The Houston Dynamo travel to take on Chivas USA
in a Major League Soccer fixture on Sunday afternoon that could decide the
Western Conference crown.
The game will be the last of the regular season for each team, and the second
to last in the league, with New England and Columbus closing out the 2009
regular season later in the day.
Houston (12-8-9) and Chivas USA (13-10-6) are currently tied atop the Western
table with Los Angeles ahead of the Galaxy's match on Saturday night at San
Jose. Depending on that outcome, the winner on Sunday could take the Western
title and the top seed in the Western bracket of the MLS Cup playoffs.
The Dynamo are coming off coming off a 1-1 draw vs. the Galaxy in their last
league fixture. The draw capped off a 2-3-3 in their last eight contests, with
a red card by forward Brian Ching at the end of the game hurting its chances
on Sunday.
"We've been hurting ourselves. Almost everybody in here at some point has
received a red card," Houston midfielder Brad Davis said. "The game against
Chivas, we need Ching, but now we don't have him. We just need to calm down a
little bit and keep our heads in the game. I know we all want to stick up for
each other, but we need to know that that stuff is going to hurt us."
"It's not because it is Brian Ching," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said.
"It's because it is a player who plays, who is an important player. And if you
look at the guys who have been red-carded, they are all important players.
They are guys that play significant and important minutes for us. And, it's
not just about the six minutes that he missed. It's 90 [vs. Chivas USA]. We've
talked about it, but I can't put an earpiece in their ear and tell them to
just walk away from situations. Our guy just made a bad decision."
Chivas USA is coming off a 1-0 loss to Chicago at mid-week, and will be aiming
to rebound in its last regular season game of the season.
"We need to take care of business and we haven't," Chivas USA coach Preki
said. "We lost that chance, but hopefully we regain our form on Sunday and put
ourselves in a good spot to get home-field advantage, at least in the first
round."
Chivas USA will be without defender Jim Curtin, midfielder Kevin Harmse,
forward Ante Razov, and midfielders Bojan Stepanovic and Sasha Victorine,
while midfielders Chukwudi Chijindu and Jesse Marsch, and defender Claudio
Suarez are questionable, while midfielder Paulo Nagamura is probable, all with
injuries.
On top of missing Ching, the Dynamo will be without midfielder Corey Ashe and
defender Richard Mulrooney, while defender Danny Cruz, midfielder Ricardo
Clark and forward Cam Weaver are questionable.
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