On a night in which Brad Davis etched his name into Houston Dynamo history, it was Will Bruin who put on an amazing performance to push the home side to a much needed 3 - 2 victory over the Colorado Rapids. The striker had a pair of assists to key the team's victory.
The scoring started early when Will Bruins juked a defender and ran towards goal. His through pass to Giles Barnes found the Jamaican slightly off balance. Still, Barnes managed to lay the pass off towards young Argentine Leonel Miranda who slipped his shot past Clint Irwin. It was his second goal of the season, third in all competitions.
Houston wasn't able to hold onto the lead for long when Rasheed Olabiyi gave up a bad foul right outside the box. Vicente Sanchez stepped up and curled the free kick around the wall and past a diving Tyler Deric.
For Davis, it was his 300th start for the club, dating back to the original 2006 season. After passing 28,000 minutes played in Major League Soccer during the Sporting KC match on Wednesday, he sits in 10th place all-time in league history. Bobby Boswell and Davy Arnaud sit a little over 400 minutes ahead of Davis. He's also third on the all-time assists chart, 14 behind Steve Ralston for the runner up spot. Landon Donovan leads the list with 136 assists.
With the match tied up after only eight minutes, the game settled down into a nice rhythm. Bruin and Miranda put on quite the show as both constantly managed to be dangerous going forward. It was the kind of performance fans have been dying to see from the offense for months.
In the 24th minute, that hard work paid off. Bruin stripped a defender along the near touchline and ran towards goal. He slowed his run up and faked out the goalkeeper before sliding a perfectly weighted pass towards an onrushing Barnes. The Jamaican made no mistake in slotting it home to give the Dynamo the lead again.
Things seemed to be going well and they'd end the half with the lead but they couldn't hold. Sanchez got around the defense again and slotted home a shot to tie the game up in the 44th minute. It's the second time in three home matches the Dynamo have given up a goal just before the half.
Unlike the previous time this happened, the Dynamo didn't let it slow their game down. They roared out of the half to take the lead for good. Miranda burst down the flank and sent a long cross towards Bruin. He mishit the header but it landed right at the feet of Brad Davis who made no mistake from short range just 69 seconds into the second half.
While the Rapids enjoyed the better of possession, the Dynamo managed to make better use of theirs, threatening to add another goal on several occasions but failed to capitalize on it. The most controversial moment came late in the half when Bruin brought the ball into the corner only to be stripped of the ball with an elbow to the head. The referee either missed it or didn't see it clearly and the play continued. Once the referee, Allen Chapman, did call the play dead, Brad Davis got into a shoving match with several Rapids players and a scuffle broke out.
It's likely a play that the Disciplinary Committee will look into.
Next up the Dynamo travel to Frisco to take on arch rival FC Dallas on October 4. The Rapids return home to face off against the Montreal Impact on October 10.
While the win helps the Dynamo, the victory by the Portland Timbers in Columbus made their win moot. Still it does help the team decide on who they may wish to bring back next year and who not to. An eye-raising performance was Olabiyi. With his second start at defensive midfield, the Nigerian put in a blue-collar performance with only a few mistakes (including the free kick goal). If he can keep it up, it looks like he may be an option in the future at that position.
Luis Garrido came off the bench and showed he still has the talent and discipline to break up defenses without giving up fouls and cards. His defense was the best fans have seen in months from the Honduran International. Whether it's enough to bring him back next year, likely under a Designated Player deal (due to the transfer fee from Olympia) is an open question.
Miranda meanwhile continues to show that he is worth keeping around (DP deal with a transfer fee from Independiente) in 2016.
With the playoffs almost out of the question, mathematically, these are the kind of questions the team needs to ask of their players headed into the offseason.