HOUSTON – After a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of heated in-state rival FC Dallas in the Texas Derby, the Houston Dynamo look to bounce back against another rival — Sporting Kansas City — Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park.

Both teams are still mathematically in contention for a playoff spot, with Sporting KC sitting in 9th place and 34 points and Houston one place below them with 31 points.

“All of these games are big now. Especially against these teams we are competing with and are next to us in the table. We understand that, we know what it meant against Dallas and now Kansas City,” Dynamo interim head coach Davy Arnaud said.

“There is no getting around that. They are close to us in the table and there are not a lot of close games in the table. So it is a big game.”

But while SKC enters the game after back-to-back wins, Houston enters the match a wounded animal. Houston’s last win came July 20, when Wilmer Cabrera was still the head coach.

“The team is in a really bad situation and we are doing everything we can to change the situation,” Dynamo midfielder Darwin Ceren said.

“Now, we have a big opponent. I know that against [Sporting Kansas City] – they don’t like us. It’s the same for us, it is a beautiful game. We will go to KC and try to win – and change where we have gone wrong as a team.”

Costly mistakes concede goals

Part of where the Dynamo has gone wrong as a team is conceding goals due to mistakes, whether it is due to a lack of communication or losing a marker.

Houston hasn’t had a shutout since a July 3rd win and has conceded 25 goals since that game. This stretch of matches includes five games where it gave up 3 or more goals.

The latest of which was the five goals conceded against FC Dallas, which Boniek Garcia — one of the longest-tenured players on the Dynamo — said stemmed from a trend of mistakes that followed Houston from their previous few games.

Ceren added that Saturday’s match against SKC is a chance for the Dynamo to correct these mistakes.

Arnaud contends that mistakes are part of the game and instead wants to look at the moments before the mistake happens. And in that way, address the problem.

“Of course, we want to limit the mistakes as much as you can. You want to limit the spaces, it’s part of the game. The team that makes the least mistakes generally wins,” Arnaud said.

“For me, the biggest thing isn’t looking at a specific moment. What can the people around do to help in that moment.”

A similar foe

For Arnaud, returning to Kansas City is a return to the place where he played nine seasons. Although, when Arnaud played in Kansas City, the team was still known as the Kansas City Wizards.

Has Arnaud thought about what it means to return to Kansas City, this time as a coach? He has, but just a little bit.

“For me personally, anytime I return to Kansas City, I love the city. It is a club that I obviously have a lot of feelings for and feel very close to,” Arnaud said.

“When you play against them [SKC] you want to win more, and that’s normal, but it doesn’t matter who it is this weekend. We have our goals this weekend and how we want to go about them.”

Arnaud played one season under current SKC head coach Peter Vermes and knows very well how they like to play at home. He knows that Kansas City likes to drive the game, press the opposition, and pin them in their own end.

Knowing Sporting’s style of play and stopping them are two different things, but Arnaud acknowledged that knowing how Sporting likes to play at home is an advantage Houston can take care of.

Arnaud noted that it would be a nice gesture if his first win comes against the team where he played the bulk of his 13-year career. He knows how important a win could be for the club, the staff, the fans, but more than that, Arnaud wants the three points for his players.

“They are doing everything I have asked them to do, they are doing everything we have asked them to do. They are out here every day and it is not easy, right? It is not easy. They are putting the work in,” Arnaud said.

“For me, I want to win for those guys.”