Stay on top of breaking news!
Sign up for ABC 7 News e-mail alerts.
(Sports Network) - The Houston Dynamo, winners of eight of their last nine Major League Soccer fixtures, are back in action on Saturday night when they host Western Conference rivals Real Salt Lake.
The Dynamo are coming off a good stretch in which they rattled off three wins in nine days to extend their unbeaten run to 10 games.
"The team is playing well," Houston midfielder Stuart Holden told The Sports Network. "It started about 10 games ago and we have got more and more confidence as the games have gone on. I think I've gotten more and more comfortable in there and the guys have played well and it has made my job easier. Now we are sitting back at the top of the league."
The team's most recent win was a 3-1 decision vs. Texas rivals FC Dallas this past weekend.
"It was OK. We started out a little dead, about 10 minutes in, but the first goal helped to settle us down," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "We took advantage of the opportunities we had and as the game went on we were a bit tired and fatigued so for us it was about team shape."
Real Salt Lake is coming off its first road victory of the season - 2-0 at Los Angeles - and will aim to put together its first winning streak of the season away from its home stadium.
"I am very pleased. It's a big win," RSL coach Jason Kreis said. "It is our first road victory in the season, and it's our first win after a long time. I am glad that we took a win after many disappointments. To see your players putting a lot of effort and dedication is great. We put the effort together, we had the possession, and we took our chances. Everything came up together for us, and that's a solid sign. I told my players in the locker room ... welcome back."
The victory was also RSL's first in seven league fixtures, both home and away. A large part of the victory was the clean sheet recorded by goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
"[Rimando] made some monster saves," Kreis said. "He had a fantastic save in the second half on [Jovan Kirovski's shot]. He came up big for us. This is the situation where you need your players to make big plays, a lot of our players made big plays."
RSL (4-6-3) is relatively healthy heading into Saturday's match, with forward Robbie Findley listed as questionable, and forward Fabian Espndola and defender Ian Joy listed as probable.
Houston (8-2-3) will be without midfielder Ricardo Clark because of international duty, while defender Eddie Robinson is expected to be out another 3-4 weeks with a knee injury. Forward Brian Ching is expected to play with a hamstring strain.
Copyright 2009 The Sports Network
All rights reserved
Email To Friend
ABC 7 News to leave comments on news stories.