Houston continues busy stretch against Timbers

Houston, TX – The Houston Dynamo faces a quick turnaround as the club welcomes the Portland Timbers to town for the second game to be played at BBVA Compass Stadium.

Houston opened its new ground on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over D.C. United as veteran Brad Davis tallied the lone goal of the contest and the first goal to be scored at the new stadium.

"I always say I don't care who scores as long as they happen, but it was awesome that Brad did it, being one of the originals," said Houston defender Bobby Boswell. "I think deep down everyone wanted either Brad or [Brian Ching] to score. The fact that Brad scored and Chingy almost got on the board was awesome."

The result snapped a five-game winless streak for the Dynamo, but the club will be playing its third game in less than a week on Tuesday, forcing head coach Dominic Kinnear to switch up his lineup.

"We are going to change things up. It would be a crime to ask these guys to play 90 minutes again," Kinnear said. "Unfortunately, you don't get the chance to rest with a schedule like this."

The Portland Timbers have no such worries about rest, since Portland will be playing its first match in 10 days.

But what will be a concern for the Timbers and head coach John Spencer is the trouble the team has had in finding the back of the net.

Spencer's side has lost five of its last seven games and is coming off of a 0-0 draw at home against the Columbus Crew.

It was the second straight match that saw Portland fail to score a goal, while its 1-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City the week before came on an own goal.

That means that the last time a Portland player scored was April 14 in a 3-1 defeat against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"All we can do is create opportunities," Spencer said. "And when you get them, score goals. It's pretty simple. It's not an Excel spreadsheet you're looking at, it's the game of soccer."

Spencer makes it sound simple, but in order for Portland's attack to get back on track, the duo of Kris Boyd and Darlington Nagbe will be the key.

Boyd and Nagbe are the only players on the team with more than one goal this season, and after Nagbe was dropped into midfield for a few starts, he returned to partner Boyd up top against Columbus.

The scoreboard may not have indicated a big improvement, but Portland created more chances and Nagbe is confident that things will improve.

"I feel like last game we did well up there," Nagbe said. "We created a lot of chances, now we just have to put them away. I don't think it's been a struggle. We've been changing the lineups, and the last game, I think, we had a more successful game attacking-wise and creating chances."