The Houston Dynamo finished the regular season with a 2-0 defeat against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The Dynamo enter the MLS Cup playoffs as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and will hit the road to face the Chicago Fire at 8 p.m. CT on Wednesday in a Knockout Round match at Toyota Park.
Kamani Hill and Andre Akpan each scored for the Rapids, which ended the regular season with two consecutive wins.
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In the ninth minute, Jaime Castrillon played a short pass to Hill near the center circle. Hill carried the ball before firing from 25 yards into the side of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Akpan sealed the win for the Rapids five minutes after entering as a substitute. Dynamo goalkeeper Tyler Deric produced a great save on a point blank shot from Martin Rivero, but the rebound fell right to Akpan as Deric's momentum carried him into the side of the net. Akpan headed the rebound into an empty net from 12 yards for Colorado's second goal.
With the loss, the Dynamo finish the regular season 14-9-11 (53 points). Houston was locked into the fifth seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs before the game and the loss had no bearing on its seed.
It was the first MLS start of the season for several Dynamo players. Deric made his first start of the season while midfielders Alex Dixon and Giles Barnes each made their first career regular season start.
It was Andre Hainault's 100th regular season start with the Dynamo. Hainault is the eighth player in franchise history to start 100 regular season games.
It was Ricardo Clark's 140th game in all competitions for the Dynamo. He moved into a tie for eighth on the franchise list with Wade Barrett.
Forward Macoumba Kandji made his 21st start of the season to set a new career-high.
Wednesday's Knockout Round between the Dynamo and Fire is a winner-take-all match.
If the Dynamo defeat the Fire, they will host Sporting Kansas City on Sunday, Nov. 4 in the first leg of an Eastern Conference semifinal series at BBVA Compass Stadium.
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