Out of Orbit: Sporting Kansas City falls 3-1 in Houston

Sporting Kansas City was outgunned from the onset as they were knocked out of the 2016 US Open Cup by the Houston Dynamo in a 3-1 defeat.

Mauro Manotas had a brace for the home side, while Alex also contributed a goal. Former Dynamo star Brad Davis chipped in the only goal for Sporting Kansas City.

From the get-go it was all Dynamo and the exclamation point was put in at the 7th minute. Manotas was able to slide it past Alec Kann to give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead early in the match, which would give them enough room at the start to play more defensively.

Meanwhile Sporting KC started to feel an uptick on the attack and put a couple of chances forward. Goalkeeper Joe Willis came up with some great saves to keep Sporting KC off the board.

Then, the Dynamo gave themselves a bigger cushion. In the 55th minute, Alex got himself up really high after a corner kick sent the ball floating around the box. Alex went up and made an athletic effort to head the ball just over the reach of Kann to give the Dynamo a 2-0 lead. From that point, the lead seemed insurmountable for the away side.

But six minutes later, Sporting KC had life. Davis was on the other end of an assist from Diego Rubio and he put the ball into the net at the place he once called home. There was no celebration from the former Dynamo man, but Sporting KC had pulled one back and given themselves a look back into the game with a half hour to go.

Sporting KC, however, will still struggling to connect on a final pass and the Dynamo took the game back over, leading to the final nail in the coffin in the 84th minute. Manotas was there again to score and the Colombian put the Dynamo up by two with not enough time to come back.

This would lead to a 3-1 final score in favor of Houston. They move on to host the winner of Colorado and FC Dallas, while Sporting KC, who won the 2015 US Open Cup, were knocked out.