HOUSTON -- A familiar trend emerged for the Houston Dynamo in Friday’s game against New York City FC: Hold firm for the first half defensively, before failing to keep up with their opponents in the second half.

Two second-half goals from David Villa sealed the 2-0 victory for NYCFC and handed Houston their 12th loss of the season. Houston registered zero shots on target and had trouble keeping possession of the ball despite playing at home.

“We didn’t take care of the ball very well. You know, we were just off tonight,” said Houston Dynamo interim coach Wade Barrett on his team’s performance.

“It’s hard to explain, we had a good week of training. It felt like, coming into the game, the guys were pretty confident. For whatever reason, we were kind of flat tonight, in a lot of different ways. I feel like we all kind of got knocked down tonight, myself included.”

Despite the second-half outburst from New York City, Houston kept them in check in the first half. The second half however, the team was caught ball watching as Spain’s all time scoring leader knocked in his 20th goal of the season within 10 minutes of the restart.

“When you talk about a player like David Villa, like I said, we know what to expect from him, but that doesn’t make it easier to deal with,” said Barrett. “He’s got good movement, he’s alive, when the ball popped free we just got caught.”

Offensively, Houston was pressured into giving up the ball and failed to string passes together which prevented them from getting into any kind of rhythm.

“You can’t keep the ball in the same area, and we had a hard time opening from the points that we were winning the ball,” said Barrett on what NYCFC did to stymie them. “You saw how many times we turned the ball back over again.”

The Dynamo have four games remaining and while the team is still mathematically alive to qualify for the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs, the focus is simply on getting three points, no matter the place in the standings.

“That’s what we all play for. The guys have had the taste of it in the last couple of weeks, getting results, getting wins, and you know what? It’s a good feeling,” said Barrett. “If you don’t have that drive, if you don’t have the want for that every single week, no matter where you are, then you probably won’t have a long career, playing or coaching.”