Friday night’s 1-0 loss to the Columbus Crew was costly for the Houston Dynamo. Captain Brian Ching re-injured his hamstring, adding him to a list of players that will sit out of the final preseason match against the New England Revolution on Sunday afternoon (2 p.m., Comcast Sports).
Ching aggravated the injury early in the match, prompting his exit at the 28-minute mark. That's a setback for the forward after the initial injury forced him out of the previous three matches. He’ll miss Sunday’s match as a precaution, and the club hopes to have its captain back for the March 19 regular-season opener.
Along with Ching’s injury, second-year midfielder Francisco Navas Cobo also picked up a hamstring injury Friday. The pair joins Josue Soto (ankle) and Bobby Boswell (illness) as players likely to miss Sunday’s match.
“We were hoping to get Brian and Bobby some minutes this weekend, but these things happen, and we’ll adjust and get through it,” head coach Dominic Kinnear told MLSsoccer.com.
Kinnear & co. got some good news on the injury front with Corey Ashe participating in Saturday morning’s training. The midfielder, nursing a quad injury, missed Friday’s match but looks to be recovered and is expected to play against New England.
“Tomorrow we’ll look to extend some guys like Brad [Davis], Geoff [Cameron], and Lovel [Palmer] to get ready for next week,” Kinnear said.
MORE: Photos from Saturday's training session
The results of the loss were not all bad. While first-round selections Kofi Sarkodie and Will Bruin get much of the press, Kinnear pointed out home-grown signing Alex Dixon’s performance against Columbus as a positive in Friday night’s match.
“Alex had a very good second half last night,” Kinnear said. “The kid has a lot of offer. He can play a number of positions, has good ability, and is only going to get better as he learns to become a day-to-day soccer player.”
The Dynamo wrap up their preseason Sunday against the Revs in Atlanta and will return to Houston to start preparing for MLS First Kick next Saturday against the Philadelphia Union.
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com. You can follow him on twitter at @Dynamoexaminer
