Guilherme and Agustin Bouzat scored second-half goals and the Houston Dynamo took advantage of a shorthanded opponent to produce a 2-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night in Kansas City, Kan.
Jonathan Bond made four saves for his fifth clean sheet of the season for Houston (9-6-2, 29 points).
Stefan Cleveland made one save for Sporting Kansas City (4-12-2, 14 points), who reside in last place in the Western Conference.
Sporting Kansas City played the second half with 10 players after Lasse Berg Johnsen earned his second yellow card of the match in the 45th minute and was ejected. He received his first in the 11th minute.
The Dynamo got on the board in the 55th minute as Jack McGlynn sent a pass from the right side toward Guilherme. He took a look toward the net and booted a right-footed shot that bounced off the hands of Cleveland and into the net for his 10th goal of the season.
Houston scored again in the 71st minute after a misplay in the Kansas City back end. Cleveland passed the ball to Calvin Harris, who tried to one-time it back to Cleveland but didn’t get much of a hit on the ball.
It went to Bouzat, who was between Harris and Cleveland. He easily kicked a left-footed shot into the net. It was the Argentine’s first MLS goal.
Sporting KC star Dejan Joveljic had an opportunity in the 76th minute but his left-footed shot was stopped by Bond.
Bond stopped a hard, close-range, left-footed shot by Jayden Reid in the 87th minute. He made another big save on Shapi Suleymanov’s left-footed blast one minute later.
Earlier, Houston’s Hector Herrera had a stellar opportunity in the 25th minute but his right-footed blast was blocked by SKC defender Jake Davis.
The momentum of the match changed in the 45th minute when Johnsen took down Houston’s Artur.
The Dynamo outshot Sporting KC 14-6 while both teams put four shots on target.
–Field Level Media
