Vancouver Whitecaps headed into Houston this evening looking to end the Dynamo's 32 game unbeaten home streak.
With the home side missing three key starters to international duty there won't be many better opportunities for Vancouver to come away from Houston with some points, but despite taking a first half lead through a Darren Mattocks wonderstrike, the Caps left empty handed after poor defending gifted the Dynamo two goals and all three points.
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Vancouver were missing Kenny Miller to international duty themselves, and Martin Rennie sprang a surprise in his line up, favouring rookie Erik Hurtado for his first MLS start over the more experienced Camilo Sanvezzo.
The inclusion of Hurtado seemed to signal that Vancouver were looking to play an attacking game in their first road game of the season, hoping to exploit the weakened Houston line up. As it turned out, it was the wingers defensive frailties that proved to be the talking point after the game.
The Dynamo had a boost to their line up when Will Bruin was able to start after being a doubt with a hamstring injury sustained last week and the striker played an important part in the home side's victory.
Houston were presented with the first opportunity of the game three minutes in when a bizarre incident unfolded at the corner flag.
Joe Cannon rushed out of his goal and tried to shield the ball out for a goal kick but the ball held up and Andrew Driver tried to dispossess him. YP Lee was back and looked like he had cleared the danger but his clearance bounced off the referee into the path of Adam Moffat, whose wild shot went across the box instead of towards the open goal and Gershon Koffie eventually cleared.
The Caps settled and Alain Rochat nearly played in Daigo Kobayashi with a long though ball that was just too far ahead of the Japanese playmaker in the fifth minute.
One of the keys to this game was which team could use their set pieces to greater effect. Houston are a side who have looked dangerous in attack from set pieces this season, but susceptible to defending them.
Vancouver got early warning of the former when Giles Barnes rose unchallenged to head a Driver corner narrowly wide in the 11th minute.
Houston kept the pressure on and Cannon had to react quickly to palm away a Ricardo Clark shot that took a slight deflection off the foot of the tackling Andy O'Brien. Barnes had set Clark up with a delightful backheel and if Clark's first touch had been better it could have been more troubling for the Caps.
There was no respite for Vancouver and when another dangerous Driver corner came out to Kofi Sarkodie in the 17th minute, the young defender fired over.
The game settled down and the visitors were surprisingly ahead in the possession stats but not producing much with it and Houston were looking the more dangerous side.
As the half hour mark approached, Warren Creavalle did well to get past Rochat and Kobayashi on the sideline and played a great ball down the line to Clark who took a couple of touches towards goal before blasting over.
It was Vancouver who were to open the scoring with a stunning Darren Mattocks goal in the 36th minute.
The move that led to the goal started with a Caps throw-in deep inside the Dynamo half. Nine passes and thirty seconds later, Hurtado slipped the ball through to Mattocks on the edge of the 'd' and the Jamaican at first seemed to stumble before regaining his composure, shaking off Eric Brunner and blasting the ball over Tally Hall and into the roof of the net.
Nigel Reo-Coker was nearly punished for losing possession with five minutes of the half remaining in a move which ended with a dangerous Clarke ball across the face of the goal but with no Houston players in the box.
The Caps went up the pitch and Kobayashi got in behind the Dynamo backline and just failed to get a low header onto a perfect O'Brien cross, when a sidefoot would have been the better option.
The game was now end to end, as the minutes of the half ticked down, and Creavalle should have levelled things up in the 43rd minute.
Driver took the ball off the foot of Lee as he was about to clear, hit the byeline and cut the ball back to Will Bruin. The striker looked up and saw Creavalle ghost into the box unmarked and played a perfect ball into his path, only for the midfielder to fire wildly over from 12 yards out when anywhere on target was likely to have led to a goal.
Creavalle got a chance to make amends in stoppage time when Cannon could only palm a Driver cross into his path, but once again the chance was wasted and blasted high and over.
It was to be the last chance of the half and Houston must have gone in at the interval wondering just how they were a goal down.
For Vancouver, the question now was whether to sit back and soak up some second half pressure or to use their pace to stretch the game and try and sneak a vital second.
