FC Dallas claims El Capitan in 50th Texas Derby but resigns to a tie with Houston

With ebbs and flows, late goals and end-to-end action, the 50th Texas Derby more than lived up to the occasion on Saturday night as FC Dallas drew 2-2 away to Houston Dynamo FC, doing just enough to reclaim El Capitan from its archrival.

Dallas is still without a win in five matches, but coming away from Houston with a draw might feel like a win given how much Dallas had to endure. Combined with a 2-1 win earlier in the year in Frisco, the result was also enough for Dallas to reclaim El Capitan, the cannon which goes to the winner of the season series between the two teams.

“From the start, we knew it would be a very difficult match,” said Dallas head coach Nico Estevez. “Having the mentality of fighting and not giving up was great from the boys, to earn a point on the road with all the challenges we encountered says a lot.”

Houston was firmly on the front foot in the opening stages of the match, playing with urgency and aggression as its passing was quick and direct. That early control finally created the first shot on target in the 21st minute as Fafa Picault swung a cross in which found Memo Rodriguez in space, but goalkeeper Maarten Paes was alert and made a comfortable save.

Dallas began to find a foothold, though, and seized the opportunity to open the scoring in the 27th minute. Matt Hedges picked the perfect moment to score his first goal of the year, rising up in the middle of the box to head Alan Velasco’s corner just under the crossbar before goalkeeper Steve Clark could get a hand up to stop it.

The goal seemed to take the wind out of Houston’s sails for the rest of the half, but Houston came out with renewed effort after halftime. That drive only grew stronger as Héctor Herrera, a star for the Mexican men’s national team and the biggest signing in Houston’s history, came on in the 55th minute.

Herrera raised Houston’s level instantly and helped set up Houston’s first equalizer in the 70th minute. The Dynamo took a quick corner kick and Herrera drove to the endline before lofting the ball across the face of goal. Then, Picault volleyed it toward goal and forced a clearance off the line then a punch from Paes before Thor Úlfarsson finally managed to poke the ball over the line for his third goal of the year.

Houston rode that change in momentum and continued to push, nearly taking the lead on multiple occasions. Adalberto Carrasquilla was through on goal in the 76th minute but Paes made himself big and stuffed the chance. Picault later fired narrowly wide in the 89th minute after bringing down a long ball and lifting it over the goalkeeper.

Picault was also involved, if however marginally, in Houston having a goal waved off in the 83rd minute as Daniel Steres headed the ball past Paes. Picault was in an offside position and was judged to have been involved in the play even though he didn’t appear to touch the ball.

Having weathered the storm, Dallas thought it stole the win in the third minute of second-half stoppage time as a cross took a deflection and fell to Jesus Ferreira in the center of the box, where he volleyed it into the bottom-right corner with his first touch for his 11th goal of the year.

There was one final twist in the plot as Teenage Hadebe poked in another equalizer for Houston in the 11th minute of stoppage time after Paes couldn’t hold onto a long-distance strike from Darwin Quintero. Excluding penalties, it was the latest goal in MLS history.

“That may be the craziest [Texas Derby], you could see the intensity and the flare,” said Dallas midfielder Paxton Pomykal. “To be fair, both sides were aggressive and challenges were flying in, but I thought both teams were pretty respectful of one another.”

Looking to build off the positives and boost from winning El Capitan, Dallas will play the second of three matches in eight days on Wednesday as it welcomes reigning MLS Cup champion New York City FC to Toyota Stadium. The match will feature the league’s leading scorer in NYCFC’s Tati Castellanos, who has scored 12 goals so far, but Ferreira isn’t far behind with his 11.

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