Score one for the "home" team.
On Sunday, the Houston Dynamo clinched the title at the inaugural Texas Pro Soccer Festival with a 1-1 draw against D.C. United, taking home the trophy on goals scored after both teams had finished with identical 2-0-1 records in the round-robin showcase.
Whether in-state advantage came into play for Houston, it certainly didn't hurt that the crowds for each of their matches at the San Antonio-area tournament were very pro-Dynamo.
It also helped that they fielded a strong starting XI in all three matches, and took full advantage of the week, given that their first competitive match of the season is coming up in only a few days.
As soon as Dynamo could finish all of their postgame duties, they, like D.C. United, hit the road to get ready for the CONCACAF Champions' Cup quarterfinals and a trip to face CSD Municipal of Guatemala.
Dynamo will play the first leg in Guatemala on Wednesday before coming back to Houston for the second leg the following Wednesday. Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear feels that the team is certainly in a more favorable position than they were for last year's Champions' Cup.
"We're a lot better prepared than we were last year, going against Puntarenas," Kinnear said, who saw his club fall 1-0 in Costa Rica before coming back for a 2-0 win in College Station, Texas to advance to the semifinals.
So, he knows that it won't be an easy tie, with last year's defeat in Costa Rica likely not lost on him.
"It's always a difficult task to go down there and play, but I think our guys are looking forward to the challenge," Kinnear said.
Houston's starting lineup for Wednesday isn't set in stone yet, and won't be until at least Tuesday. It might well not be finalized until game time, depending on just how much -- and if -- midfielder Brad Davis can go in Guatemala after injuring his hamstring on Friday against Chivas USA.
But that's one of very few concerns for Kinnear, who's happy with the way the team played at both ends of the park in Cibolo. That's a pretty good place to be with not only the two Champions' Cup matches on the horizon, but also the start of the MLS regular season.
"We got really match fit, and the thing is, you're playing against competition you're going to see week in, week out. I thought we did very good," he said.
A lot of the production this season is expected to come from Brian Ching, Dwayne De Rosario and Chris Wondolowski, and all three have already started displaying midseason form, accounting for four of Houston's six goals in the tournament and creating many more opportunities on goal. De Rosario had arguably the goal of the week, a long-range blast on Friday night against Chivas USA that made the difference in their 1-0 win.
"We scored some good goals and were dangerous in every game," said Kinnear.
Defensively, Dynamo surrendered three goals in their first match against Toronto, but settled down after that, and were headed for consecutive clean sheets until D.C. United's Cezar snuck in for a 78th-minute equalizer in Sunday's draw.
"I thought defensively we were good and organized, and the effort put in when the ball turned over was good," Kinnear said.
Both Stuart Holden and Patrick Ianni are away with the U.S. under-23 national team, preparing for the Olympic qualifying tournament, and while those two stand to miss out on the Champions' Cup quarterfinals, they'll be back and ready to go for the MLS season opener at New England on March 29.
So with one trophy already in tow, the Orange are locked and loaded for a run at even more, which is great news for the trophy case, and bad news for the teams that have to try to stop them.
It hasn't been very easy to do that lately, and it certainly doesn't look to get any easier.
Eddie Griffin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
