HOUSTON – The good news for Houston Dynamo fans is that Giles Barnes, sidelined for several weeks with a hamstring injury suffered in last month’s Texas Derby, looks to be back to full health after his performance against the Seattle Sounders on Sunday. It even looked, through the third minute of stoppage time, as if his highlight-reel-worthy 34th minute goal would stand the game-winner.
The bad news for Dynamo fans is that there was a fourth minute of stoppage time.
For the second time in this young season, the Dynamo looked to be closing out a home win only to see their visitors draw, 1-1, late in the game – this also happened in Houston’s season opener against the New England Revolution. And they’d prefer to keep the déjà vu experience from developing into a trend.
“It sucks,” Dynamo forward Will Bruin bluntly assessed after the match. “We can’t keep doing it. We’re five games in and I’m already sick of saying, ‘Hey,we’re getting unlucky.’ We’ve got to be three points, plain and simple.
“When we go forward and we take the game to teams. … We’re so good going forward when we play our game. I think when we try to hold a lead, or try to change ourselves during the game, that it makes a difference in the way we play, so I think we’ve just got to keep going what we’re doing no matter what the score is and we shouldn’t change ourselves based on who’s playing on or who the other team is, or what the score is.”
Head coach Owen Coyle also expressed disappointment in the result.
“I thought we would have won the three points. We should have had two or three goals in the first half … but we also need to make sure that we see those kinds of games out.”
While Coyle did sub Barnes off in the 89th minute, citing the missed weeks as a concern, he lauded Barnes for his goal and his other contributions during the game, and asserted that he’s returned to form.
Barnes, glad to be back after the frustration of missing several games, would have preferred to change the ending of the game’s script, but feels positive going forward.
“It’s bitter,” he said, “but I’m always proud of my team no matter what we do. We controlled the game for most of the parts, it’s just that last little bit, that last percent we need to get ready, need to get right, and once we do that, we’ll be fine.”
