In what is quickly becoming one of the most heated rivalries in Major League Soccer, the Houston Dynamo traveled to Sporting Park to face off against Sporting KC. There was a lot predictable about the match, with fouls being racked up and cards handed out to what seemed like every single player. In the end, despite drama (a requisite to any Houston/KC match) the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

First, let's get the drama out of the way. Not every card will be discussed, as there were way too many to discuss in one article. There were seven cards in total handed out by referee Jorge Gonzalez. Of the yellow cards, the only ones worth discussing would be those handed out to Tyler Deric and Dom Dwyer. Dwyer and Deric went up to get a ball in the air. Deric got there ahead of the striker rather comfortably. When Dwyer slammed into the goalkeeper, his cleats made contact with the netminder's leg. Once he got up, Tyler got into Dwyer's face and shoved him to the ground.

After the ensuing shoving match between both teams concluded, the fighters were given their deserved cards. While the way the referee handled the situation isn't worth discussing (he did his job perfectly) the fact that these two were constantly going at it all night is worth talking about. It was another late challenge from Dwyer that would lead to an injury suffered by Deric. It was a challenge worthy of another yellow, as it wasn't the first time he'd been late on the keeper but, Gonzalez decided to simply award the foul. After receiving treatment, Deric went to kick the ball into play and immediately asked for a substitution. He was asked to tough it out as the Dynamo were down to one subtitution left.

It was a good decision from Dynamo manager Owen Coyle as Ricardo Clark injured himself coming down from a header that tied the game. It was a case of Clark landing awkwardly on his leg.

But enough of the lightweight talk. Down to business. That red card on Nathan Sturgis. It was certainly rough and looked bad but the Laws of the Game don't allow for cards on that judgement alone. Replays clearly show that the tackle, with both players on the ground, was shin to shin, or at worst shin to knee. Sturgis' feet were not a factor (check out the chunk of turf he kicked up). At worst that was a yellow card, and a red was extremely harsh and frankly unwarranted (the second time that's happened this season). Oddly enough the Dynamo still played well for most of the remainder of the match.

More on that in a bit.

The other controversy came in late, late, late (like, Mexico v Panama late) stoppage time off a KC corner. The ball went over everyone's heads, and towards the top of the box where Luis Garrido was alone in the box. As he turned to get out of the way of the box (to let it roll out of bounds most likely) the ball bounced off his arm and out of play. The referee was in perfect position to see it and said the contact was incidental (or ball to hand in referee parlance). The fans (and players and staff and coaches) felt otherwise. Naturally.

This one is fifty-fifty. It's easy to see both points of view so this will get chalked up as a make up call for that horrible penalty given to Sporting earlier this year at BBVA Compass Stadium (even the league felt it was a bad call as they recinded the red card that came with it).

Moving on.

Oddly enough this game saw Sporting on the defensive side of the ball for most of the match. Kansas City scored early off a set piece when Dwyer shook off Ricardo Clark for an open header in the 6th minute. As mentioned earlier, Clark would redeem himself in the 78' when he scored off a set piece of his own. In between, the Dynamo held onto the ball 55% of the time, completing 77% of their passes on 347 passes. It was a very good day in midfield.

The biggest problem for the Dynamo came in the finishing from the strikers. Will Bruin had a horrible night in front of goal, missing two quality opportunities in the first half. Even worse was Giles Barnes, recently returned from guiding his team to a silver medal at the Gold Cup, who was on the wrong end of a hard tackle that left his knee worse for wear and clearly limited him for the remainder of the match. This forced him to play more as a #10 rather than a strike partner alongside Bruin.

Man of the match, though? David Horst. The center back was solid from the opening whistle and even had a good night offensively (though if he had managed to turn some of his headers on frame...). It was the late game heroics that pushed him over the top for the reward, including a highlight reel tackle on Krisztian Nemeth.

31 fouls, six yellow cards, one red card, two goals and tens of thousands of upset fans: just a typical night out between these two sides. Controversy and all.