Houston turned up the heat from the start of the second half and Driver drove over two minutes in, with Cannon well off his line and there to be beaten.
Vancouver weren't about to get overpowered though and Mattocks showed that they were still an attacking threat when he tried to find the top corner with a soft chip three minutes later which Hall easily had covered.
And the Caps should have doubled their lead in the 53rd minute.
Vancouver's speed was to the fore as Kobayashi set up a quick breakaway from a Houston free kick outside the Caps box. Mattocks and Hurtado powered forward on a two on one break, but with the rookie looking open, the Jamaican decided to go himself and drilled his shot off the legs of Hall.
The Caps were made to pay for that miss two minutes later.
Houston won a throw-in in line with the edge of the box and a neat passing move ended with Clark playing an inch perfect cross from Barnes to head home unchallenged from six yards out.
It was terrible marking from the Vancouver defence, who left Barnes completely unmarked with only Hurtado coming in late to cover.
Spurred on by the goal, the Dynamo soon took the lead just past the hour mark and again it was down to bad Whitecaps defending.
Adam Moffat sent over a corner and Bruin bulldozed his way on to the end of it, deflecting the ball into the path of Creavalle, who managed to poke it home past Cannon from inbetween a crowd of three Caps players from three yards out.
The Dynamo midfielder rewarded for his quick reaction and the Whitecaps penalised for the slowness of theirs.
Houston could have had three in the 68th minute with more good work out right by Bruin, but a free Barnes just failed to get on the end of his cut back.
Vancouver brought on Camilo Sanvezzo for Hurtado in the 71st minute to try and haul themselves back into the game, and within a minute he forced Hall into action with a long range shot.
The Caps had a great chance to restore parity in the 75th minute.
Reo-Coker was brought down by Moffat in the middle of the Dynamo half and sent Rochat free on the left with a quickly taken free-kick. The left back sent a dangerous ball across the goal but Corey Ashe coolly cut it out with Kobayashi waiting to pounce at the back post.
Vancouver were finding space against a tiring Houston backline and Mattocks nearly grabbed his second when he got on to the end of a perfectly weighted Rochat through ball but fired into the side netting.
Sensing an opening, Rennie moved to add more pace to the Whitecaps attack with the introduction of Kekuta Manneh for the more defence minded Koffie.
With eight minutes remaining Camilo was brought down for a free kick. The Brazilian picked himself up and hit a screamer of a 30 yard free kick that crashed first off the right hand post, then the left one, before the ball was scrambled away for a corner.
The Dynamo defence was starting look all at sea and moments later Camilo whipped in a cross from the right which Hall let slip through his hands but there were no Whitecaps in the box to take advantage of it.
Vancouver pushed hard in the closing minutes but just couldn't find another way past a resolute Dynamo who were simply happy to pack their defence and settle for what they had.
On the overall play of the game, Houston were deserving of their win and fought back well. Vancouver played a more attacking away game than we've seen from them for a while, but they were made to pay for not taking their chances and some sloppy defending.
The Caps certainly still have a lot to work on and cannot rely on speed alone to get the job done in these kind of games. Next week sees their first game against Western opposition when they head to Chivas.
Having dropped three points in their first real test of the season, and with the next eight games being against Conference rivals, we will soon get a good idea of exactly what the quality of this season Whitecaps is.
FINAL SCORE: Houston Dynamo 2 - 1 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 16,428
HOUSTON: Tally Hall; Kofi Sarkodie, Bobby Boswell, Eric Brunner, Corey Ashe; Warren Creavalle (Omar Cummings 90), Adam Moffat, Ricardo Clark; Andrew Driver; Will Bruin (Cam Weaver 79), Giles Barnes (Luiz Camargo 81) [subs Not Used: Tyler Deric, Brian Ching, Alex Dixon, Mike Chabala]
VANCOUVER: Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Brad Rusin, Andy O'Brien (Corey Hertzog 90+1), Alain Rochat; Jun Marques Davidson, Nigel Reo-Coker, Gershon Koffie (Kekuta Manneh 79), Daigo Kobayashi; Erik Hurtado (Camilo Sanvezzo 71), Darren Mattocks [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Jordan Harvey, Matt Watson, Russell Teibert]
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