Sebastian Ferreira's brace carries Dynamo past Nashville SC

Sebastian Ferreira scored twice in a nine-minute stretch of the first half as the visiting Houston Dynamo beat playoff-bound Nashville SC on Sunday in a late-season Western Conference match.Nashville had already earned a spot in the MLS postseason -- its third in three years of existence -- due to Portland's loss to Los Angeles FC earlier in the day. But the loss Sunday dropped Nashville (12-10-11, 47 points) into fifth place in the West and out of a home playoff game with one match remaining in the regular seasonHouston (10-17-6, 36 points), which is mired in 13th place in the 14-team conference and has long been eliminated from the postseason, played one of its best matches of the season and improved its record under interim head coach Kenny Bundy to 2-1-1 with a match left to play.Nashville had an excellent chance to open the scoring in the 22nd minute when Hany Mukhtar lifted a shot over Dynamo keeper Steve Clark that bounced up and off the crossbar.In a bizarre turn of events at the first dead ball following Mukhtar's near-miss, VAR was used to check into a potential foul in the defensive box by Nashville's Walker Zimmerman that happened before Mukhtar's run up the field.VAR ruled that Zimmerman had fouled Corey Baird in the box, granting Houston a penalty kick. Ferreira converted from the spot in the 30th minute, scoring his team-leading 11th goal of the year and handing the Dynamo a 1-0 lead.Ferreira added another goal in the 39th minute as the beneficiary of a breakaway crossing pass from Darwin Quintero. Quintero picked the pocket of Nashville defender Dave Romney near midfield and outraced Romney to the offensive end before laying off a pass that Ferreira steadied before beating goalkeeper Joe Willis.The Dynamo were forced to play the final three minutes of second-half stoppage time with 10 men after Teenage Hadebe was given a second yellow card in the match, and that opened the door for Nashville just a crack.The home side cut Houston's lead to 2-1 on Zimmerman's header off a Daniel Lovitz corner kick six minutes into stoppage time, but it was too little, too late.--Field Level Media