Houston Dynamo got a huge win against FC Dallas Sunday to lift them back into first place in the Western Conference, and Houston will get an opportunity to extend that lead Saturday at Robertson Stadium when the Columbus Crew come to town for the second and final match between the two teams this season.
The Crew are holding on to the eighth and final playoff spot in the MLS, so Dynamo know Columbus will not be an easy test.
"They are at the bottom looking to stay in the top eight for the playoffs, and we are looking to stay on top of the West," said Dynamo midfielder Richard Mulrooney. "Dallas is off this weekend, so a chance to gain points with another game in hand is important to us. We both have reasons for wanting to win, but the bottom line is both teams want to win a game that will be decided on the field (Saturday) night."
For Saturday's game, Houston will see defender Ryan Cochrane return, who has missed the last two games against Pachuca and Dallas with a leg injury. Cochrane is excited to come back to the field and help Houston make a run to the playoffs.
"I'm excited to get back and start playing again," Cochrane said. "It (stinks) when everyone is out and you just want to get back out there. It's a good team [Saturday] -- going to be playing with (former teammate) Alejandro (Moreno) again, so it's going to be fun. It always was in practice.
"We really want to make a pretty good run towards the playoffs right now and secure our spot. They have some good forwards. They are a dangerous team right now. They are fighting for points, too, so they might come out swinging a little extra harder."
But Houston will go into the game missing forward Brian Ching, who will be out due to a left calf strain suffered against FC Dallas. Ching was supposed to play with the U.S. national team in a friendly against Sweden on Wednesday, but he couldn't go due to the injury.
Also out for Saturday's game is defender Eddie Robinson, suspended for the game after being called for his eighth yellow card this season against Dallas.
"We're down a little bit, but that's the way it goes," said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. "We have to play. We can't stop playing because of injuries. That's why you have people. We knew it was going to be a long season.
"That's why we went after guys like Joe (Ngwenya) and Nate (Jaqua) and Richard (Mulrooney) because we thought their versatility would come in handy, and it has. You have guys like Corey (Ashe) and (Chris Wondolowski) and Pat Ianni that have probably played a bigger role this year than in the past. You can't worry about who is not playing. Your focus has to be on guys who are playing."
One guy who should play for Houston is goalkeeper Pat Onstad, who played 90 minutes for the Canadian national team Wednesday night in a friendly in Iceland.
With the playoffs looming, however, Kinnear is looking at each game one at a time.
"We are going game-by-game. Things change so fast in this league," Kinnear said. "We went from being in a pretty not so decent area, then all of a sudden, 10 games later, we're doing great. Things can change fast, but you can't dwell on what you've done, and you can't congratulate yourself yet, especially with eight games remaining. We're in a better spot than some, but you can't be satisfied with that. On any given day, anybody can beat anybody."
Houston will be looking to make sure a letdown doesn't happen against Columbus after Sunday's win to reclaim the Western Conference's top spot. If the Orange need any reminder about letdowns, they just have to look at Real Salt Lake and Colorado from earlier this month, both ended in 1-0 losses for Dynamo.
"We have to learn from those two games," said Dynamo midfielder Dwayne DeRosario. "If you look at the game in Colorado, that was a disappointing loss, so we turned it around and played well against Pachuca with 10 men and at a point, nine men. We have guys that are willing to put the hard work in.
"I think those two games, we didn't work as hard as we should have. We went out and thought we could run around the field and knock in a goal to get three points, and it happened the other way around. They finished their chances, and we didn't finish ours. We started to play our game a little bit too late, and they punished us. We got those losses behind us. We got a big win against Dallas, and now we are looking forward to continuing that streak that we left off."
Jeremy Rakes is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
