The price of success for the defending MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo is playing an increasingly congested schedule the following season. And on Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium, it finally caught up with them.
Following the completion of SuperLiga group play earlier this week, Dynamo battled through five full matches -- three of which were in the North American club competition - in only 13 days. But after carrying an 11-game MLS unbeaten streak, then going undefeated in their SuperLiga games (two wins and one draw), Houston's weariness finally exacted a price as Dynamo lost 1-0 to Real Salt Lake.
"It's like running in quicksand," said Houston striker Brian Ching. "Having said that, we're a proud team and we really don't want to use that as an excuse. Things weren't happening for us tonight.
For the past two months, everything right has been happening for Dynamo. Their last reverse came on May 26 against D.C. United, and since that point they have gone on a tear, winning 10 games and drawing four in all competitions, the club's single defeat coming in a U.S. Open Cup match.
"That's impressive, no matter what league you're in," said Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear. "It's been on the road, it's been at home. And Houston is not exactly an easy place to play with the heat and the humidity. I could not do anything but applaud these guys because every single day -- including today -- they've brought their best effort."
The defending champions have been playing like champions even while some of their key players were out on international duty. Shortly after they started their unbeaten ways Dynamo lost Brian Ching and Ricardo Clark as they represented the United States, and Dwayne De Rosario and Pat Onstad as they suited up for Canada, all in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
"It was everyone on the team stepping up," said Clark, "even with me, Ching, and De Rosario gone, players are stepping up. And no matter who we were putting in the lineup, everybody was doing their job. It's great to be a part of a team where everybody is about working hard and getting the job done."
The mixture of a hectic couple of weeks, along with traveling to the high altitude of Salt Lake City and then playing on a temporary grass surface, was the recipe for bringing Houston's unbeaten ways to an end against the league's last-place team.
In preparations for hosting a pair of international friendlies, Real Salt Lake installed a temporary field of grass over the regular artificial turf. The surface has been in place for over two weeks, but several players appeared to lose their footing through out the course of the match.
Kinnear pointed to the field as a source of his players lethargy.
"I didn't think it was so good," said Kinnear of the surface. "It actually slows the game down, and I think it takes the energy out of people's legs. You always want to play on grass -- that's always better. But, you could tell tonight was not ideal."P
After keeping a hungry Real Salt Lake team off the scoreboard for nearly 85 minutes, a single defensive mishap cleared the way for the lone goal of the match. Houston captain Wade Barrett slipped, allowing an easy pass to slip through to RSL striker Robbie Findley. The young attacker got in behind the defense and beat Onstad to the far post.
From Ching's angle that was really the only misstep made by Houston on the night.
"I don't think they really broke us down at all," said Ching. "It was a mix-up in the back. One of those plays that hasn't really happened in the past two months, but happens tonight. And they capitalized on it."
From the sidelines Kinnear could see that the energy just wasn't there for his players.
"Yeah, I think just think that our guys are dead," said Kinnear. "The guys tried, but there wasn't much energy out there. We're not complaining [about the schedule] because it comes from being successful the year before. But, in reality it's very hard on the players."
With their schedule returning to normal -- somewhat -- in the coming weeks, Dynamo should have to time to rest up and get ready for defending their title as well as advancing in SuperLiga.
"I think we're going to relax, and try to rest up a little bit," said Ching. "It's been a crazy month -- crazy two months, actually. Right now our focus is to get regenerated and get back to where we were in the past two months.
"It's just a hiccup in the road. I think we have the guys to go and repeat, and I think you've seen that over the past two months."
Scott McAllister is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
