The Houston Dynamo had a nice, long practice Sunday morning at the University of Houston and Kei Kamara got his first workout with the team after being traded to Houston late last week.
In advance of Tuesday's SuperLiga semifinal match against Pachuca, a Mexican Primera Division team that has become quite the rival for the Dynamo in the last two years, Houston had a routine workout on its normal practice field.
Kamara worked out with the team for the first time. Richard Mulrooney, out with knee swelling, had limited participation and said he could be ready to go soon.
Other than having to worry about the injuries to Mulrooney and Eddie Robinson (hamstring), the Dynamo look like a team relaxed by what has been an intense couple of weeks for the club, with three wins and one loss since SuperLiga play started on July 12.
All Star midfielder Dwayne De Rosario, fresh off his outstanding performance in Toronto against West Ham United, is looking forward to the team's rematch against Pachuca.
Last season, the Dynamo played Pachuca in three games, winning one, losing one and tying one. However, in both occasions, in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup and SuperLiga, it was the Mexican side that advanced.
Pachuca won the SuperLiga semifinal a year ago on penalty kicks, something that De Rosario says has the team ready for another try against a club that, to a man, the Orange say is a fun one to play.
"It is going to be a real treat playing Pachuca once again," De Rosario said. "We definitely want to go out there and change things around this year. Pachuca is a great team and we know, with our fans, it is going to be a great atmosphere Tuesday night. This is a game that we definitely want to come out of with a win."
In the 2007 semifinal, De Rosario got things started with a goal just four minutes into the game, but Pachuca took a 2-1 lead on goals by Juan Carlos Cacho and Andres Chitiva in the 28th and 61st minutes, respectively.
Just when it looked like Pachuca would cruise to the final, having played nearly the entire game with a man advantage, Eddie Robinson scored in the 83rd minute to send the game to overtime.
Neither team scored in the extra frame, but Pachuca got the clinching penalty kick from Rafael Marquez Lugo to seal the win in the shootout.
Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said last year's results is not about revenge or getting a team back for losing such a big match on home turf. Kinnear is looking forward to the rematch for other reasons.
"I think it is just going to be two teams going at it that play hard against each other," said Kinnear. "For us, we have made it to the semi finals again, last year in SuperLiga and this year in CONCACAF, so right now our focus is just to get to the finals and give ourselves a good chance to win a tournament.
"We played Pachuca three times last year and they were pretty memorable games, all of them, and this is just going to be another difficult game against a good team."
Team captain Wade Barrett expects the home-field advantage will give his team an edge, but noted that the team will have to play well in order to get the chance to meet Atlante or New England in the SuperLiga 2008 final.
The games against Pachuca, he said, have always been fun, and the Dynamo always seen to elevate their level of play against Pachuca.
"I think everyone on the team, at some point, has wished we'd get another game with those guys," Barrett said. "The games against them have always been very competitive.
"When you play in these extra tournaments throughout the course of the season, you hope that you establish some kind of rival and that all the games are competitive. I think some of the games that we have played against Pachuca have really brought out the best in our team, and it is always exciting to play in a game like that."
Andrew J. Ferraro is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
