COLUMBUS, Ohio – After a disappointing 4-1 home loss to the LA Galaxy last week, Houston Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle said there would be changes to fix what went wrong in the lopsided defeat.
Coyle followed through Saturday against Columbus Crew SC, benching regular starters Cristian Maidana, Will Bruin and David Horst and moving to what he called a 4-3-3 with an extra holding midfielder.
But the Houston boss got to see his plan in action for less than 20 minutes. Goalkeeper Tyler Deric, making his 2016 debut after battling injury early this year, was shown a red card for a tackle on Federico Higuain in the Houston box that led to the only goal of the match, from Kei Kamara’s penalty kick, in a luckless 1-0 defeat.