‘Tough loss’ as San Diego FC falls to Houston Dynamo 4-3 at Snapdragon

Houston Dynamo forward Ezequiel Ponce had two goals including a go-ahead tally during stoppage time to give his club a - accomplishment over San Diego FC on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium Ponce sealed the preeminence during the th minute of stoppage time the match s th minute overall via a left-footed shot from in from of the goal that landed in the lower right portion of the net His teammate defender Ethan Bartlow picked up the winning assist The consistency of our principles wasn t there SDFC head coach Mikey Varas noted of the match Certainly not in the first half We weren t on the same page in terms of being collective and being intense he added Ponce s goal was the culmination of what had been a spirited and somewhat surprising back-and-forth round of second half scoring between the two clubs San Diego came into the match in first place in MLS Western Conference standings and Houston was eighth but the Dynamo lived up to its name throughout the night matching San Diego goal for goal before eventually taking home the win Ponce s other goal came during the th minute when he connected on a penalty kick to the lower left portion of the net which tied the number - San Diego did have its moments however During the th minute San Diego midfielder Onni Valakari scored via a left-footed shot from the front of the goal to the bottom right corner of the net to give SDFC a - lead Teammate Anders Dreyer was credited with the assist In the th minute SDFC defender Luca Bombino tied the tally - with a left-footed shot from left of the goal to the net s central zone His Danish defender teammate Jeppe Tverskov picked up the assist We know we did a lot of things wrong association captain Tverskov revealed of the loss adding that the players were not in rhythm and did not invariably play in their agreed upon spots on the pitch That s unfortunate It s a tough loss he added Houston led San Diego - at halftime when during the second minute of first-half stoppage time Dynamo right-back Franco Escobar connected with a right-footed shot that went into the middle-right zone of the net giving Houston the lead San Diego forward Milan Iloski scored the first goal of the match a right-footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom center of the goal during the th minute Valakari was credited with the assist The match became tied - during the th minute of the match after Houston winger Lawrence Ennali connected with a left-footed shot from the center of the goal to the bottom right corner of the open net He was assisted by midfielder Amine Bassi SDFC star participant Chucky Lozano who has been dealing with hamstring issues off and on all season came in during the th minute but had a quiet competition He s been used as a reserve since returning from injury in San Diego s June win at FC Dallas San Diego entered the Dragon on Saturday riding a four-game win streak and with the best record in MLS Western Conference Despite the loss SDFC still tops the conference with a record of - - and points And with its latest supremacy Houston now improves to - - with points Up next SDFC travels to face the Chicago Fire at Soldier Field on July San Diego then plays its next three matches at Snapdragon Stadium July vs Toronto July vs Vancouver and July against Nashville The club is also scheduled to face Mexican company CF Pachuca at home on July with that matchup being part of the Leagues Cup an annual competition between MLS and Liga MX clubs Notes Midfielder Alejandro Alvarado Jr and defender Andr s Reyes will each miss the remainder of the season SDFC publicized July Alvarado Jr sustained a right knee injury in the th minute of San Diego s - triumph over the Vancouver Whitecaps on June Reyes who had been on the injured list for about a month with a hip issue underwent surgery in late June