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Toronto faces Houston, still searching for first road win

Jul 8, 2011 - 6:28 PM Houston, TX (Sports Network) - Toronto FC will attempt to rebound from Wednesday night's horrific 5-0 loss to Red Bull New York as it travels to Robertson Stadium to face the Houston Dynamo on Saturday.

Toronto will want to put a stop to its road woes, as the club is still searching for its first road win in what will be its 10th Major League Soccer match away from BMO Field this season.

After a few great displays from Toronto defenders Richard Eckersley and Ty Harden against the Vancouver Whitecaps, the center back pairing was given the runaround by a potent New York forward line. Eckersley recognized that Toronto faced one of the premier attacking forces in the league Wednesday night, and stressed that the team will need to defend better as a unit in the future.

"I think it wasn't just defensively, or just the back four. When we're defending, we need to do it as a team," said Eckersley. "If one player runs off their man, they're going to pick us off. They've got good players, and obviously we paid the price [Wednesday]."

It has been almost a month since Houston last recorded a victory in MLS; it defeated Chivas USA 2-1 on June 11th at Robertson Stadium for its only win in its last 11 matches. In their last three contests, the Dynamo have gone 0-1-2, earning two road draws while losing a disappointing home match 2-1 at the hands of the Columbus Crew.

But Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear is gaining confidence in a particular center back pairing for his team despite the duo's few appearances together.

Jermaine Taylor and Andre Hainault debuted together in defense on May 28th against FC Dallas and have shown that they can be quite effective. Both players participated in the Gold Cup, Taylor representing Jamaica and Hainault representing Canada.

The two center backs started in Houston's scoreless draw with the Colorado Rapids on Sunday, showing how productive they can be when paired together.

"They're both internationals and are coming off a good Gold Cup where they showed they're both strong and physical," Kinnear told MLSSoccer.com. "I think they do need to talk more, but I think Jermaine showed some good pace, and Andre's very confident on the ball and plays 100 miles an hour the whole time, which is good."

Toronto and Houston met earlier this season on May 7th at BMO Field. A well organized Toronto side defeated Houston 2-1 behind a Joao Plata penalty and a Maicon Santos strike which turned out to be the game-winning goal. Lovel Palmer pulled back a consolation goal for the Dynamo in the 87th minute.