helping him pass Jeff Cunningham as the club's all-time
leader for goals scored. "It's a definitely a good feeling,"
Findley said. "There's been a lot of good goal scorers here."
• Said Kreis: "I thought Robbie was extremely active all
night. In particular, I thought he did a fantastic job on
challenging for head balls with their defenders, and he won quite a
few of them. Then he obviously had the two chances to score, the
first one being the far simpler one. As a coach I wish and I hope
that he starts to convert those simple ones, but converting the
second one was good enough on the night."
• Rimando's quick thinking on the restart led to Real
scoring the only goal of the game. It was the third assist credited
to the 10th-year goalkeeper. "Yeah, we work on that a lot, having
Nick kick the ball 50 yards over the top. We spend a lot of time at
training on that," joked Kreis with The Deseret News. "Nick
is extremely good with his feet at picking people off from a long
ways away. It is one of the things that I am very fond of Rimando
for."
• Kreis was not on the bench, serving the second game of a
two-game suspension after being sent off in the comeback win
against FC Dallas. Once again Kreis wasn't entirely thrilled with
what he saw.
• "Another second half here at Rio Tinto Stadium where we
have figured out how to play," Kreis said. "I'm going to drive
myself crazy figuring out how we can get our team to play in the
first half as well. It would be really nice to see our team play 90
minutes."
• A year ago, Real slipped into the MLS Cup Playoffs on the
final day, after a dramatic draw with Colorado Rapids to pip their
Rocky Mountain rivals. RSL is two points out of a playoff spot as
the season nears the homestretch, but the Claret-and-Cobalt have
won four of their last eight.
• "You would think that the team feels like we have been
here before," Kreis said. "We have done it before. It's not a fresh
new thing to us. Hopefully, there won't be the anxiety that I think
we had over some of the games down the stretch last year."
• It was the first 1-0 victory for RSL this season, and the
club's first shutout in five games. More pleasing, Real did not
allow a shot on goal to Sounders FC after halftime. "It was 100
percent one of our focuses," midfielder Will Johnson said. "We want
to be hard to play against at home. We don't want to give away
anything easy. We don't want to be soft. We want to be a hard team
to play against."
HOUSTON DYNAMO
The Houston Dynamo won for the second time in three matches in
another goalfest, getting a late penalty kick for a 3-2 win against
the Chicago Fire on Sunday evening at Robertson Stadium. The Dynamo
still lead the Western Conference and MLS overall table with 38
points from 21 matches, now seven points ahead of the LA Galaxy and
still two points ahead of Eastern Conference-leading Columbus.
LAST MATCH
• The Dynamo were coming off a fourth defeat in seven
games just three days earlier, a rare loss to FC Dallas, while the
Fire were also come off a loss at midweek, on penalties to Mexico's
Tigres UANL in the SuperLiga final, though they had a five-game
undefeated streak in league play.
• The Dynamo started strongly and had a two-goal lead by
halftime. In the 21st minute, Kei Kamara snuck behind the Fire
defense to latch onto a throw-in all alone in the penalty area and
hammered a close-range blast over Jon Busch for his fifth goal on
the season. The goal was the first scored against the Fire in 395
minutes, and first in league play in five games, since July 4.
• Houston doubled its lead in the 37th minute. Brian Ching
lofted a ball over the Chicago backline into the path of Ricardo
Clark, and the U.S. international flipped it over the on-rushing
Busch as he came off his line.
• But the Fire were level within three minutes of the
second-half restart. In the 46th minute, Chris Rolfe collected a
square pass some 30 yards from goal and left fly with a searing
drive that beat Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad inside the right post
for his fourth goal of 2009.
• Then two minutes later, Cuauhtemoc Blanco wriggled away
from the challenge of Julius James in the left corner and flighted
a soft cross to the back post, where Peter Lowry hit it with a
stunning, acrobatic side volley for his first professional goal in
his first career MLS start.
• Yet seven minutes from the end, Corey Ashe burst into the
left side of the Chicago area and under pressure from fullback
Brandon Prideaux went to the ground. Referee Terry Vaughn pointed
to the spot, and on Stuart Holden Bobblehead Night, the recently
turned 24-year-old smashed the resulting penalty into the back of
the net for his sixth goal on the year and the game-winner.
• Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear made three changes to
the team that lost 1-0 to FC Dallas three days earlier on the road.
Julius James and Wade Barrett came back into the back four and Kei
Kamara up top, with Mike Chabala and Dominic Oduro on the
substitutes' bench and Brad Davis suspended.
• Here's Kinnear's team (4-3-1-2): Pat Onstad - Andrew
Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Julius James, Wade Barrett - Geoff
Cameron, Ricardo Clark, Corey Ashe - Stuart Holden - Kei Kamara
(Dominic Oduro 80), Brian Ching (Ade Akinbiyi 89). Substitutes Not
Used: Mike Chabala, Danny Cruz, Tally Hall, Erik Ustruck, Craig
Waibel
• "A win is a win. Any time you can win, you're happy with
that. We jump back into first overall, so we're pretty pleased with
that. It was mission accomplished there, but obviously some things
we need to look at and work out for the next game," Kinnear said.
TEAM NEWS
• After having gone the first 19 league games allowing
multiple goals in a game just twice, the Dynamo have now allowed
multiple goals in two of their last three.
• "I don't want to get into the problems as it's just one
person's opinion," said goalkeeper Pat Onstad. "I am disappointed
with the way I performed. I don't like giving up two goals and I'm
responsible whether it is goaltending or organizing the back four,
so I have to hold my hand up that I didn't do a good job [Sunday]."
• As well, three of the goals have come in the first five
minutes after the start of the second half. D.C. United began their
comeback with a 49th-minute goal, and the Fire came all the way
back with two goals in the first three minutes after the break.
• [The early goals are] a concern, because it's happened
now twice at home. I don't think being tired should be the excuse,
because we've just come out of the locker room. ... I don't know if
it's a trend -- it's only happened twice -- but we need to make
sure we address it, because we can't just let it slide," Kinnear
said.
• The Chicago game was also the second in four days that
capped a stretch of 10 games over six weeks, which included the MLS
All-Star Game (where the MLS team was led by the Dynamo coaching
staff). The Orange finally have a week between games - though that
will end quickly, with the first of six CONCACAF Champions League
games over a 10-week stretch coming next week, in addition to the
final eight league games.
• "Even though we won, there were a lot of long faces in
there, and I just think they're physically spent. [A one-week break
between games] is welcome for everybody, because I think you also
get a bit of a mental break. The games just keep piling up, and you
can't get a chance to rest and get away from the games, and I think
sometimes you need that," Kinnear said. "We played three games in a
week, and all three games were up in the 90s temperature-wise. That
takes a toll on you physically and mentally."
• The victory maintained the Dynamo's lead atop the Western
Conference, where they have been since the middle of June. It also
keeps the club on course for a first Supporters' Shield.
• "It's a huge win. We've been up by ourselves for a while,
and then Columbus jumped over us last night with a good win and LA
is on a bit of a roll. To open up a gap on some teams again, was
maybe a little bit of a letdown for them,: Kinnear said. "For us to
come out with a win is huge because it pushes us a little farther
away. It's a huge win for us."
