HOUSTON - Just like Houston has picked itself up after Hurricane Harvey's destruction, Houston Dynamo head coach Wilmer Cabrera wants his side to do the same after the Orange dropped points at home for the first time this season.
"We are very disappointed with the result but now we have to move on. We can't be crying. We have to move on," Cabrera said. "We have to get up and move on. And clean everything and try to clean the things we didn't do well. We didn't play well as we wanted and we didn't play as sharp as we wanted to."
That the loss came against the last-place Colorado Rapids means nothing to Cabrera, who noted that every MLS team is "strong and difficult" to play against.
One thing is certain, Cabrera does not want to make excuses for his team's play. He doesn't want to hear how some of his players were traveling, or how the Hurricane and the time off could have had anything to do with his team's performance.
To put it simply, Cabrera says his team just didn't play well. And it couldn't have come at a worse time. The club desperately wanted the victory to raise the city's spirits and keep their unbeaten home streak intact but the Rapids played the role of spoiler.
Dynamo midfielder Juan David Cabezas said the game's results bring sadness to the players considering everything that transpired in Houston over the past two weeks.
The Dynamo may not have given their fans a win on Saturday but the club does get an assist as it relates to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
"We were in the office last Friday for the first time after the storm and we came back to a situation where it wasn't business as usual," Dynamo President Chris Canetti said. "We needed to figure out what's the best way to move forward as an organization."
The solution the club came up with was to call every season ticket holder personally to check on them and see if they were okay and if they were in need of supplies.
It was all hands on deck as Canetti, Dynamo Vice President Matt Jordan, and other front office members got on the phones and started calling season ticket holders.
Some of the ones called took to Twitter to thank the club for the gesture.
"I actually encountered a fan whose house was a total loss. I met him today at the game for the first time and I brought him behind the scenes to meet the players," Canetti said.
"And the smile on his and his family's face was spectacular. His house is severely damaged but he's here at the Dynamo game for a couple of hours. And even though we lost it brought some normalcy to his life."
The Dynamo have seven games remaining in the season, and while losing at home has been far from the norm this season for the Orange, just getting to play the game for its fans was a victory on its own.
