2-0 win lifts Dynamo into top spot in CONCACAF’s Group 1

Recommended Video:

The Dynamo kept alive their late-season momentum with a convincing victory in CONCACAF Champions League play on Wednesday night.

Jason Johnson and Bobby Boswell scored as the Dynamo defeated Trinidad and Tobago side W Connection 2-0 at BBVA Compass Stadium.

The Dynamo moved to the top of Group 1 with seven points. Panamanian side Arabe Unido has six. The Dynamo will advance to the knockout stage with a win or tie in the teams' group play finale on Oct. 24 in Panama.

"The guys are playing well," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "It shows good spirit that we're mixing things in and out. When we were pressuring them together as a group, that gave them problems. That's where the (first) goal came from."

The Dynamo broke through on Johnson's goal in the 39th minute. He ran onto the ball about 30 yards from the net on the left side. Johnson's first touch knocked it forward between three defenders. He touched it one more time toward the corner of the 6-yard box. His right-footed shot beat the goalkeeper chest high.

Johnson said the goal salvaged what otherwise would have been a bad performance by him.

"I didn't really have a solid game, but having a goal on a bad day is always a good thing for a striker," Johnson said. "My performance wasn't as good I think as it should have been. I didn't start the game good. I didn't even finish the game good. But the goal was a good end result."

Boswell made it 2-0 in the 51st minute when he headed home Alexander Lopez's corner kick at the near post. Neither team threatened much after that.

Kofi Sarkodie provided a pair of first-half highlights. The first was a 50-plus-yard run down the right sideline in the 30th minute. Sarkodie raced by several defenders and found Cam Weaver in the box, but his shot was deflected wide by the goalkeeper for a corner kick.

A few minutes later, Sarkodie got free into the right side of the box and cut it in toward the center. He got space for a shot that beat the goalkeeper but not defender Joao Jordao, who saved it off the line.

"This was probably the best attacking game he's had for us," Kinnear said. "He was unlucky not to get that goal. I was trying to get us to feed the right side more because he was having such a great game. I thought he was really, really good tonight."

Corey Roepken is a freelance writer