HOUSTON — The question heading into this match was whether Houston Dynamo FC could put together a miraculous run to the playoffs. However, a scoreless draw against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Wednesday night made it much less likely.
Despite dominating most facets of the encounter, the Dynamo just couldn't finish. In the end, despite Houston outshooting Vancouver 17-5, the scoreboard at the end of the night read nil-nil.
"I thought the team had a lot of energy today," head coach Tab Ramos said after the match. "We played very close to a perfect game. For us, we gave them nothing and created a ton of opportunities. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t go in the goal, and I know we’ve suffered a few of these this year and today we certainly disappointed from that end because we created the chances for this to happen to a zero-zero game."
Tab Ramos made two changes to his starting lineup against Minnesota, though he did switch his formation from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 as Maynor Figueroa joined Teenage Hadebe and Tim Parker in central defense. Vancouver coach Vanni Sartini, on the other hand, kept his customary 3-4-1-2 formation but made five changes from the starters against FC Dallas.
Houston immediately went on the offensive from the opening kick, with Fafa Picault sprinting down the left wing and trying to drive into the box. It was meant to be a tone-setter for a Dynamo FC attack looking to take three points at home.
"We felt like they are a team that has a lot of speed and they add numbers in the middle of the field and we thought that would be a better matchup for us today," added Ramos. "When we put together the training sessions leading into a game, when we scout an opponent every time, we always hope that it works out this good and a lot of the times it doesn’t because that’s just the way soccer is sometimes, but today I thought we really had their number."
Dynamo FC could have been up by two at about the 10-minute mark. Darwin Quintero could not connect with a ball at the far post in the ninth minute and Picault was denied by the post just one minute later on a much more clear opportunity.
The Dynamo would end with nine shots in the first half, but only one of those would be on target. Vancouver's attack was nonexistent with only one shot in the first 45 minutes.
"It's obviously a lot of fun when you have the ball, but you also have to be wary of what kind of positions you're in and how vulnerable you are with it," said defender and team captain Tim Parker. "We were able to get more numbers in spots than they were, we were able to outnumber them and play through them a bit. I thought it was a really good day on the ball for the team."
The chances would continue coming in during the second half as the team began just as promising on attack. Darwin Quintero had a good opportunity in the 50th minute to open the scoring but was denied.
Shot after shot would come from Houston, with defenders like Figueroa setting up forwards like the returning Tyler Pasher. But no one was able to get past Maxime Crepeau, on a night where the Canadian national team's main goalkeeper finished with four saves.
"We came in today with a game plan and the game plan was to basically match up well with their center backs and two forwards," said Pasher. "From the start of the game, we had quite a few chances right off the bat. The game plan was working pretty well. It is just unfortunate that we couldn't find the back of the net tonight. I felt that it was a pretty dominate performance tonight from us overall."
Ramos felt good about being able to have Pasher available for this first time in four matches, as the head coach said in his press conference prior to Wednesday's match. The reinforcement just was not enough to translate into three points.
Houston's next challenge comes on Sunday when they play at rival Sporting Kansas City in a nationally-televised match. The club continues to look for a road victory in 2021 and will need one to avoid ending the season with a losing record.
"I mean we're still hungry," said Parker. "I think we want to win every game moving forward. There's no reason why our mentality would be any other way. Obviously, in this league you never know what can happen so that's how we have to approach these last six games and just go for the maximum points that we can probably try to grab."