Yee-haw. Friday night’s game featured the first game of the Texas Derby between the home side Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas battled for El Capitán, a replica 18th century cannon that both teams use as a trophy. The game promised to be a good one and it was, at least for one team it was.

The battle for El Capitán is on and right now it looks like it’s going to stay in Frisco, unless Houston comes up with some serious scoring power soon.

FC Dallas came into the game the favored team, and they displayed why they were the favorite early on. In the 9th minute, Ryan Hollingshead came down the middle of the box unopposed and slipped one past Houston keeper Tyler Deric for the 1-0 Dallas lead. The first half possession was dominated by Houston, but Dallas’ counter attack game was in top form and they managed to go two ahead in the 21st minute. Fabian Castillo made a run down the touchline and made a cheeky pass to David Texeira, who split the defense and got the ball at the top of the six-yard box and slipped it past Deric.

Houston showed some signs of life before the half as Giles Barnes scored a beauty from a free-kick that Dallas keeper Dan Kennedy got a hand on, put the shot proved too powerful for him and it slipped past him and into the net. At the half, Dallas led by one although Houston dominated the possession but the porous Houston defense was the cause for the deficit at the break. But, one would think that Houston had a glimmer of hope as they managed to get one back before the half.

However, in the second half Dallas came out roaring as they accomplished to double their tally ten minutes into the second period. In the 52nd minute, Mauro Díaz scored an outrageous goal as he took three Houston defenders with him and rocketed a shot that found the top shelf of the netting for the 3-1 Dallas lead. Three minutes later, Díaz brought down a ball, calmly passed to Fabian Castillo on the left, and Castillo ran up unopposed and slotted another goal past Deric for the 4-1 lead.

Houston could not find an answer for these goals as they held on to the ball and were the better passing team, but their offense could not find the target as most of their attempts went well wide of Kennedy’s net. Whatever chances the Dynamo had, were quickly dealt with by the stingy Dallas defense. The rest of the game rolled along without further action and the game ended 4-1, and it gives FC Dallas a great chance of retaining El Capitán (the trophy is given to the team that has the best aggregate score in their head-to-head matches).

Highlights

Lineups

Houston Dynamo – Tyler Deric, Kofi Sarkodie, Raúl Rodriguez, Jermaine Taylor, DaMarcus Beasley, Alexander López (Óscar Boniek García 56′), Ricardo Clark, Nathan Sturgis (Luis Garrido 61′), Brad Davis, Giles Barnes, Will Bruin (Rob Lovejoy 67′)

FC Dallas – Dan Kennedy, Je-Vaughn Watson, Zach Loyd (Walker Zimmerman 32′), Matt Hedges, Moises Hernandez, Kellyn Acosta, Victor Ulloa, Ryan Hollingshead, Mauro Díaz (Tesho Akindele 74′), Fabian Castillo (Alejandro Zendejas 86′), David Texeira

Goals

Houston Dynamo – Giles Barnes 32′

FC Dallas – Ryan Hollingshead 9′, David Texeira 21′, Mauro Díaz 52′, Fabian Castillo 55′

Disciplinary 

Houston Dynamo – NONE

FC Dallas – Moises Hernandez (Yellow 39′)