, and ended up with a draw. And although they are still tied for second in the conference with RSL, the Dynamo are all right with the single point on the road.
Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear is clear that getting draws are not the focus of his team, but in some situations -- like the one against RSL -- he'll take the tie.
"I think we always want to play to win," said Kinnear. "It's an opportunity possibly go atop of the West, and start off the second half of the season on a positive note. It's a positive result. At least Salt Lake is not in front of us, and we're still angling ourselves, hopefully, to the top of the Western Conference. Overall, I think we could play a little bit better. But, I think the attitude of the guys ... was the reason that we came out with a point."
Such high stakes fueled the energy of the match as both the Dynamo and RSL held nothing back when going into tackles and challenging for loose balls. The tough challenges led to a total of seven cards being shown for the rough play, including a red card to Salt Lake defender Chris Wingert for violent conduct in second-half stoppage time.
Kinnear felt the fouling helped wake his team up and get them into the match, and as long as it's controlled, it's good to play with a bit of an aggressive edge.
"Sometimes fouls and disputed calls and controversy get guys revved up," said Kinnear. "I think that's what happened. Sometimes when you get fouled you get angry. A little bit there, our guys got a little more angry than leading up to the last 20 minutes. Sometimes you do [play better when you're angry]. When your anger and your energy is channeled in the right direction you can play better."
All the hard play culminated in an altercation between Wingert and Corey Ashe as the clock ticked over the 90th minute. It appeared that Wingert fouled Ashe and then Dwayne De Rosario confronted Wingert. It didn't take long for a small riot to break out in front of the benches -- and after it was cleared, referee Mark Geiger showed Wingert the red card.
"There was just a foul called, and then a scrum happened -- a couple guys got in each other's faces, which is normal," said Dynamo midfielder Brad Davis. "It's an intense game. Both teams are tied in points, if we win we're at the top, if they win they're at the top. So, it just gets intense. It's expected. I don't think it's right for their player to come in and throw a punch, but it happened and the referee, I think, did the right thing and took care of it. "
In addition to commending the officials, Davis also felt that his teammates handled the situation properly -- especially with some guys close to suspension.
"I think the guys handled their heads well, and tried to get the guys who were on cards out of the situation and get it handled," said Davis. "Let the referees take care of it. I think the guys did a good job to get out of there. "
In addition to the intense battles that can occur, playing on the artificial surface of Rice-Eccles Stadium is a painful experience. However, it was more kind to the Orange than their previous outings. The Dynamo opened the season with a 3-0 loss on the turf of Gillette Stadium in New England, and then saw the same result in CONCACAF Champions' Cup play when they fell on Saprissa's turf by the same score. Taking such history into account, a 0-0 draw on turf is an improvement for the Dynamo.
"Playing on the turf, we're not playing on it every week, is always a tough adjustment," said Davis. "Once again, I think our team works extremely hard to get that point. We didn't stop until the end.
"The first 20 minutes of the game we played well, and then we had a little spell where we fell asleep, and we can't do that, and they put a lot of pressure on us. The same thing, we didn't start the second half very well, and then the last 20 minutes we continued to put pressure on them."
It was that suffocating pressure that Davis feels led to the shoving match, resulting in the Dynamo going up a man.
"In the last 20 minutes I think they were getting frustrated because we were putting pressure on them," said Davis. "I think that scrum happens because they're upset, and something to try and get their team back into the game. We were putting a lot of pressure on."
The surface wasn't only affecting the visitors. Early in the match Kyle Beckerman was alone against Pat Onstad. Just as the RSL midfielder collected the ball it looked to take a bad skid on the carpet, killing the play for Beckerman but saving Onstad's day.
"I was thinking, 'Uh oh, I hope it hits me,'" said Onstad. "I don't know if it had a bit of spin on it, it just handcuffed him. I think he was in two minds, whether to hit it first time or take a touch. And, fortunately for me, it skipped up on him, and he didn't get a good touch on it. We dodged a bit of a bullet there."
As the game grew chippier and the fouls started flowing, the Dynamo looked to climb into control of the match. In the final 20 minutes the Orange began to combine some dangerous passes that opened up more opportunities to score. The end result was half of Houston's 10 shots being fired off in the final 10 minutes of the match.
"We were very, very close there at the end of the game on a couple of occasions," said Kinnear. "[RSL goalkeeper Nick] Rimando made some good saves and Brian [Ching] was inches away from getting the correct touch on Brad [Davis]'s service."
Davis agreed with his coach. He knows that the Dynamo are so close, they will start finding the net on a regular basis again very soon.
"I think it's a matter of time before we get our timing right on crosses and start scoring some goals," said Davis. "I think the play is there. We battled hard, it's a rough game on the turf, it's not always going to be pretty. We got our set piece chances -- it's just a hair off right now."
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