Sports Writing (USA), 12 Jul. The goals of the Uruguayan Diego Fagúndez, the Argentine Maximiliano Urruti and the Finnish Alexander Ring gave Austin the victory this Tuesday against the Houston Dynamo, who with this 3-1 victory in the Texan rivalry duel put himself at the head of the Western Conference in MLS.
Austin, who came from beating Atlanta United 0-3 last weekend, reached 40 points and thus surpassed Carlos Vela’s LAFC, who led the standings in the West with 39 but has one game in hand.
Houston, with 22 points and winless in its last four games, ranks near the bottom of that conference.
Austin, playing 4-3-3, dominated the entire match although Houston opened the scoring.
Panamanian midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla, after a long pass from the Swede Adam Lundqvist, was the first to score for the Dynamo in the 11th minute when he entered with a quick run down the left wing and approached a few meters from the goal, beating with a short shot by the center to Austin goalie Brad Stuver.
Three minutes later, Zimbabwe’s Teenage Hadebe received a yellow card for dangerous play.
Fagundez tied the game in the 15th minute for Austin from a powerful and accurate direct free kick that went over the wall and into the net past visitors’ goalkeeper Steve Clark.
In minute 22, Austin defender of Colombian origin Nick Lima jumped onto the pitch to replace midfielder Hector Jimenez, of Mexican origin, who was injured.
At the beginning of the second half, the Mexican Héctor Herrera entered the field, who played for the second time with Houston after arriving from Atlético de Madrid.
The Mexican replaced Carrasquilla, but could do little to help his new team.
For Austin, the Argentine Daniel Pereira came into play replacing Owen Wolff.
The locals took the lead in the 57th minute with a shot from the left side with Urruti’s right foot after a pass from his compatriot Sebastián Driussi.
Lundqvist received a yellow card in the 62nd minute for dangerous play and, for Houston, the Colombian-Mexican Darwin Quintero replaced the Argentine Matías Vera in the 65th minute.
The hosts increased their lead in the 70th minute when Ring midfielder headed in from right-winger Ethan Finlay from the right corner of the box.
With eleven goals this season, Driussi, after causing several dangerous chances and serving a goal, was replaced in the 81st minute by the Brazilian Felipe Martins.
Urruti had an extraordinary opportunity to increase the score in the 82nd minute that he failed to take advantage of, but Austin kept trying and the Argentine again caused danger in the final minutes of a match that had already been decided. EFE
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