HOUSTON (AP) — Ibrahim Aliyu scored his first goal of the season to help the Houston Dynamo beat San Diego FC 1-0 in a chippy and physical contest Wednesday night.
Jonathan Bond stopped one shot and had his first shutout this season.
The Dynamo (4-4-0), who beat Orlando 1-0 on Saturday, have won back-to-back games following a three-game losing streak.
San Diego (3-4-2) has lost four straight and is winless in its last six following a three-game win streak to open the season.
Aliyu, on the counter-attack, put away a first-touch shot, off a feed from Ondrej Lingr, that gave Houston a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute.
Amahl Pellegrino was shown a straight red card in the 79th minute and San Diego play a man down the rest of the way. Lingr was shown a straight red card in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Houston’s Franco Negri and San Diego’s Ian Pilcher were shown injury-time yellow cards.
San Diego finished with 65% possession but was outshot 11-10, 2-1 on target.
The Dynamo traded Aliyu to Columbus in exchange for $450,000 in general allocation money (GAM) in April of 2025 and then acquired him from the Crew in March for $250,000 GAM. Columbus could get $500,000 more based on performance.
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