Houston Dynamo can feel FC Dallas and Chivas USA breathing down their necks.
With seven games left in the season, Dynamo know that they need to get a win against Kansas City on Saturday night at Robertson Stadium in order to stay in first place in the Western Conference, but the Wizards aren't going to be an easy team to play.
"Kansas City is going to come and play a great game," said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. "And you have to think of their players, their attacking players, especially, Eddie Johnson, Scott Sealy, Davy Arnaud and (Eloy) Colombano (the new guy) and Carlos Marinelli.
"You have to think they're going to be effective and you got to stay on your toes, because if you don't you're going to be in trouble."
Over the last month, Houston's play hasn't been as consistent as Kinnear would like it to be. After two tough losses to Real Salt Lake and Colorado, Dynamo fell to Pachuca in the SuperLiga semifinals on penalty kicks.
Over the last two games, the Orange have defeated FC Dallas and tied Columbus. Kinnear said the inconsistency is expected over course of the season, but he thinks the team should play a little bit simpler in order to keep their two-game unbeaten streak going.
"We've been a little bit inconsistent," Kinnear said. "We've had some good play and some bad play; that's normal throughout the course of the season.
"We had a video meet (Thursday) morning where we showed that the more simple we play the more effective it is. I think sometimes we try to do a little too much."
Defender Craig Waibel, who has missed the last two games with an abdominal strain, returned to practice Thursday, but Dynamo got some bad news Thursday when midfielder Stuart Holden rolled his ankle in his return to practice.
Holden, who has missed nearly a month since spraining his ankle against Real Salt Lake on Aug. 4, is questionable for Saturday's game, while Dynamo hope to have Waibel on the field against the Wizards.
Injuries aside, getting results out of the FC Dallas and Columbus games were important for Dynamo, but they need to keep that up against Kansas City on Saturday and Real Salt Lake the following Saturday in order to stay on top of the West.
"We got a result out of Columbus and we beat Dallas, so over the past couple of games the results have been positive, and we're looking to keep that up over the next two games," Kinnear said.
Jeremy Rakes is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
