The Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas will kickoff MLS Heineken Rivalry Week in earnest on Friday night, when Houston will host their fellow Western Conference high-flyers at BBVA Compass Stadium in the second Texas Derby match of 2017 (9 pm ET | UniMas, Facebook.com in the US, MLS LIVE in Canada).
And what a rivalry it is, born 11 years ago this March. Dallas, of course, is an original MLS city. But in 2006, the club was fresh off a name change (from the Dallas Burn to FC Dallas) and had just moved to a brand-new stadium then known as Pizza Hut Park. They were also about to lose their status as the only team in Texas, with the Houston Dynamo moving to the Bayou City from San Jose in time for the 2006 season.
Here’s a look -- originally published in 2016, but re-worked ahead of Friday's contest -- at highlights of 11 years of the Texas Derby, in which the teams play each year for the rights to display (and fire, if they so choose) El Capitan, a fully functional, Civil War-era mountain howitzer. Given that one of the most important Texas flags features a cannon with the defiant words “Come and Take It” underneath, El Capitan’s a trophy worthy of Texas teams.
Houston currently leads the series 6-5, and are in a decent position to retain El Capitan after drawing 0-0 at FC Dallas on May 28 in the first of three meetings between the sides this year.
May 6, 2006
The teams’ first-ever matchup, at the Dynamo’s original Robertson Stadium home, was a wild affair indicative of the back-and-forth to come. The Dynamo jumped out to a 3-0 first-half lead on goals from Ricardo Clark, Brian Ching, and Dwayne De Rosario, but Dallas answered with goals in the 60th and 61st minute from Carlos Ruiz and Ramon Nunez.
De Rosario righted the Dynamo with his second goal of the day six minutes later. And though Drew Moor would make it interesting with a third Dallas goal in the 76th minute, the inaugural match in the rivalry would go to the newcomers, 4-3.
September 30, 2007
It’s still one of the most violent on-field incidents in MLS history, and one that could have had playoff implications for a Dynamo team defending its crown. In the 88th minute of a match the Dynamo were winning handily, 3-0, Houston’s Ricardo Clark and Dallas’s Carlos Ruiz became entangled in front of the goal on a free kick. Clark sprung up and kicked a still-prone Ruiz in the chest.
Ruiz arguably embellished the foul by rolling around in front of the goal holding his head, but the ref was already on his way to giving Clark a red card. That took Clark out of action for nine games, including the entire repeat run to the MLS Cup.
November 2, 2007
Houston’s second title included the only all-Texas playoff matchup in league history. FC Dallas won the first leg 1-0 in Frisco on an opportunistic Clarence Goodson goal, and Carlos Ruiz put them up 2-0 on aggregate less than 15 minutes into the second game in Houston.
In a match featuring 10 yellow cards and two red cards – including a crucial ejection of FCD’s Arturo Alvarez just after halftime – Stuart Holden and Brian Ching scored second-half goals to deadlock the teams at the end of regulation. Then Ching and Brad Davis scored late in the first half of extra time to seal the deal for the Dynamo.
“Dallas wasn’t really a rival our first year, since [the Houston organization originally moved] from San Jose. But once we learned how much of a rivalry there was between the cities, which extended to the fans, we were definitely aware of it," Ching recalls. "We were a physical team that would try to out-foul you, and when they scored the goal against us at home, we shifted into another gear.
“I don’t even remember the last 20 minutes after I subbed out,” he adds. “I had expended so much energy during the game. We all had. And Dallas, after their red card, had put a lot into it as well.” Despite joking that it’s “always hot” in Texas, Ching notes that it wasn’t exactly August-brutal out, but adds, “it was warmer there than anywhere else in the country that day.”
May 28, 2011
Ugo Ihemelu made his mark on the Texas Derby a year earlier, when his late-game goal broke a scoreless deadlock to deliver FC Dallas its first-ever win in Houston, bringing El Capitan back to Dallas. (It was also a game in which FC Dallas’s Jair Benitez earned the first of his two career red cards – both against the Dynamo – by elbowing Luis Angel Landin in the face.)
Ihemelu scored what might have been another game winner in the teams’ first match of the ’11 season at the Rob. The goal came in the form of a perfectly executed header off a corner, but it was what followed that deserves to live on in Texas Derby lore – a goal celebration dance seemingly inspired by Weekend at Bernie’s.
“That game was a struggle,” Ihemelu remembers. “Every game against them was such a fight. I was sucking wind, I couldn’t breathe, and it felt like a weight was lifted off me when we scored, and that was the reason for the celebration.” As for the Bernie dance, he shrugs, “That’s just what came out. If I scored a goal today, I think I’d probably do the dab.”
(Incidentally, a late Colin Clark goal brought the Dynamo level, and that, combined with a 1-0 September win in Frisco, sent El Capitan back to Houston.)
April 5, 2014
Je-Vaughn Watson started his MLS career with the Dynamo, but moved to FC Dallas prior to the 2013 season. His best day ever as a pro came at an opportune time. He scored two second-half goals after the Dynamo’s David Horst was sent off in the 60th minute for a red-card-worthy slide into Dallas' Fabian Castillo. The first goal came almost immediately after the red card on a set-piece header, and he added a 70th minute goal from open play, running into the box unhindered before slotting it home.
Watson very nearly had a hat trick on the night; a 68th-minute corner kick went to Watson in front of goal, but was ruled to have glanced off the head of Dynamo defender Giles Barnes, defending Watson tightly on the play. It officially went into the books as a Houston own goal.
The match got even worse for Houston. Jair Benitez fouled Kofi Sardokie inside the penalty box in the 80th minute, but Boniek Garcia was unable to get the PK past FC Dallas goalie Chris Seitz. The match ended 4-1 in the only Texas Derby match played that season.
