After a second-straight spirited practice at the Carl Lewis Track Stadium earlier this week, Craig Waibel was busy with interviews, talking about the design of the championship rings the team will receive prior to their match against Chivas USA Saturday night.
Then he was asked if he and his teammates were sick and tired of hearing they were the only winless team left in Major League Soccer.
Almost ignoring the vast change in subjects, Waibel just kind of laughed, answered playfully and then, got down to business.
"Winless? Who is? We are? I didn't even realize that we were winless," Waibel started. "It's frustrating and I think that is the only word to describe it. We're working hard every time we get on the field and we are not panicking yet."
Three draws and two losses are all the team has to show for the first month that Waibel and the team will likely do anything to forget.
A team picked by many to make the playoffs for the third straight year since moving to Houston, the Dynamo are dangerously close to playing a game of catch-up that could last until fall.
Waibel said now is the perfect time to start a new kind of streak.
"I think a lot of things are going right for us, but we have been shooting ourselves in the foot," Waibel added. "We're giving up silly goals and that has been a real big part of the problem. It's one thing if you are playing well and you are giving up goals the other team deserves. But we are not doing that right now and I think that is what is eating at us the most."
Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said the timing couldn't be better to get the season's first win. He, too, was a bit sarcastic (sarcastically serious) when he implied all bad things have to end sometime.
"We've had an awesome week so far and maybe the law of averages is in our favor," Kinnear said. "Right now we just feel that a win is right there, right around the corner. Even our attitude after the game Saturday (a 1-0 loss at Columbus), we were absolutely devastated and the message in the locker was if we play like that, more often that not, we are going to come out on top.
"We just have to come out with a good attitude on Saturday, with the same belief in each other and see how we are after 90 minutes."
Kinnear wasn't the only one who mentioned the week's work ethic in advance of Saturday's match that features last year's No. 1 and No. 2 West teams from 2007.
Waibel said the team is becoming increasingly aware that prospects for another championship are slowly slipping away.
"Well, we are getting a pretty good wake-up call here early that it is not going to take care of itself," Waibel said. "We are looking at all facets of the game. We're not getting leads, and the leads that we have got, we're not hanging on to. We're absolutely killing ourselves all over the field right now. That said, we are still playing a lot of good quality football at times. We're just not piecing it together."
The determination in Kinnear's voice was inspiring when he talked about how close his team has come to a win without actually getting it done. There was anger there, and like Waibel alluded to, some frustration.
Get the first goal, create some luck, play hard and bear down defensively. Those will all be keys to the game when the team hosts Chivas for the first time this season.
"I think we have played well, but sometimes I think we need a little bit of extra effort, but sometimes you need a little bit of luck to bounce your way," Kinnear said. "I think we have played good, but we just have not been winning games.
"I am not trying to take it lightly, everyone is frustrated and everyone is disappointed, but we feel that we are a better team that our record shows. But the record is our reality and we need to turn it around."
Andrew J. Ferraro is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
