It's not even 3 p.m. and the orange jerseys and T-shirts are already trickling into The Original Ninfa's On Navigation. A few late lunch customers give double takes.

This is how it is for the Houston Dynamo. You either know or you're the unknowing. You either completely understand the pull or you're completely oblivious.

This Major League Soccer team's almost quietly taken over a nice chunk of the fourth-largest city in the United States. The Dynamo don't get the headlines in town, but they draw the people.

Gameday after gameday after gameday.

Thierry Henry, the Red Bulls' $5.6 million man, is turned into a puddle of invisibility by the heat and the relentless Dynamo hunger.

They pour into BBVA Compass Stadium, more than 20,000 strong. They fill the roads and restaurants of EaDo beforehand, creating a street scene hours before every match.

Any idea that this is a BBVA Compass fluke, that it's simply a new stadium thing has long been proven false. If anything, the fans are getting even louder, turning out even stronger, as the season goes on. Even when it's 107 degrees out.

That's what it feels like when the fans start coming into Ninfa's. And it's not much cooler when Orange Avenue — the small street section that's renamed for every Dynamo match and cordoned off from traffic to create a mini street festival — starts to buzz.

It's a big game Friday night in the city. Even if that would catch more than half of Houston by surprise.

The Dynamo dominate this half-hidden showdown for first place in the Eastern Conference, beat the glitzy, big money squad from New York 2-0 in a match that's not nearly that close. Houston moves to 8-0-3 at its new home, 9-0-3 overall when the temperature is above 80 degrees.

They're literally the hottest team in soccer.

Just ask international superstar Thierry Henry, the Red Bulls' $5.6 million man turned into a puddle of invisibility by the heat and the relentless Dynamo hunger.

Henry is barely noticeable on the field, moving about as fast as one of the Houston Texans' offensive lineman in the hanging humidity. And when it's over, the highest-paid player in the MLS needs nearly an hour in the trainer's room before he finally emerges to take questions from reporters. That session lasts less than five minutes before Henry abruptly cuts it off.

This is one Frenchman who will not be asking Tony Parker about Texas real estate.

"It's an honor to playing against (Henry)," Dynamo forward Macoumba Kandji says, playing the good host after having outplayed the man who makes more than 40 times his own $135,000 salary for 2012. "That was my idol growing up. To have a good performance against him is very important for me."

It's very important to the 22,000 in the stands who scream and clap for Kandji when he is subbed for with the win no longer in doubt. Yet, there's hardly a local TV sports anchor in the house. And there's the NBC Sports Network calling Houston "small market" in its pregame.

What's next? Someone dubs Houston a suburb of Dallas?

I t's not like this is a WNBA team, with a large chunk of its seats curtained off to try and give the illusion of a lively crowd, begging for coverage. These Dynamo sellouts are legit — and loud.

Of course, the Dynamo have doubters in their own city without worrying about outdated national TV announcers. It's like a sizeable part of the city is throwing a giant party right amid the oblivious.

"Where else am I going to have this much fun on a Friday night?" 24-year-old Dynamo fan Jen Reynolds asks amid the banging, the drumming, the flag waving and — now for the first time — the cannon firing of BBVA Compass Stadium. "I tell my boyfriend to stay home if he's not going to get into it as much as I do."

Try to tell that to the old woman walking her dog a block from the stadium who asks me in all earnestness, "What's going on over there?" less than an hour before the national anthem.

The first-place showdown with a New York team does not exactly pack the Dynamo's 40-seat press box either.

It's not like this is a WNBA team, with a large chunk of its seats curtained off to try and give the illusion of a lively crowd, begging for coverage. These Dynamo sellouts are legit — and loud.

Someone cares. At least 22,000 of someones.

These Dynamo are good too. They suddenly look much quicker than the team that made that surprise run to the MLS Cup Final last season. And if now first-place Houston holds onto that spot and home-field advantage, you can forget about anyone else representing their conference in the big match.

"They're a very good team," Tim Cahill, the Red Bulls' latest new fancy designated player, says. "It's not just the heat. Give them their due."

Standing Tall

There's the 6-foot-4 Kandji towering over the talented Red Bulls the whole night. Kandji's first shot starts the wild sequence that has Jermaine Taylor scoring just 74 seconds in. His cross finds a leaping Calen Carr's well-directed head for the second goal.

Kandji keeps breaking in on his former team, driving Red Bull goalie Bill Gaudette mad. He may be no one's star, but Kandji will not let New York forget him.

They're the true believers and they're hardly a small horde. It's too bad that more TV stations and traditional media do not realize what's going on.

The player from Senegal wears his socks long (even by soccer's shin guard necessities) and pulled up higher than the most ridiculous-looking YMCA basketball player, up past his knees. But on this night, he stands much taller than Henry.

When his night ends and he walks off the field, he raises his arms and claps right back at the fans, transferring the love to the 22,000 strong.

"I just wanted to show my appreciation," Kandji says. "The fans keep me running all game long by giving me energy. When I first came here, I didn't know what to expect.

"But now, I just love playing in front of these guys."

They're the true believers and they're hardly a small horde. It's too bad that more TV stations and traditional media do not realize what's going on. It's too bad that the creaky old paper in town sends a half dozen reporters to every Texans' training camp practice and only one to a first-place showdown in front of 22,000.

Imagine if the Houston Astros were playing for first place some future August (yes, you'll have to suspend disbelief). It'd be all you hear about in the city.

The Dynamo don't have to beg though. You either get it or you don't.

More than enough people get it now. Every Dynamo game is a party. The fans pour in, right past the oblivious to the half-hidden hothouse of soccer.

Niche sport? Please. The Dynamo are taking things in chunks now.

"They're tough," Henry says.

Just like their crowd. Just like their half-aware city.