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Houston hits road to tangle with Galaxy

Mar 20, 2015 - 8:46 PM Carson, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - The Houston Dynamo will face their first road test of the 2015 MLS season on Saturday when the club visits the StubHub Center to tangle with defending champions Los Angeles Galaxy.

Houston head coach Owen Coyle won his opening match in MLS with a 1-0 triumph over Columbus Crew SC, but his team stumbled to a 1-0 defeat against Orlando City last weekend thanks to an own goal from goalkeeper Tyler Deric in the second half.

It hasn't been an ideal start for Coyle's men, but the coach doesn't believe there is any reason to change his team's approach to Saturday's showdown.

"We still have the same belief, the same principles, that home and away we want to win games. There's certain ways and sometimes there will be differentials in how you achieve that, but in essence it's still the same, still the same focus, the same attitude, same desire from the players to go and be positive and show what we can do while being very respectful of the quality we face week-in, week-out," Coyle said.

By moving to the Western Conference this season Houston will be competing with Bruce Arena's team for a place in MLS Cup after meeting Los Angeles in the showpiece event three times.

And while Saturday's match will present a formidable test for the Dynamo, forward Giles Barnes feels this game is coming at a good time.

"This is the kind of pick-me-up that you want, you want to go to supposedly one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the league in peoples' opinions and you want to play well and get a result," Barnes said.

Houston has won the last four league meetings between the sides, but the Dynamo will be facing a Galaxy outfit with four points from their opening two games, including a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Portland last weekend.

After opening the campaign with a 2-0 victory over Chicago, Arena's men hit the road against the Timbers and got a goal in the 65th minute from Gyasi Zardes to cancel out Fanendo Adi's first-half tally.

Adi appeared to win the game for the Timbers with a goal in stoppage time, but Alan Gordon rescued a point with a header just before the final whistle.

The Galaxy had the majority of the chances in the contest, and Zardes felt as though his side did more than enough to take three points.

"I think to be honest we played an excellent game," said Zardes. "The first 20 minutes was so-so but after that I felt like we killed it. We kept possession, we had multiple opportunities but just couldn't put the ball away."

There may have been some frustration among Galaxy players at not finishing some of those chances, but forward Robbie Keane is still pleased with his club's offensive output so far.

"Four goals in two games is pretty good. People get greedy some times," Keane said. "You're not going to score loads of goals every game because that's why teams have defenders and goalkeepers to make it difficult."