Dynamo’s goal is to strike first
It’s not much in the way of bulletin board material, but it’s all that the Houston Dynamo has provided.
“I don’t think they have players who can sit and defend a lead,” Dynamo forward Paul Dalglish said last week. “They’re an attacking team.”
“They” are the players of Chivas USA, who need only a tie today against Houston to advance to Major League Soccer’s Western Conference final.
Chivas won the first match in the two-game, total-goals series, 2-1, at the Home Depot Center last Sunday and carry that one-goal lead into tonight’s decisive second game at Robertson Stadium in Houston.
A tie will be enough. A one-goal loss will send the series into 30 minutes of overtime. If the aggregate score still remains tied, penalty kicks will determine which team advances to play the surprising Colorado Rapids in the conference final.
Trailing by a goal and playing at home, the Dynamo is expected to come out firing, but Coach Dominic Kinnear has warned that his players can’t simply throw caution to the Texas wind. They have to defend too.
“We can’t lose, we can’t tie,” he told the Houston Chronicle on Friday. “But we can’t go on the field thinking the first 10 minutes is everything. We have to have urgency but also patience, if that makes any sense.
“Our focus has to be the first goal and making sure we play smart, that we don’t go crazy going forward. Otherwise, you have a tendency to attack recklessly.”
Kinnear’s team, formerly the San Jose Earthquakes, has done well in its first season in Houston, compiling an 8-3-5 record at home and finishing second in the conference behind Dallas in the regular-season standings.
But Chivas, which finished third, has played the Dynamo on even terms, and last Sunday’s victory gave Coach Bob Bradley’s side a 2-1-2 edge in the season series. Add to that the fact that Chivas managed a league-high 13 ties in 2006 and it becomes understandable why there is a tinge of concern beneath Houston’s outward confidence.
Another tie is not beyond Chivas’ ability, especially considering the stakes. The ease with which Ante Razov and Francisco “Paco” Palencia got through the Dynamo defense to score Chivas’ two goals last week also troubled the Dynamo, as did the way Chivas’ attacking midfielders, Francisco “Panchito” Mendoza and Juan Pablo Garcia, were able to weave past their Houston counterparts.
Houston, meanwhile, sees Chivas as defensively vulnerable, a point made after last week’s game by defender Craig Waibel.
“They send six and seven forward and they defend with three or four,” he told the Chronicle. “You’re going to get your chances, and against a team like this it’s [a matter of] do you put your chances away before they do?
“We have to get on the board first. Otherwise they play with endless confidence.”
