Written by Rosendo Castillo
Edited by Jorge Sapon
The Houston Dynamo took on the reigning MLS Champions, the Columbus Crew, in the Round of 16 of CONCACAF Champions Cup on Wednesday night at home. This was after the Dynamo beat St. Louis SC in the first round where they moved on with an important away goal, ending with an aggregate score of 2-2 after a 2 game series. The Columbus Crew on the other hand had a first round bye as MLS champs and had to wait to make their 2024 Champions Cup debut. Both teams went into the match having played the weekend where the home team lost 2-1 against the New York Red Bulls and Columbus drawing 1-1 with Minnesota United FC. The last team these two teams faced off was on August 30th, 2023 with a 2-0 win at home against the eventual champs. The Dynamo went into the match looking to rebound after the loss by making 3 changes from Saturday’s match. Bassi and Escobar get their first start of the season for Kowalczyk and Schmitt respectively and Greguš replaced Raines in the midfield.
The first half began with the Dynamo kicking off, but it was not until the 12th minute that the first opportunity came for the home side with a cross from Dorsey went just out of reach for Aliyu. The 16th minute saw a big save from Clark that pushed it over the crossbar for a Crew corner. Another shot by the Crew in the 19th minute hit the upright then was cleared for another corner. The first substitution came in the 23rd where Bartlow went in for Sviatchenko who seemed to have had hamstring issues. The 35th saw a promising through ball to Segal who was quickly shut down by the keeper. In the 38th, Clark went out of his area near midfield to stop a counterattack and mistimed the slide tackle, but the Crew could not take advantage of the open net from distance. The rest of the half saw a few more shots on target but the Dynamo put nothing that challenged the Crew’s keeper.
The start of the second half saw both teams with the same line up that finished the first half. The 52nd minute saw another save from Clark to keep the game nil-nil. The first opportunity of the second half for the Dynamo came in the 58th minute where a shot from Bassi was deflected and just missed wide that set up for another corner instead. The 59th minute saw another corner after what almost became an own goal but the ball just missed the goal. A quick recovery of the ball in the 60th minute saw a goal slotted in by Bartlow but ultimately got called off for being offside. A few minutes later in the 64th minute saw the first yellow of the match after a hard tackle by Bartlow. The 72nd minute saw the second sub of the night for the Dynamo where Kowalczyk checked into the match for Segal. The Crew would score in the 74th minute of the match but like the Dynamo, they too had their goal overturned for offside. Aliyu would go down after tracking back to make a tackle near the edge of the box that would lead the home team to make yet another sub as Smith entered the match for Aliyu in the 86th minute. The end of 90 minutes saw 6 minutes of stoppage time where the Columbus Crew would score a last minute game winner at the end of stoppage time.
The Dynamo would fall to the Columbus Crew 1-0 in the first leg of the round of 16. The Dynamo will once again play the Crew on Tuesday, March 12 at 5 pm C.T. as they look to rebound from a second consecutive loss at home in all comps. The Dynamo will have the weekend off to focus on the second leg. As for the Crew, they play at home on Saturday, March 9th against the Chicago Fire before Tuesday’s match.