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Sebastian Ferreira scored twice in three minutes en route to a second-half hat trick and the Houston Dynamo pulled away to a 4-1 road victory against a frustrated D.C. United side that finished Saturday night with nine men.
Ferreira's first career MLS hat trick and first multi-goal performance for Houston (7-6-6, 27 points) since the 2022 MLS campaign helped coach Ben Olsen earn a victory in his first game coaching against the only MLS club he played for and one he also coached for most of a decade.
The first came from the penalty spot, and the second in a sequence in which referee Tim Ford declined to call Ferreira for a foul on Mateusz Klich after the two tangled.
It was the first of several crucial decisions from Ford, the biggest being the ejection of D.C. goal scorer Christian Benteke in the 66th minute, presumably for verbally abusing the official.
Benteke had given D.C. (4-9-7, 19 points) a 38th-minute lead from the penalty spot for his team-leading 14th goal. But when Ford whistled him for a foul and issued a caution, Beneteke argued vehemently, and Ford followed with a straight red.
It was already 2-1 by then, and 3-1 when Matai Akinmboni was dismissed for his second booking in second-half stoppage time before Gabriel Segal finished Houston's scoring.
Ferreira was Dynamo GM Pat Onstad's first Designated Player signing and scored 13 times in the league in 2022. But he fell out of favor with Olsen's arrival, making only 11 appearances (two starts) in 2023 and spending a portion of the season on loan at Vasco da Gama in Brazil, where he also was seldom used.
He hasn't regained his starting role, but with the Dynamo playing a third match in eight games, he got the nod.
Ferreira leveled the game from the penalty spot in the 51st minute when Ford Ford spotted a handball on Akinmboni, who had entered for the injured Garrison Tubbs late in the first half.
Three minutes later, Ferreira carved out enough space to side-foot a finish into the bottom left corner after Artur won a penalty-area challenge against Klich, who protested for a foul.
Beneteke was dismissed 12 minutes after that. Then Ferreira finished off his day with his third in the 86th minute on the first of Brad Smith's two assists.
