Houston Dynamo are riding a 20-game home unbeaten streak and host Toronto FC tonight looking for a win that could put them tied with New York Red Bulls for second place in the MLS East.
Sounds like a pretty important game for Houston Chronicle beat writer Jose de Jesus Ortiz to be attending, right? Alas, Ortiz is off cheerleading for Roger Clemens in a meaningless independent-league baseball game, and at least one Dynamo fan who tweeted a complaint at Ortiz found himself blocked by the sportswriter.
So we're going to do what Ortiz won't, and cover tonight's match, which starts at 8:30. Canadian viewers can find it on TSN2, and in the U.S. it's available on MLS Live or your neighborhood pirate sports video feed. We'll start the updates once the match starts.
8:24 p.m. Dynamo writer Dustyn Richardson says Ortiz is indeed at the match! We can tell he's distracted, though, so we're going to go ahead and keep liveblogging.
8:41 p.m. 2' Dynamo earn an early corner and then fire a shot off on the rebound, but it's smothered easily by TFC keeper Freddy Hall, who actually played at USF while I was there.
8:44 p.m. 5' TFC is getting some early attempts, thanks in no part to a handball called on Corey Ashe. In classic Toronto style, though, the shots are futile.
8:47 p.m. 9' Dynamo are bouncing the ball all around the box but can't seem to corral it long enough to make much happen. Ricardo Clark had a decent strike but it was blocked.
8:51 p.m. 13' Will Bruin gets absolutely crushed by TFC's Richard Eckersley after Tally Hall makes a nice save on a cross into the box. Somehow Toronto is awarded the throw-in.
8:55 p.m. 17' Toronto's Ryan Johnson pours a cross in but can't find his man. So far the match has been... interesting. I can't say it's been good, though.
9:00 p.m. 19' Freddy Hall unleashes a horrible goal kick.
9:05 p.m. 21' GOAL! Garcia drops a perfect through ball and Will Bruin finishes with a flip over Freddy Hall. 1-0 Houston.
9:22 p.m. We're coming to the end of the first half, with the major event since our last update being Houston's Calen Carr earning a bullshit yellow card at 37' for running into Freddy Hall while both were going after a 50-50 ball.
10:01 p.m. 64' Houston is quite fortunate to still be up 1-0. They've committed a series of blunders, from lackadaisical passing to a consciousness vacuum that TFC's somehow managed to avoid taking advantage of. If the run of play continues like this, Toronto's going to find an equalizer.
10:17 p.m. 77' Ricardo Clark is hurt. Blech.
10:22 p.m. TFC finally got their equalizer in the 85th minute with an only-improbable-if -you-weren't-watching goal from Terry Dunfield on a header.
10:35 p.m. And that's a 1-1 final, serving up a big bowl of chili-con-disappointment for Dynamo supporters and poutine-a-la-surprise for TFC fans.