HOUSTON – After three successive league draws including two at home, one would think the Houston Dynamo would be more upset that they are winless in their last six league games. However, Houston firmly believes they are finally turning a corner with their play and that they stand on the brink of putting a good run together.
“I think we’re just inches away from pulling off something good here,” said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. “We are inching along and we need to take some big steps now, but I do think we are on the verge of starting to do that.”
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“There are positives to take from it,” said Danny Cruz. “I think we are this close. We are real close to getting to where we need to be.”
The highlight of Saturday night’s scoreless draw would be the team’s collective defensive effort against one of the league’s most potent attacking teams. For 90 minutes, the Dynamo defense bottled up Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Robbie Rogers, Eddie Gaven and limited the Crew to two harmless shots on goal.
“Anytime you get a shutout it’s a positive,” noted Kinnear. “They have a good team with some good attacking players and they're dangerous on set pieces and we competed hard on those.”
The shutout was Pat Onstad’s 50th for the team in all competitions. Onstad suffered an injury to his left leg midway through the second half, but afterwards said it was just a dead leg from the collision in the box and he should be fine.
Offensively, Houston failed to create a plethora of opportunities on the night. However, they did create two of the game’s best chances. Brian Ching missed an open net in the 24th minute and Cam Weaver’s shot missed inches wide of the goal in the 80th minute.
“Unfortunately I think we were a little unfortunate tonight,” noted Ching. “We battled. We had enough chances. I am a little disappointed in myself not to put that one way that [Cruz] crossed in the first half.”
“We had opportunities to get goals,” said Onstad. “Maybe not as many opportunities as we normally create, but we had a couple good looks and unfortunately we couldn’t put them in tonight.”
Despite failing to take three points at home, Houston feel like the team’s performance of late mirrors their proud history.
“The collective unit we were good from front to back," said left back Mike Chabala. "Anyone who watches this team from the beginning of the year to now will say that is more like the Dynamo team we’ve seen from the past."
Dwain Capodice is a contributor to MLSsoccer.com. Questions or Comments can be sent via email to dwaincapodice@gmail.com.
