Houston Dynamo preseason: bringing back that loving feeling

PHOENIX, Ariz – I always enjoy working with the Houston Dynamo. You never get “big-timed” when you deal with the Dynamo – something that is happening more around MLS as an unbecoming touch of self-importance creeps in.

Manager Dominic Kinnear never acts like he’s keeping state secrets. It’s just soccer. Same for the players. What’s that you say? You want to talk to Geoff Cameron or Brad Davis or Bobby Boswell? Well, there he is over there. Go talk to him!

I always thought that approach helped the Dynamo cause. The team reflected its coach, an unapologetic soccer geek. Kinnear will tell you he’s boring. He coaches soccer. He spends time with his family. That’s it!  So the team was the same, just a bunch of dudes who love soccer. They were there to enjoy the sport and win games.  There weren’t there, on the other hand, to preen and feel important about it all – because preening and feeling important about it all does absolutely nothing to help you win games. See the connection?

Yes, they play very hard. And, yes, games with the Dynamo tend to get rough. As I said, they do like winning. And I always thought that tight locker room accord, that single-minded approach of brotherhood and humility helped keep everybody grounded and focused intently on the Ws and Ls.

So I wasn’t exactly surprised on Tuesday when Cameron told me he thought the team lost just a little bit of that tight locker room accord last year. Not a lot. But the boys weren't enjoying things as much.

The esprit de corps dipped just a little bit. And in a salary-capped league of abundant parity, that’s not a good thing. Every little edge matters.

This year’s preseason is about getting that back – every last little bit of it. It’s about shoehorning all the good feelings back into the locker room. “Everything is related to being together, to bringing things together, to getting that team cohesion back,” Cameron said. “Because I think we missed a little bit of that team unity last year. Because we just weren’t having a good year, everyone was on our case. So it’s not a happy locker room. Getting back on field, everyone being happy,  being around one another, doing a lot of things together like relay races for fitness and that kind of stuff, it brings teams together.”

Kinnear agreed to a point. Mostly, it’s about winning, he said. When you have trouble stringing wins together, it’s hard to be completely content. And when you’re not happy, it’s hard to win. It’s a damn tough cycle to spin away from – which is why teams never want to get stuck there.  

“We never put together that run of wins,” Kinnear said of the wayward 2010 campaign. “We never got those back-to-back wins where you could go enjoy your week, or back-to-back weeks. We never got that period where we could relax a little. So we were always putting ourselves under pressure, and it does affect you mentally."