Seattle Sounders FC Forward Clint Dempsey (center), a Nacogdoches, Texas native, was the focal point in midfield in a road game against the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, April 10, 2016. Victor Araiza/Prost Amerika.

The Houston Dynamo were the talk of the league after scoring a Major League Soccer-record 11 goals in three matches to start the season. Since then the Dynamo have only been able to come up with one goal in the two following games, the lone goal that on Sunday looked to have defeated the Seattle Sounders.

Houston was the aggressor in the first half. The triumvirate of Giles Barnes, Andrew Wenger and Cristian Maidana saw the Dynamo dominate possession of the ball and shot attempts in the first half. The Dynamo capped that off by taking the lead in the 35th minute on an almost pedestrian lob by Giles Barnes on the right side in the box to score a beautiful goal that will surely get nominations for the MLS Goal of the Week award.

“I thought for the first 42 minutes we were incredible,” said Houston Dynamo Forward Giles Barnes in his postgame locker room availability. “Thought we did really well, thought the last five minutes or so of the first half we just sort of weathered the storm a little bit, came out nice and bright in the second half, we felt we were in control for most of the game, just unfortunate in the last little bit.”

Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid looks on in the first half during his team’s match against Houston Dynamo on Sunday, April 10, 2016. Victor Araiza/Prost Amerika

Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid, on the other hand, wasn’t going to let Houston run the day.

“Halftime talk was simply that we didn’t come out to play in the first half,” said Schmid. “We’re rested, we’re fit. We didn’t train hard this week. It was a little bit of a lowdown week. I went really light on them yesterday, and there was no reason for us to not put in the effort. I challenged them and they came out and as a team they responded.”

The second half reflected Schmid’s adjustments and saw the Sounders take control of the ball, though Seattle could not find their way on the score sheet. That is until the last play of the game when a Oalex Anderson pass found it’s into the box where Chad Marshall took advantage of Houston’s inability to clear the ball, giving the Sounders a 1-1 tie on the road.

“Obviously it’s a tough place to play,” said Sounders defender Chad Marshall during his postgame media availability. “They had a lot of numbers behind the ball. It was tough to break them down. I’m just glad I got to go out there and throw the body around, and luckily get one.”

Seattle Sounders FC Forward Herculez Gomez warms up in the second half during his team’s match against Houston Dynamo on Sunday, April 10, 2016. Gomez made his debut with the Sounders, coming on as a substitute. Victor Araiza/Prost Amerika

Seattle Sounders FC were coming off their first win of the season over the Montreal Impact the previous week and the tie brings their point count to 4 in this early part of the 2016 season. Sunday’s game also saw the debut of Herculez Gomez after signing with the Sounders a little over a week ago.

“I thought Herculez was good,” said Schmid. “He had a couple of good balls. His running was good as well. I thought Herculez’s experience really helped us today.”

The Houston Dynamo have little time to digest the two points lost in the final minute of the game. They host the Los Angeles Galaxy on Friday (6:00 p.m. CT) in MLS’ weekly game on UniMás titled “Viernes de Fútbol.”

The Seattle Sounders, on the other hand, set their sights on the Philadelphia Union who come to town next Saturday, April 16 (7:00 p.m. PT).

Victor Araiza is a beat writer covering the Houston Dynamo for Prost Amerika.

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