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Sports

Fans crucial to soccer's success

by LOURDES CASTILLO
The Daily Cougar

In the world of sports, both the players and the coaches know how important fan support is in order to attain a winning season. Fans, especially soccer fans, are often what bring energy to the players. When it's the 80th minute, the last moments of a game, and the players need a string of energy to keep them going, fan support is most important.

However, every soccer player also knows that his relationship with the fans consists of both putting in effort. Teams need to give 110 percent on the field every time in order to make things happen and gain more support from fans. When teams begin losing, fan support declines. 

For this and many more reasons, the Houston Dynamo set foot on Robertson Stadium on Saturday knowing exactly what they needed to do. In order to gain back the more than 25,000 fans that watched them win on opening day, and the more than 5,000 it lost after the 1-2 loss against Kansas City, the Dynamo was able to capitalize and take a 2-1 win against Real Salt Lake in front of 17,000 fans.

"It's always a good feeling with the fans being loud and supporting you and you need that every game, that's like your 13th man on the field," midfielder Dwayne DeRosario said.

The Dynamo took control of the game since the first minute and never looked back. Not only did they dominate offensively, taking seven shots on goal compared to RSL's three, but they also maintained a winning mentality until the last second.

The first highlight of the game was when defender Craig Waibel tied the score 1-1 on an assist by midfielder Brad Davis only a minute after RSL's Jeff Cunningham took the lead thanks to a Dynamo passing error.

"For our guys to come back a minute after we've been scored on, especially not having the best of weeks last week, it shows their character," head coach Dominique Kinnear said.

"That's a sign of a good team, to be able to bounce back like that," Davis said. "We had been pressuring them all game, we had a bunch of chances to score and we knew what was coming, it was just a matter of time."

Dynamo star DeRosario, who missed the game against D.C. United because of a suspension, made his presence felt as he scored the winning goal in the 84th minute on a one-one battle with RLS' goalkeeper Scott Garlick.

"All night long I told him (to) join the attack late because guys have a hard time staying with (him) and there was a proven example of it tonight," Kinnear said.

"(Soccer) is not just something that you show up and do for fun. This is something that you do passionately and there are a thousand people riding on you," DeRosario said. "So when you disappoint, you disappoint a lot of people, so you have to go out there and make it up any way you can."

The Dynamo will travel to Colorado on Saturday in hopes of gaining its second victory against the Rapids.

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