Houston Dynamo playing the role of spoiler, wins 3-1 over New England

Mathematically eliminated from playoffs, the Houston Dynamo season has been reduced to playing the role of spoiler. They performed their role to perfection on Tuesday night defeating the New England Revolution by a score of 3-1. The win more importantly lifted Houston out of the Western Conference cellar.

Houston played like they were a playoff bound. The game reminded fans of the early weeks of the season when the Dynamo dominated at home. They showed again the team that many expected them to be in 2022 and not the team that has gone 3W-8L-3D with a minus 10 goal differential since the beginning of July. Houston put 11 of 21 shots on target and knocked three home. It's a goal scoring average a team can be proud of.

We deserved three points. That’s a performance that deserves maximum points," said Bundy following the match that gave him his first win as an MLS coach.

The Revolution had been sitting just outside the playoff cut line coming into the match and a win could have possibly put them inside the demarcation line. Houston sent New England down to defeat as they lost their second consecutive match dropped a spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

With his team eliminated from the playoffs, this was a character game for the Houston Dynamo.

"I’m really proud of the guys. If I look at it, I have to give credit to the staff because the plan that was put together in such a short amount of time—it was spot on," continued Bundy. "It allowed the players to understand what they were going to see. It allowed structure in the way that we were going to defend and the way we were going to go in to attack. Then it opened up their minds to be able to be creative and express themselves. Which is the goal as a staff, allowing them to be themselves when those moments come in and that’s not just the attacking players, that’s the defensive players, that’s the goalkeeper. So, I’m just really proud and that was my message after the game. We talked about character for the last seven days and that is character. That’s a character game, because we are up a goal. We miss a penalty, we are up a goal and then we concede a penalty and we go 1-1. There are two options for the group. They can either feel sorry for themselves, slip, or we can battle to get the result that we deserve."

Houston takes to the road at LAFC on Saturday night. Kick-off is set for 9:30pm CT.