MLS Cup Fever!

Houston Dynamo is back in the MLS Cup Championship versus New England Revolution. This is an exact repeat of last year's matchup, but the road to DC was anything but pretty.

Houston was already down a goal in the aggregate scoring system playing host to FC Dallas on Friday November 2. When Dallas struck first scoring the first goal, the outlook was not good. Late game heroics by the Dynamo sent the game into overtime and two more goals scored in overtime sealed Dynamo's advancement to the Western Conference Championship. Now all we could was wait for the result of the Kansas City-Chivas USA game to see where the game would be played. KC dug in and held their 1-0 lead from the first leg. Houston would host the Wizards in the WCF.

The arrived in the office on Monday November 5 to sound of ringing phones. Those phones did not stop ringing all week long. To make things interesting, our phone system crashed because of the flood of incoming calls. The week was grueling with alot of extra hours in the office. Before we knew it, it was game-day.

I was working the will-call tent when some fans asked us if they could buy tickets here. I pointed them in the direction of the ticket window, but they said it was closed. That could mean only one thing: there were no more tickets to sell. We had officially sold-out Robertson Stadium.

I was confident that if Dynamo scored first we would win the game. Our team was firing on all cinders after the come from behind win over Dallas. But even after Nate Jaqua's gem of a header into the net from a corner, the Dynamo attack did not stop. They took no chances. They wanted to dominate KC. Houston scored again in the second half, but still continued to dominate every aspect of the game.

When the final whistle blew, I was relatively calm where as most of my coworkers were estatic, but as I said earlier I knew if we scored first we would win. With 30,972 people in attendance, it was fate to return to MLS Cup. As I stood on the field watching the sea of Orange around me go all out crazy for their team, I could do nothing but smile. I thought about where I was just a short time ago, unpacking from college in my parents basement. I had no job, no leads, nothing. How here I am getting ready to travel to our nation's capital for the MLS Cup championship game.