as well he should be. We should be [ticked] off at ourselves for doing that. We put ourselves in a little bit of hole, but we're confident. We'll be back home." ... In the first half, Dynamo thought they allowed Chivas to win the midfield battle. "We need to step up a little quicker," defender Craig Waibel said to the Houston Chronicle. "We talked about that, as a back four, stepping up and clearing our lines a little quicker, not letting their forwards be so comfortable." But in the second half, said Kinnear: "We were getting the balls a little bit wider, quicker. We tried to spread them out as much as we could, and when we did that, we looked dangerous." ... Dynamo believe that at home, and facing Chivas, they will have their chances again in the second leg -- even given that the last regular season meeting between the teams was a goalless draw. "We need to change a few things, but not a lot. That's how they play. They send six and seven forward and they defend with three or four," Waibel said to the Chronicle. "You're going to get your chances, and against a team like this, it's (a question of) do you put your chances away before they do. The point is we have to get on the board first. Otherwise they play with endless confidence." ... And while the missed penalty was also disappointing, getting a goal of any sort was key. "Maybe we were a little bit unfortunate not coming out 2-2, so at least we're still within touch. A two-goal difference would have been very difficult to come back from," said goalkeeper Pat Onstad. "It's still going to be difficult. Now we know we have a chance. I'd say that the next goal is going to be a gigantic one."
CHIVAS UPDATE: There was no question what the key moment was that set up the second leg: Brad Guzan's save of Dwayne De Rosario's penalty. "You can't say enough in terms of what it means at this point in the series and at that point in the game," said Chivas head coach Bob Bradley. "He did very well in reading DeRosario, because he always goes the other way in PKs. It was a really big play and hopefully we can make that stand up." Said Francisco Palencia: "Brad did a great job at the end of the season. He worked hard to recover the starting job and today he came up big." ... Bradley did pull out some changes for the first leg in his team. Tim Regan started at left back for the first time this year, while Lawson Vaughn maintained the right back spot he had for three of the final four games, after starting there for the first two months. Jonathan Bornstein moved forward to a left midfield role with Francisco Mendoza shifting centrally. Sacha Kljestan, who had started 31 of 32 league games, was again a substitute. "We felt strongly that Johnny Bornstein would make a big difference as a midfielder," Bradley said. "Regardless of where you play Timmy, his positioning and his decision-making is really good. We felt that was a good way in the first game to approach it." ... Bradley would not say if his team will remain the same for the second leg. "We'll look at different possibilities as we go into this game," he said. "You're trying to in the playoffs always pinpoint how you can attack another team, where you think you can get an advantage." ... The return of Palencia also had a major effect on the contest. "Paco (coming back) was massive," Razov said to the L.A. Daily News. "He showed what a leader's all about. They say he's done for the year, and he showed he's not done." Said Bradley: "His mentality is very important to everything we do. He is a fighter who has been in big games, he competes and gives everything he has." ... Ante Razov was again unable to participate in full training over the week as he returns from hip and groin injuries, but Bradley said he will be available on Sunday.
