Four different players scored and Coco Carrasquilla added two assists as Houston Dynamo FC swamped visiting Real Salt Lake 4-1 on Saturday night in a late-season Western Conference match.
The Dynamo (12-8-8, 44 points) climbed to fifth in the conference standings, one point out of hosting a home playoff game with six matches to play. Houston is 2-1-1 since returning from the Leagues Cup break.
Real Salt Lake (13-7-8, 47 points) remain third in the West with six matches to play. RSL is just 1-4-1 in its past six league games.
Amine Bassi made the most of an opportunity in the 27th minute, sending a bouncing shot into the net and past RSL keeper Gavin Beavers after a run of passing in the offensive zone involving Bassi, Jose De Lima Junior, Hector Herrera and Carrasquilla.
Griffin Dorsey added to the lead three minutes into first-half stoppage time, and it was Herrera who keyed the Dynamo tally. The Houston captain started the play with a pass to the trailing Ibrahim Aliyu, who passed to Dorsey who then returned the ball to Herrera near the goal line to the left of the goal.
Herrera then passed back to Dorsey, who moved toward the goal to boot the assist past Beavers and into the bottom left corner of the net.
Real Salt Lake culled its deficit to 2-1 when Cristian Arango pushed his way through the goal mouth in the 49th minute to bounce a shot off Houston defender Erik Sviatchenko and past Houston keeper Steve Clark in what was called an own goal.
The Dynamo responded in the 75th minute when Carrasquilla fed substitute Sebastian Kowalczyk for a goal that pushed the lead back to two. Houston put away the game four minutes later as Latif Blessing fed Ezequiel Ponce, beat Beavers to give the home side plenty of cushion to get to the finish line.
Houston dominated the stats, including an 8-6 edge in shots on goal and six saves from the unflappable Clark.
–Field Level Media
