Houston looks for first win vs. first place Rapids

Soccer Betting Lines

05/09/2008 - Houston, TX (Soccer Betting) - The back-to-back defending Major League Soccer Cup champion Houston Dynamo will be gunning for their first win of the 2008 season on Saturday night when they host the Colorado Rapids.

The struggling Dynamo are currently tied with the expansion San Jose Earthquakes for last place in the entire league, with just four points after six contests while Colorado is tied atop the Western table with nine points.

"As far as four points out of six games, four ties, and you know if you look at it, you play those games a little different," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "You may come out with more points, so just the bounces going our way, the goalkeeper making some good saves, good defending, some calls that the referees that some put in their pocket that benefit you, and we're just not getting the right bounce. But the effort and the attitude of the guys are spot on and it's never in question. And that message is always passed on from the coaching staff."

The Dynamo are coming off a scoreless draw with Chivas USA in their last league fixture, and while the team's early season defensive woes seem to have been corrected, their offense is second-to-last in the league.

"Frustrating night, a lot of chances, need a goal to break us out of our slump; obviously, they came here for a reason, tie the game, get a point," Kinnear said after the draw with Chivas USA.

"We're getting a half inch away from scoring, but we are a strong team mentally and physically," Houston midfielder Corey Ashe said.

The Rapids, on the other hand, are coming off a win over D.C. United in which former D.C. midfielder Christian Gomez controlled the flow of the game from his central role on the Rapids' squad while pitching in two assists in a 2-0 win.

"We brought (Christian Gomez) here with the expectations that he would be the player that we saw out there today," Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo said after the win. "When he plays with two strikers he can move around the field. He will start the play and that is what he were looking for."

The Rapids switched to a two forward formation after using a lone forward with Gomez as an underneath forward for the first five games of the season. The strategy seemed to work as the win snapped a two game losing streak and generated more offense for the Rocky Mountain club. Omar Cummings and Tom McManus manned the forward positions with Gomez filling a more familiar attacking midfield role.

"If you look at today, everybody works hard," Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul said after the win. "If you play 4-5-1, the striker cannot do everything. He cannot run, run, run. The next thing you know, he's going to stop working. But when you got two guys, one runs, one rests, and we have the midfield, like (Gomez), free to do passes and all those things. So this is a challenge for us."

"Two forwards are much more dangerous than one forward," Rapids forward Herculez Gomez said. "It maximizes Christian's strengths. He'll be the first one to tell you he doesn't feel comfortable playing up front. With two forwards there was more movement. It made things easier on everybody, defenders and midfielders, created more space, more opportunities. Especially in our pitch, it got us pressuring in the right places."

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.