Written by Juan Pereira

Photo by Houston Dynamo FC

There are many lows and little highs in soccer, and Houston’s matchup against Liga MX side Atlas was one of those lows. The crowd was loud, the weather wasn’t as bad as people thought it would be, and even the Astros won right next door. The vibes weren’t simply good enough on the field to give the Dynamo a crucial victory. 

Houston were the ones dominating possession early on, and they got two early chances in the first five minutes, the second of which was an Ezequiel Ponce effort that went just wide. 

In the 10th minute, however, Houston was caught in a bad place defensively, and Atlas had a clear chance to take the lead. Steve Clark was able to put his body on the line and prevent an early goal from the visitors. 

From then on, it was Atlas who looked more in sync with the game. They had a dangerous free kick in the 21st minute that led to nothing, but Houston would have to step up their game if they wanted to come away with a positive result. 

Atlas continued to push on, but Steve Clark was huge in keeping the Mexican squad off the board. Franco Escobar got himself into some foul trouble in the first half, which I’m sure Ben Olsen wasn’t happy about. 

Coming out of the break, Houston looked like a completely different team, which was shown in the 46th minute when Bassi took a great long range effort that was tipped over the bar by the Atlas goalkeeper. 

Ben Olsen’s side kept cranking up the pressure, and it seemed like an opener was just a couple of minutes away. 

In the 65th minute, Lawrence Ennali made his long-awaited Dynamo debut, and he entered the match to a nice ovation from the Dynamo faithful. 

Atlas was the team who got the opener however due to an absolutely fantastic strike from José Lozano. It was a curler that Steve Clark didn’t have a chance of saving. Houston were now entering desperation mode once again at home. 

Sadly, an equalizer wouldn’t come, and Houston lost the match 1-0. They will now have to rely on Atlas winning against Real Salt Lake to have the best possible chance of making it past the group stage. 

“Silver linings are tough in this business, but I’m biased and thought we were the better team,” Ben Olsen said after the match. “It wasn't our best night, but there was enough there to win the game.” 

Houston now has a must win matchup against RSL on August 5, so if there’s a time for the fans to support the Dynamo at home, right now would be the best possible moment.