Fri Jun 20 13:30:11 2008

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Rapids hope home cookin' vs. Dynamo helps club return to form

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Commerce City, CO (Sports Network) - After going 0-2 on the road the past two weeks, the Colorado Rapids return home to host the Houston Dynamo at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Major League Soccer action on Saturday night.

The two losses have dropped the Rapids form the top of the Western table to third from the bottom, showing just how tight the standings are a little over a third of the way through the season.

"We need to get home and get back in the win column and get back to where we belong," Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo said after his team's most recent loss, a 3-1 contest at Toronto FC.

The Reds went up 3-0 in the game before Colorado's Christian Gomez pulled one back about 10 minutes from time.

"We knew coming to Toronto it was going to be a physical game, we knew there was going to be a lot of emotions coming from the fans,' Clavijo said. "I thought that the first 10, 15 minutes we played extremely well, but when you miss your chances in a situation that you are in Toronto, you're going to pay the price. We made some tactical changes in the second half - one-on-one with the goalkeeper again, it could have changed the game and when you miss the chances you pay the price."

The Dynamo (4-4-5) are also coming off a loss, 2-0 vs. New England at home, in their last league fixture. The team was playing without starting goalkeeper Pat Onstad, and attackers Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching, because of their participation with their respective national teams, and it showed in the loss.

"I think it's disappointing anytime you lose, especially when with the goals we gave up and them being soft," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "And they scored when we didn't defend particularly well. Other than those two instances, I thought we were OK. We didn't create tons of chances, but we got some good looks at the goal."

The Dynamo will be without Onstad and De Rosario again on Saturday, but Ching will make his return. His addition will be a welcome one, considering he is an influential attacker, especially after a lackluster showing by Houston from a patchwork lineup vs. New England.

"It wasn't terrible soccer defensively, but you could definitely tell that we were missing a few guys offensively," Houston defender Craig Waibel after the New England game. "It was just patchwork out there, and there were some young guys that came in that didn't play their best football. That being said, when we get in a situation like this, where a few guys get called up for international play, they need to be ready. This is going to continue. Guys are going to keep getting called up and we will need our young guys to not only come in, but they have got to come in and play their best football. I wouldn't pin [the loss] on just one or two guys, but we struggled at a few positions."

Like Houston, Colorado (5-7-0) will be without its starting goalkeeper, Bouna Coundoul, because of his participation with the Senegal national team. The team could also be without midfielder Pablo Mastroeni after the U.S. international suffered a back injury this past Sunday with the U.S., which played Barbados in a World Cup qualifier.