Though the 3-3 tie between Houston Dynamo and the Colorado Rapids was a win-win scenario as far as each team's playoff plans, both sides reacted very differently to the result.
Houston Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear had mixed feelings about how his team performed Saturday night in the final regular season home game of the club's first year in Texas.
"We attacked very well tonight, but we defended poorly at times," Kinnear said. "We were good, we were great; at times we were poor."
Dynamo forward Alejandro Moreno, who had two assists in the game, was disappointed with the result.
"I thought we deserved a little bit better, but it's not about deserving," Moreno said. "It's about getting the job done."
One of the bright points in Houston's performance was defender Craig Waibel, who scored two goals in the game to bring his season tally to five, a career-high. Waibel was excited about his offensive accomplishment, but disappointed at his team's defensive effort.
"That's a career game. Two goals matched my season total from every other year I've played," Waibel said. "But my job is to keep things out of the net, though it's nice to put them in. Tonight we gave up three (goals), and that's just not OK."
Kinnear was also impressed with Waibel's play, describing the defender as "dangerous on set pieces," and saying that "he found some openings. The second (goal) was a great header."
All five of Waibel's goals this season have come from set pieces.
Houston's focus now turns to the playoffs, where they will face Chivas USA in the Western Conference Semifinal Series. Moreno is excited about the matchup.
"I think we've had pretty interesting games with (Chivas USA)," said Moreno. "It's been pretty exciting. They like to attack and so do we."
Kinnear feels confident going into the playoffs, but also recognizes that his team will have to perform well against Chivas USA if they expect to advance.
"I feel confident. Any team can beat any team in this league," Kinnear said. "If you want to advance you have to play well and defend well. I think we're looking forward to the start of the playoffs."
For the Colorado Rapids, the result was a good one as the team clinched a postseason berth in its final regular-season game.
"We battled the whole game through," head coach Fernando Clavijo said of his team. "We played like we needed to in order to get a point, and we did."
Clavijo was glad that his team's postseason fate was not left to be decided by the match between Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA on Sunday.
"We needed a result," Clavijo said. "We didn't want to wait for tomorrow's result between Salt Lake and Chivas, we needed to know for ourselves."
The Rapids were also happy to score three goals in the game, especially since the team previously hadn't scored more than one goal in a game since a 3-3 tie against Chivas USA on July 20.
"After so many games without scoring more than one goal, to finish the season with three goals ... (lets us) finish the season on a good note," said Colorado forward Thiago Martins.
Rapids forward Jacob Peterson, who scored the goal that punched his team's postseason ticket, agreed with Martins.
"Obviously we were struggling to score goals before this," Peterson said. "Offensively, I think this gives us a lot of confidence."
Now that the Rapids are assured of a postseason berth, the team needs to start preparing to face FC Dallas in the Western Conference Semifinal Series.
"Dallas is a completely different team that we're going to be facing," Clavijo said. "They have the same need to win as we do going in to the playoff, and we're going to be prepared for that."
Martins is already focused on the playoffs.
"Now the playoffs are the thing," Martins said. "It's time to start over, so let's have a good week of work and get ready for the playoffs."
Lucas Ogden-Davis is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
