Before Saturday’s match against the Portland Timbers, returning captain Brad Davis pulled his team aside and had one message: let’s win back-to-back.
It’s not a novel request. After all, teams will look to string wins together and the ones that do it the most will fare best in the regular season. Thanks to two goals from Will Bruin and another from Giles Barnes, Houston pulled off the double.
Why was it a point pregame for Davis? The club hadn’t pulled it off since beating Sporting Kansas City and the Montreal Impact back-to-back August 29th and September 6th of last season. Davis realized the stat when asked in an interview about it prompting him to seek it out from the team’s communication staff.
“I was asked a question and I was like ‘I honestly can’t remember the last time we won two in a row' and that’s not a good thing,” Davis said. “I pulled the team before the game and told them ‘We haven’t won two games in a row since August so whatever it is, we put this to rest and we go out and we’re mentally sharp right away … No more excuses, let’s get this out of the way.’”
“It’s kind of shocking that we haven’t won back-to-back games since August,” said Bruin, who hooked up with Davis to score his first goal in the ninth minute. “Obviously we know last year wasn’t the best year but I honestly didn’t know we hadn’t won two games in a row, and when I heard it I thought that was pretty ridiculous almost.”
Houston’s 2014 was forgettable in many ways and the late season struggle to string wins together was another step in a tough season. Prior to Saturday however, the club had two chances this season and followed up both with losses.
“For me I look at it as if you go that long, and it’s not as if we weren’t winning games, but without winning two games in a row it tells you maybe we take our foot off the gas after a win mentally. Maybe not approach the game the same way mentally,” Davis said. “You can see it throughout the year where we’d go up 2-1 or 3-1 and not being able to close games because mentally we’re switching off a little bit.”
While the message shocked Bruin it drove home that the Dynamo needed to come out charged up, especially at home. That has not been the case for the team this season.
There have been games, especially at home, where the club has come out slow and taken time to put pressure on their opponent. That lack of urgency can allow teams to stay in games and jump on Houston.
Whether it was the pregame reminder or simply a strong performance Houston came out swinging, scoring the opening goal nine minutes in. It was just the fourth of 12 games this season that the Dynamo scored first. They’re undefeated in those matches.
“Yeah, obviously happy and relaxed after a win but that’s not enough,” Bruin said. “We want to keep going and keep having that winning feeling. We can’t get content.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
