Adam Moffat scored in the 90th minute and Tally Hall made seven saves to lift the Houston Dynamo to a 1-1 tie with the Chicago Fire in MLS play on Sunday.
Moffat, a midfielder who had moved deep into the offensive play, took defender Corey Ashe's backheel pass in the left side of the penalty area and shot it high over Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson's outstretched left hand.
The tie, the second between the squads this season, moved Houston (10-8-7) into a tie with New England (10-9-7) for the fifth and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference. Each squad has 37 points, and Houston has a match in hand. Chicago (10-10-5) has 35 points.
Until Moffat's goal, the Dynamo had only a few good chances. Johnson batted away a hard shot from Andrew Driver in the 86th minute, his third save of the game, and most difficult since the fifth minute, when he stretched to make a toe save on Will Bruin's low shot.
Fire forward Mike Magee started Chicago's scoring play with a corner kick from the left in the 36th minute. The ball flew over the head of jumping midfielder Jeff Larentowicz and hit defender Bobby Boswell in the shoulder, deflecting in from about eight yards out.
While it went in off an opposing player, the score climaxed a furious sequence that saw Chicago take four shots at Houston from no more than 16 yards in less than three minutes. The first, by Chris Rolfe, skidded wide of the net, but Hall was forced to make saves on Magee and Dilly Duka, the latter stop setting up the corner kick.
It was Chicago's first goal scored directly off a corner this season.
