When things are not going the way you hope, you take what you can get.
Fresh off their first win against an MLS side in almost three months, the Houston Dynamo are hoping to build off the positives of that victory.
“We put together a great performance last week, and this week has been the best week of training,” said midfielder Brad Davis. “As long as we continue to build on that, things are moving in a positive direction for us.”
Health-wise, the Dynamo are as close to full strength as they have been all year. The entire roster participated in full training Thursday for possibly the first time all season.
“Everyone was at practice today, and I don’t think we’ve seen that all year,” said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear. “Brad [Davis], Corey [Ashe], Adrian [Serioux] and Anthony [Obodai] all trained. I don’t know that they are all 100 percent fit, but everyone trained with the team.”
While Obodai still admits to feeling a small amount of pain from his injury, he says he will be ready to start on Saturday. Davis, who has been battling a quad strain, is hopeful that he can get himself back into the starting lineup.
“I feel good,” said Davis. “Last game I got some good minutes, and I felt good in training. Hopefully, I will get a little more time and get back into it.”
While being healthy is a large component to the team’s upbeat mood, the other component is the team’s victory against the Chicago Fire last weekend. Captain Brian Ching credited Kinnear with letting up a little bit on the reins to let the side mix in some off-the-field time as well.
“For the past few games and the past few months, [there were] a lot of long faces here,” Ching said after the Fire game. “When you are not winning, it kind of sucks the joy out of it. We were trying to get back to enjoying playing soccer.”
Defender Andrew Hainault added: “We have a little more jump in our step. Now that we got our first win, the second shouldn’t take two months.”
Dwain Capodice is a contributor to MLSsoccer.com. Questions or Comments can be sent via email to dwaincapodice@gmail.com.
