and fittingly it came from Davis. Collecting a pass at the left corner of the box, he hammered a rising drive inside the far post past the despairing dive of goalkeeper Nick Rimando for the 81st-minute game-winner, his fifth goal on the campaign.
• Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear made two changes to the team that lost 2-1 to the Columbus Crew the weekend before. Brad Davis and Ryan Cochrane came into the team, with Ricardo Clark suspended and Corey Ashe going to the substitutes' bench.
• Here's Kinnear's team (4-3-1-2): Pat Onstad - Andrew Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Ryan Cochrane, Mike Chabala - Brian Mullan, Geoff Cameron, Brad Davis (Corey Ashe 83) - Stuart Holden - Brian Ching, Luis Angel Landin (Cam Weaver 64). Substitutes Not Used: Wade Barrett, Tally Hall, Dominic Oduro, Abe Thompson, Craig Waibel
TEAM NEWS
• After four games in league play without a win and just two victories in their previous 10 in MLS play, the late game-winner against Real was important for the Dynamo.
• "A must-win is if you lose and your season is over," said Kinnear. "It's a necessary win. For the momentum of the team since we were treading water and for confidence and the feeling in the locker room, it was a very necessary win." Said Davis: "To be totally honest we felt like we were letting the game slip away again. Credit to our guys that we didn't stop."
• The result, combined with the LA Galaxy's loss in Columbus last week, means the Dynamo are still atop the Western Conference with three games remaining, entering the weekend - important to maintain home-field advantage throughout the MLS Cup Playoffs.
• "We knew there was a good opportunity to get three points [with several other teams tying earlier]," said Onstad. "It gives us a little cushion on some of those other teams. It wasn't pretty, but it's three points."
• Since the league win, the Dynamo have ... in the CONCACAF Champions League.
• On Sept. 22, the Dynamo claimed a huge victory, defeating Panama's Arabe Unido 5-1 at Robertson Stadium. Eddie Robinson gave the Dynamo the lead in the 11th minute, and Cam Weaver doubled it (50), before Orlando Rodriguez pulled a goal back for DAU. Then Arabe Unido were reduced to 10 men when Omar Camargo was sent off, and Corey Ashe (69) scored and Stuart Holden netted twice (74, 92+) to put the game away.
• "If you look at it, it is really important for us to go out there and keep trying to score goals because it may come down to a tiebreaker and that is why we kept going forward," Kinnear said.
• Then on Wednesday, the Dynamo lost 1-0 to Mexico's CF Pachuca in the CONCACAF Champions League. The Dynamo now must defeat Isidro Metapan in El Salvador on Oct. 21, and have Pachuca defeat Panama's Arabe Unido, to advance to the quarterfinal stage.
• Here's Kinnear's team: Pat Onstad - Wade Barrett (Corey Ashe 46), Andrew Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Brian Mullan, Brad Davis (Eddie Robinson 70), Stuart Holden, Ricardo Clark, Geoff Cameron, Brian Ching, Dominic Oduro
• "If we get a goal, it might have put us over the top," said Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear. "I thought we were very good in the first half and chasing the game in the second. We played well, and spent a lot of time in their half, but the final pass in the last 25-30 yards was letting us down ... "Overall I was happy with the way the guys played. [The loss] puts us in a difficult position. We know what we have to do now, go to El Salvador and win and hope that Pachuca beat Arabe Unido."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
The Kansas City Wizards extended their late-season unbeaten run to three games, playing to a scoreless draw on Saturday evening at CommunityAmerica Ballpark. The Wizards have 31 points from 26 matches, sitting in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, 15 points behind first-place Columbus.
LAST MATCH
• The Wizards had followed up a six-point road trip with a 3-2 win against FC Dallas at home in their last game, while the Rapids were coming off back-to-back 1-1 draws against San Jose -- both games decided by stoppage-time penalty kick equalizers from Conor Casey.
• The Wizards narrowly missed hitting for the game-winner in the 77th minute, but Jimmy Conrad -- who went from goat to hero in the win against FCD -- saw his header from a corner kick come back off the post. Both goalkeepers, K.C.'s Kevin Hartman and Colorado's Preston Burpo, each made three saves.
• Wizards interim head coach Peter Vermes made two changes to the team that overcame an FC Dallas comeback for a 3-2 victory the Saturday before. Kei Kamara made his first K.C. start and Jack Jewsbury returned from suspension, coming into the team in place of Kurt Morsink and Herculez Gomez.
• Here's Vermes' team (4-4-2): Kevin Hartman - Jonathan Leathers, Matt Besler, Jimmy Conrad, Michael Harrington - Davy Arnaud, Santiago Hirsig, Jack Jewsbury, Claudio Lopez - Kei Kamara, Josh Wolff (Zoltan Hercegfalvi 65). Substitutes Not Used: Aaron Hohlbein, Matt Marquess, Kurt Morsink, Chance Myers, Boris Pardo, Graham Zusi
TEAM NEWS
• The Wizards have gone 3-1-1 in their last five games and are still alive for a place in the MLS Cup Playoffs, though they are six points behind the last spot with just 12 points remaining.
• "When it comes down to the end of the season like this, and games are what they are, both teams are fighting for everything," Vermes said. "I go back to it: If we had walked away [from the game] having not created chances, then I'd walk away saying we were a little tentative. We weren't aggressive. But, we had quite a few chances. And, set piece-wise, we were dominant."
• After last week's win against FC Dallas, Jimmy Conrad said he thought the team would need to win four of its last five to make the playoffs. The Wizards now have four games remaining (two on the road and then two at home) beginning with the trip to Houston.
• "Walking off the field, I heard a couple of our players talking about where we could be right now if we played like this the entire season. It's good to see that the team is confident with the way we are playing," Vermes said. "When I took over, we talked about changing the attitude of this team, and that definitely is happening."
• The Wizards have allowed three goals in their last four games and recorded shutouts in two; the clean sheet at New York on Sept. 12 the first in two months.
• "I thought that we had a good offensive performance and that makes it easy to play defense. Colorado didn't have a lot of good scoring chances, and I credit that to our solid performance on defense, but also because of how we controlled the game offensively," Conrad said. "Colorado is a good team, but I thought tonight we were the better team and put ourselves in a good position to get three points. It's just unfortunate we were not able to get the win, but overall it was still a good effort."
• Kei Kamara made his first start for the Wizards and was a handful for the Rapids, playing an unusual back three. In a strange twist of fate, he'll face his former club on Sunday, the one that dealt him away in a trade deadline deal.
• "I have to be honest about the situation," Kamara said. "I was surprised I was getting traded. I didn't want to leave Houston -- the position that we were in. I wanted to play with the team. For them to say that's what they wanted to do, that's saying they didn't want me on the team anymore. I was shocked, surprised. But, I just have to let that go, look forward."
