The Timbers lost in Houston tonight, 1-2, which wasn't terribly surprising. The Timbers usually lose on the road. The two goals conceded were both crackerjacks, the first a 35-yard blast of the type that, ninety-seven times out of one hundred, goes high and wide. Instead, with no pressure on him and able to set the ball up as if in practice, former Timber Adam Moffat put the ball in the upper-right corner. It was a beaut. The second was a lovely give-and-go that only was possible because Sal Zizzo let his man, Brian Ching, go free. Zizzo made up for that goal in the second half by starting the Timbers' one scoring play and he had a number of other opportunities that were snuffed out by excellent goalkeeping or poor finishing.

The memorable part of this game for me, apart from the two Houston goals, was the defense played by the Dynamo. In some circles, their defensive strategy is known as "second-degree assault". It was brutal, ugly and well-disguised. But at least one play was caught by replay (and uncommented-upon by the Houston play-by-play guy), with Hinnault putting both forearms into the back of Eddie Johnson's head. Time and again, Portland's smallish skill players were forcefully bundled off the ball by Dynamo defenders, a tactic made possible by a ref who took "let them play" to the extreme. It took about an hour, by which time the game was a bit past saving, but the Timbers finally got hip to the fact they would not catch any breaks for being shoved in the back or shouldered off the ball. To their credit, they began to hold tough on the ball and to make quicker passes, to avoid losing the ball by being stampeded by a larger Houston player.

It was ugly soccer. Physical is one thing; thuggery another. In the end, a typical game: one side got some breaks, the other side didn't, and the Houston keeper was the man of the match. He was the difference between the Dynamo's 2-1 victory and what could have been a 3-2 Portland win.