Houston Dynamo Take Fans on Roller Coaster Ride While Picking up 4 Points

One can forgive Houston Dynamo fans if they're feeling rode hard and put away wet this morning, it's been a long, emotional week for them, and the week isn't even over yet.

This long week began on Saturday when the Dynamo hosted their rivals from North Texas, F.C. Dallas, at BBVA Compass Stadium. This was Dallas' first visit to the new Dynamo stadium and the only match between these two clubs this season.

The Dynamo got off to a quick start thanks to a Will Bruin goal in the 3rd minute. In light of the rough season that Dallas has had, many fans, especially Dynamo fans, suspected that the early Dynamo goal would demoralize the Dallas players, and it did for the rest of the first half.

Schellas Hyndman must of fired up his players with a good halftime speech, because Dallas started the second half like it was a whole new game. When Jackson picked up the Dallas equalizer in the 59th minute, there was a sense that Dallas was not going to be content to leave Houston with a draw and one point.

Any plans Dallas had for picking up the win pretty much died in the 63rd minute when Jair Benítez picked up a red card for an off the ball elbow to Colin Clark. Then, in the 76th minute, Adam Moffat scored a goal from distance, giving the Dynamo the win and bragging rights.

Last night, Toronto FC paid its first visit to BBVA Compass Stadium and, despite sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference table, started the match like a team determined to win the league. In a chaotic first 22 minutes Toronto went top first with a goal by Jeremy Hall in the first minute. Bobby Boswell managed to tie things up for Houston with a lovely header in the 20th minute, but then Danny Koevermans put Toronto ahead in the 22nd minute. Thanks to second Koevermans goal in the 45th minute, Toronto had a 3-1 lead over the home side at the half.

Those of use who grew up Houston sports fans are used to our professional teams playing to their competition - putting up great performances against top teams while losing to the bottom feeders they should easily beat. But, based on twitter, it seems that many Dynamo fans are not familiar with or used to that Houston sports dynamic, because their tweets during halftime suggested that the world was coming to an end, that this was the worst Dynamo match ever, and the season was over. I was almost surprised I didn't see any fire Dom tweets during the half.

For the second half, it seems that the Dynamo managed to channel their inner 1993-1994 Houston Rockets, the team that turned Houston from Choke City into Clutch City, and decided that Toronto was not going to leave Houston with 3 points. Will Bruin ended up playing the role of Houston hero by picking up goals in the 73rd and 90th minutes, giving Houston a 3-3 draw.

The Dynamo's week is not over, they head north of the border to face Montreal on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The match will be broadcast on Fox Sports Houston.

David Beckham vs. The Beer Can

On Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Toronto FC treated soccer fans to a very entertaining CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal 2-2 draw at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Despite two excellent early goals from Toronto and then LA's efforts to battle back and pick up two away goals, the most memorable moment of the evening was in the 88th minute when, despite a wall of security guards, a beer can was hurled at David Beckham as he prepared to take a corner kick. Beckham picked the can up in anger, yelling about it to officials, and Bruce Arena was seen pointing at his watch in effort to make sure the officials accounted for this in extra time, then Beckham settled down, took the corner which Landon Donovan managed to put into the goal for LA.

It's interesting to note that this incident occurred about a week after MLS handed down sanctions on Houston Dynamo supporter groups for incidents that occurred last season in MLS, and despite all the fuss that created within the soccer fan community, Wednesday's incident indicates that the projectile issue in North American soccer hasn't disappeared.

Since Wednesday's match was a CONCACAF game not an MLS game I'm not going to pontificate on what the suits should do about the incident, rather, I think the incident highlights that it is a difficult issue to police, even within the supporter groups cause all it takes is one drunken fan to throw something without warning. Policies on beverage containers vary from stadium to stadium, but even in stadiums where all drinks are served in plastic cups, those cups can become projectiles too - I vividly recall that happening during a Mexico-Panama match at Reliant Stadium.

I really don't have any good solutions for this issue. I really don't have a strong stance one or another regarding MLS's sanctions of Dynamo fans. What I do know is that throwing projectiles is wrong, and, with the start of the 2012 MLS season tomorrow, I'm hoping the projectile issue won't be a big issue this season.

Episode 32 of The Zygo Soccer Report: Houston Dynamo 2-0 Toronto FC

The Houston Dynamo hosted Toronto FC this past Saturday, winning this Eastern Conference match-up 2-0.