Houston Dynamo players celebrate their win and advance into the finals; Photos Thomas Shea

By Andrew J. Ferraro / MLSnet.com Staff

HOUSTON – Brad Davis didn’t look so good just minutes after the Houston Dynamo wrapped up an important 2-0 win against the Columbus Crew last Saturday.

Even though the talented midfielder scored the game-winning goal and had a solid game from start to finish, he looked like a man in search for the color and fluids that surely left his body during the match.

The temperature on the field at game time was at or above 100 degrees and that is no fun for a sport centered on running in all directions for the better part of two hours.

But despite the heat, humidity and the exhaustion that comes with playing in it, Davis and his teammates were ready to move on. The team won’t play another league game until August 16, but before that the team will have to contend with the New England Revolution –- again.

For the third time in less than three years, the Dynamo and Revs will meet in yet another championship match. This time the prize is the SuperLiga 2008 title.

Houston beat New England in the previous two MLS Cup Finals, but the Revs, who have never lost to the Orange during the regular season, are perfect in the SuperLiga tournament and have been the best overall team in North America since the beginning of the MLS regular season.

They have outscored the Dynamo 5-0 in the regular season this year and have methodically dismantled the two-time defending champions at Gillette Stadium and at Robertson Stadium in Houston.

Tuesday, they will play for the SuperLiga title at home and the Dynamo will probably have to play their best soccer of the summer if they want to take a third championship from the Revs.

“Every time we meet, it seems, it is a big game,” Davis said. “Obviously, we have played each other for the last two MLS Cups, and we came away with those. Because of that, we know it is going to be an emotional game for them in New England.

“It’s at their place, they are going to want to beat us and every time we play them from now on they are going to want to beat us ... and they have already done that twice this year. It’s going to be a tough game, a hard fought game, but we are going to go there with the mentality to get three points.”

Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear didn't want to begin talking about the SuperLiga until after the league win against Columbus. But he and his team are excited about SuperLiga being an all-MLS final, even though they will have to win in Foxborough, Mass. to complete the mission of winning the second-year tournament.

“I think we know the enormity of it and I think the route that we took to get there was difficult and it is something to be proud of,” said Kinnear. “But sometimes getting the actual prize is more difficult and New England has not lost a game in this tournament. They have probably been the most consistent team so that makes it a very difficult game.”

With 10 wins during the regular season, the Revs seem miles ahead of the competition. And Houston was even farther behind, until a recent stretch of five wins in six matches has the team looking more and more like the one that beat the Revs in MLS Cup 2008 at RFK Stadium last November.

The Dynamo recently added forwards Nate Jaqua and Kei Kamara, and are still winning even without regulars Richard Mulrooney (knee) and Eddie Robinson (hamstring).

“We have been going pretty well lately and I think that first half in the first game against Atlante (4-0 win on July 15) was a pretty good springboard for this team,” Kinnear said. “That led to a big win and anytime you win, the locker room if a fun place to be and guys look forward to coming to practice and being around each other.”

Brian Ching, the hero in the 2006 MLS Cup Final at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, was forced to sit out last year’s championship due to injury. He knows this will be a chance for he and his ‘mates to end all the talk of the Revs’ recent domination of the men in Orange.

“We know they are a tremendous franchise right now,” said Ching. “If you look at their team over the last four or five years, and our franchise during that same time frame, you are looking at the best two teams in this league. You have to give credit to both Dom and Steve Nicol. We know we have our work cut out for us.”