Houston's Heartbreak Hotel for RSL.

RSL's Yordany Alvarez battles in Houston. (Getty Images)

What is there to say to the RSL faithful tonight?  To be like the Miami Heat's "Good Effort" kid seems to ring a little hollow.  One thing is for sure, that was an absolutely brutal way to lose.  Dropping on a PK in stoppage time is hard enough, but when you do it after not only saving a PK earlier, but being denied a possible winner in the late stages, it's even worse.

RSL had the better of the ball through most of the match, especially in the first half, but good chances were hard to come by as the absence of Alvaro Saborio was keenly felt.  Fabian Espindola did have a couple of nice looks, forcing a good save out of Tally Hall in the 11th minute   Ricardo Clark also made what was likely a goal saving tackle in on the speedy RSL forward in minute 31, and the half ended  scoreless.

Things picked up a bit in the second half, and the Dynamo looked likely to take the lead in the 75th minute when Chris Schuler brought Will Bruin down in the box to concede a PK.   The usually trustworthy Brad Davis stepped up to take it, but Nick Rimando made the save to keep the game scoreless.

RSL then had their two best chances of the match.  In the 79th minute Nat Borchers looked certain to score, putting a bouncing header to Tally Hall's far post on a set piece, however the Houston 'keeper made a fantastic save to keep the Dynamo in it.  Then in the 89th minute Ned Grabavoy got one on one with Hall, but once again the Houston 'keeper came up big and stopped the shot cold.

The Dynamo got their magic in stoppage time, as the only big defensive mistake of the night came back to haunt the Claret and Cobalt.  Mac Kandji lost the RSL defense and slipped unmarked into the penalty area.  Nick Rimando came out to try and claim the incoming ball, but bowled over Kandji from behind, conceding a second penalty to the Dynamo.  This time Colin Clark absolutely smashed the ball past Rimando into the back of the net to give the Dynamo a 1-0 win at full time.

In my match preview I noted that Houston was very likely to get a goal, even through late dramatics.  Therefore RSL would need two to win.  However, the Dynamo seemed to be unconcerned about the RSL attack without Sabo, and they took the only chance they needed to get the win.

The defense has cleaned itself up for the most part.  The problem is this, when you don't score any goals, you have no chance at winning and you have to play perfectly to earn the draw.  The perfect match wasn't going to happen against Houston in their building.

Someone at forward needs to be a threat for RSL.  The last time a striker besides Saborio scored for the Claret and Cobalt was June 16th when Fabi dropped two on Chivas USA.  Since that match, RSL is 4-8-2, picking up only 14 of 42 possible points.  That's barely a point per game, and nowhere near good enough to compete in MLS.  The power outage is staggering.  We need to give the defense and Nick Rimando some breathing room by scoring more goals, and 3 out of our 5 forwards seem incapable of scoring.  One of them, the ONLY one who is a proven scorer in MLS, never gets off the bench.

Without more balls going into the opposing net, it's tough to see RSL making a deep playoff run. If RSL falls into the 4 or 5 slot, and even manages to win that first match, how do we feel about stopping San Jose's machine if we can't score?  It's gotta change.

Tonight, the credit goes to the Dynamo for sticking to their plan and their guns.