MIAMI, Florida – The Houston Dynamo are through to the next round of the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup after posting a 1-0 victory against St. Louis City SC in the second leg of their Round One series on Tuesday night at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas.
With the result, Houston progress to the Round of 16 thanks to the away goal tiebreaker after a 2-2 draw on aggregate. The Dynamo will face the Columbus Crew in the next round.
Moving on into the Round of 16! Congratulations @HoustonDynamo! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/IEaSjawZ4C
— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) February 28, 2024
The goalkeepers were the stars of the first half, beginning with Houston shot-stopper Steve Clark, who did well to block an effort from point-blank range by Sam Adeniran in the 27’.
Six minutes later in the 33’ St. Louis City’s Roman Burki showed why he is the No.1 man in net by making a fantastic diving save to his right to deny Jan Gregus.
Akil Watts then displayed his defensive prowess for St. Louis City, making a last-ditch slide to block Gabriel Segal’s open shot at goal inside the area in the final seconds of the first half.
Houston kept pushing forward in hopes of a goal to swing the tie in their favor and they finally picked the lock of the St. Louis City defense in the 60’ when Erik Sviatchenko polished off a quick one-two combination in the area after a free kick to hand Houston the 1-0 lead.
Erik Sviatchenko breaks the lock for @HoustonDynamo! ⚽ pic.twitter.com/SjsASi1i6q
— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) February 28, 2024
It was up to St. Louis City to try to respond by committing more numbers forward, but the Dynamo defense would not falter.
Any time the visitors got inside the attacking third, Clark and his back four were there to make the necessary intervention to secure the clean sheet victory and passage to the next phase.
