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The defending champion, Houston Dynamo was eliminated on the first round of playoffs last Sunday after losing 0-3 against the New York Red Bulls at the Robertson Stadium. The Red Bulls also won the aggregate goal series with a 4-1 advancing to the Western Finals that will start next Saturday at Real Salt Lake. The New York head Coach Juan Carlos Osorio expressed that he was very proud of the team and the way they accomplished to be in the finals for this season. It was a real team effort to beat the two time defending champion, Houston Dynamo, which was not an easy thing to do since they have a really good team and players. The Dynamo put pressure all of the time to the Red Bulls, but they knew how to handle that. Dane Richards scored the first goal at the 25th minute, then they added another one from a penalty kick scored by Juan Pablo Angel at the 36th minute and later the last goal came at the 80th minute on a goal by John Wolyniec. Houston had plenty of opportunities to score, especially in the second half of the game, but the goalkeeper for New York, Danny Cepero, was really good on doing his job and he didn’t let any goal to be scored in New York’s net. "It's very overwhelming. We battled so hard and had an up-and-down year," Wolyniec said. "To defeat the defending champs on their home field, it's a really good feeling. The guys came in and they started thinking about next week. We have a great opportunity." Houston Dynamo head Coach Dominic Kinnear, said that his team played to win the game, but it didn’t happened. According to him, they had more opportunities to score than New York but that they just had bad luck because no matter how many chances they had, they didn’t score and that is what makes the difference. He also said that he felt very sorry for his players since they did a very good job. New York’s midfielder Dane Richards, who won the title of MLS player of the week, said that he felt that this was his turn to shine in an important game; he had the feeling that he could score and he actually did, and that goal earned him the title. The New York Red Bulls where founded in 1996 as one of the charter members of the MLS. The team was originally known as the MetroStars but in 2006 they were sold and became the New York Red Bulls. The team’s best performance until now was in the 2000 season when they reached the MLS Cup semifinals for the first time. Now they have a new chance to shine and to add a new record to the franchise history. The Red Bulls finished the regular season in the fifth position of the Eastern Conference with 39 points while Houston finished first in the Western with 51 points. In head to head matchups between these two teams, they were tied before last Sunday, 2-2-3 (wins, losses and draws). However, with the latest result the balance tipped on New York’s favor. Their next challenge will be against Real Salt Lake and then odds favor the Red Bulls since they have never lost against them, so it will be up to them to keep their game and try to advance further in the run for the MLS Cup 2008.
Article Source: http://www.new.citynewslive.com
Audrey Nolan is a top senior copy writer on MLS Games racing action for the online sportsbook www.instantactionsports.com Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.
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