Mateusz Bogusz had two easy goals in the first 29 minutes and Guilherme Santos had a goal and two assists in a dominating first half as the host Houston Dynamo swamped Austin FC 3-0 on Saturday in a clash between Copa Tejas rivals.
The Dynamo (8-6-2, 26 points) extended their home unbeaten streak to five matches (4-0-1) and earned a split in the season series with Austin FC. Houston is 4-1-2 since a 2-0 loss in Austin to the Verde on April 25.
Jonathan Bond saved five shots to earn his fourth clean sheet of the MLS campaign for the Dynamo.
Austin (4-8-5, 17 points) remains the only MLS team without a road victory this season and has dropped four of its last five contests to the Dynamo away from home. The Verde have won just once in their past six matches (1-4-1) and followed up a stirring 3-1 home win over Seattle on Wednesday by laying an egg against their Lone Star State counterparts.
Houston swept to the front with a stunning trifecta of goals in the first 32 minutes. After Austin pressed the action in the early going, the Dynamo burned the visitors via the counterattack when Bogusz was the beneficiary of passes from Guilherme and Ezequiel Ponce and opened the ledger with a goal in the 12th minute.
Bogusz waited on the doorstep to the right of Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver for the pretty give-and-go sequence that found him wide open for the easy tally and a 1-0 Houston lead.
Bogusz then scored again in the 29th minute, outsprinting two Austin defenders for a long clearing pass from Guilherme before unleashing a right-footed shot to the bottom left corner that Stuver had no chance to save.
The Dynamo continued their onslaught in the 32nd minute as Guilherme scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season after assists from Agustin Bouzat and Felipe Andrade.
That tally was again produced on the counterattack as Bouzat drove his pass deep and high over the Austin defense for Houston’s dynamic star to run under before hitting a shot that Stuver could only watch bounce into the bottom right corner.
The Verde made a tepid attempt to respond over the final 15 minutes of the first half, with Przemyslaw Placheta testing Bond and then Brandon Vazquez producing a pair of low-percentage shots that the Houston keeper gobbled up.
Austin did little to cut into the deficit after halftime.
–Field Level Media
