Drilling down on: at Houston 1, Real Salt Lake 0

Man of the match: If it weren’t for Tally Hall, Houston would have never had the chance to claim full points in stoppage time. The Houston goalkeeper came up with three big saves, none bigger than his 89th minute stop on Ned Grabavoy. The RSL midfielder was put in alone only to see Hall, reading the play beautifully, cutting off most of the angles. Grabavoy did what he could with a left-footed shot to the right post, but Hall had it covered, preserving the (then) 0-0 scoreline.

Packaged for takeaway:

• The penalty kick came after Rimando misjudged a ball lofted into the box, coming off his line early to put himself in no man’s land before crashing into Mac Kandji. Colin Clark stepped up and – just like they tell you to do, when you don’t have a better idea – blasted it straight down the middle. Rimando lept left, missed, but if he been a split second slower with his jump, he might have been nailed in the head by Clark’s rocket.
• RSL’s main complain may about the goal wasn’t the call, it was the timing. The whistle seemed to come slightly after the 93rd minute expired, with three minutes stoppage time being shown on the clock. Of course the play’s not going to stop in the middle of an attack, but when a team’s setting up to pump a ball into the box? Who knows. It all seems like semantics, to me. In one hundred percent fo the soccer games I’ve ever watched, you have to play until the game’s over.
• “Wait a minute,” you might ask (sorry if I’m misquoting your hypothetical conjecture). “What wasn’t Brad Davis taking the kick?” Davis had already had his chance in the 75th minute, but trying to convert after a dubious call on Chris Schuler, Davis seemed to (perhaps unintentionally) hesitate before putting the ball toward the right post. Not only did the kick end up one yard off the ground (in a relatively easy place to save), but Davis seemed to slow his kick after he’d  already opened his right hip and shoulder. In other words, instead of hesitating then committing, he committed then hesitated, gift wrapping the save for Rimando.
• Back to the dubious penalty call. It’s not so much Schuler didn’t commit a foul (his shoulder charge on Will Bruin at the edge of the six was completely unnecessary, given Kofie Sarkodie’s cross was going well beyond goal). It’s just that Ismail Elfath had been letting everything go all night. In the first half, there was a somewhat comical moment where Nat Borchers pulled up expecting to be called for a foul outside the RSL penalty area only to see Elfath had let play go on. To go from that approach (to which the players had adjusted) to giving a penalty for essentially an off-the-ball foul was too big of a swing.
• After that penalty, the match picked up. Rimando was called on to make another great save in the 82nd minute. Hall had already made a miraculous reflex stop in the 80th. The chances were starting to flow after 75 minutes of relatively few opportunities.
• That’s not to say the match lacked drama. In the first half, Real Salt Lake controlled play, though they were only able to generate one meaningful chance on Hall. Houston was on the front foot in the second, but again, there was a lack of clear scoring chances.
• Perhaps that should have been expected from two teams missing so many players to international duty. Houston with without Andre Hainault, Jermaine Taylor, and Oscar Boniek Garcia. Real Salt Lake was missing Kyle Beckerman, Alvaro Saborio and Will Johnson.
• Real Salt Lake started Yordany Álvarez in Beckerman’s spot and was able to augment the loss by having Jonny Steele and Ned Grabavoy come back, as needed, to help built play. Up top, however, the Fabian Espindola-Paulo Jr. combination wasn’t getting it done, part of the reason Jason Kreis brought Emiliano Bonfigli on for Paulo at halftime.
• RSL’s most compelling player may have been Schuler, throw out at left back for the suspended Chris Wingert. If it weren’t for the spurious penalty conceded in the 75th minute, Schuler would have been RSL’s better player. Although Elfath’s call was inconsistent with how he was judging the rest of the night, you can’t help but ask: Why did Schuler do that?
• For Houston, they seemed to really miss Boniek Garcia in the first half, but in the second, they played much better. What, exactly, did they do? Nothing special. They just seemed to wake up.
• Interesting tactical note for Houston: They broke away from their 4-3-3 tonight and played more of a 4-2-3-1 shape (if not function), with Calen Carr underneath Will Bruin, Kandji out right, Clark to the left. It wasn’t a very convincing set up, but the players eventually found a way to get three points.
• With those three points, Houston temporarily jumps third in the East (they’ve played more games than anybody save Montreal). Given the Dynamo were slowly being pulled back into a race that could leave them at home come November, the win is huge.
• It also continues Houston’s unbeaten run at BBVA as well as RSL’s poor record in Texas. According to the broadcast crew, RSL is now 0-18-3 all-time in the Lonestar state. Yikes.
• For RSL, they stay two points up on Seattle, but the Sounders now have three games in hand. In the mean time, San Jose stays seven points clear in the West, making live easy on Coach of the Year voters who will look at the Quakes’ huge one-year turnaround.