Two familiar faces will be back in the mix when the Houston Dynamo face the LA Galaxy on Saturday (7:30 p.m. CT, TICKETS).
Forward Will Bruin and defender Jermaine Taylor will be available after minor injuries hampered them for the past two weeks.
Pillars of the club for the past two seasons, a groin injury kept Taylor out for two games and swelling in his knee kept Bruin out for one. And with other absences due to national team duty and suspension, getting the experienced pair back will give the Dynamo a timely boost.
“They’ve trained all week, they feel good and it’s good to have them back,” head coach Dominic Kinnear said Friday. “They’re two very important players for our squad, so to have them train this week without any problems is a great thing for us.”
Kinnear did not expand on what their roles would be come Saturday night, but having Bruin back in any role will be a boon. He scored in three consecutive games prior to sitting out last week’s match against Real Salt Lake. Bruin said he wanted to play against RSL, but the swelling in his knee was something he could not ignore.
“I never really swell, and it swelled up,” Bruin said. “It swelled up in the Columbus [Crew] game [May 7], so it was just precautionary to make sure there was no damage from [a knee injury] the first year.”
That injury cost him six games.
“You’ve got to be smart, and you can’t just force yourself to keep grinding because something will happen to keep you out longer,” Bruin said. “When you’re playing well, you don’t want to have time off. It’s definitely frustrating, but I just look at it as if we had an off weekend from my standpoint.”
Losing Bruin and his current form was not good for Houston but his replacement, rookie Mark Sherrod, managed to come in and both of Houston’s goals in their 5-2 loss to RSL.
“He’s a hard worker and an honest player. He holds the ball well and gets in the box,” Bruin said of Sherrod. “He’s a pretty good finisher when he had his chance too.”
Like Bruin, Taylor was replaced by a rookie, AJ Cochran. After a full week of training, Kinnear said Taylor, like Bruin, was ready to go if called upon.
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
