Houston and D.C. need to use home-field advantage

Coming home for the second leg of a two-game series with the score tied is among the trickier situations in soccer. At minimum, a goal is needed to progress, but it doesn't pay to be too aggressive, lest the home side get nailed on the break and waste the hard work of a road draw.

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Dominic Kinnear's depleted Dynamo squad will try to knock off CSD Municipal.

This is exactly the scenario facing Houston in the second leg of its CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal series against CSD Municipal. And the same is true for D.C. United ahead of the team's return engagement with Harbour View, courtesy of a late equalizer by the Jamaicans in the first leg. But despite the fine line both teams are walking, Dynamo manager Dominic Kinnear and his United counterpart, Tom Soehn, both stressed the importance of maintaining the same mind-set they had in last week's matches.

"I don't think we approach any game any different," Soehn said. "In fact, I think we were disappointed we didn't win the [last] game. Being at home is obviously going to be easier on us, but it doesn't guarantee you anything. You still have to go out and play your game."

Added Kinnear: "Even the approach [away] was 'Hey, we're going to play to win.' But there are always reminders that just because we're coming to win doesn't mean [Municipal] are going to move out of our way."

The two MLS entrants have other items in common beyond their similar mentalities. Both sides have key players injured, and each team will be looking to maintain possession better than it did in the first leg.

United will have to cope with the expected absence of forward Jaime Moreno, who injured his right hamstring just 15 minutes into last week's match and, according to Soehn, is "probably out" of the return leg. But this news is tempered by the fact that the Black-and-Red will be playing on the smoother surface of RFK Stadium rather than on the hard, bumpy field at Harbour View's Mini-Stadium.

"It was a hard field to play on," Soehn said of Harbour View's home ground. "I think our team was a bit conservative in not taking chances in the middle of the park and dumping [the ball] where normally we're more content to play it out of tight situations."

One player who tried to get United's short passing game on track was new midfielder Marcelo Gallardo. The Argentine World Cup veteran looked sharp in his first competitive match for United, and he came within inches of creating some breakaway opportunities. It's expected that with another week of training under their legs, Gallardo & Co. will find more of that elusive precision in the final third, especially as the tendencies of Gallardo begin to emerge and those of the man he replaced, Christian Gomez, fade in the memory.

"Gallardo drops a bit deeper ,and he's a better passer [than Gomez] in terms of the pass that leads to a goal," Soehn said. "He's pretty precise, and some of our guys aren't sure how to run off of that type of pass yet, so there's still a learning curve."

Gallardo isn't the only player Soehn is breaking in. United have two new center backs in Gonzalo Peralta and Gonzalo Martinez and a new goalkeeper in Zach Wells, and with Moreno likely sitting out, Franco Niell is expected to partner Luciano Emilio up top. Given the glut of new faces, the question of when these pieces will fit together tightly is one that has cast doubt on United's ability to better last year's semifinal showing in the CCC.

But although Soehn admitted that his team is still a work in progress, he feels United have attained a sufficient level of familiarity to find success in every competition they enter, regardless where it occurs on the calendar. And that means he expects a much-improved performance Tuesday.

"Even though we've put guys in a new environment, soccer is the same all over the world," Soehn said. "They should be able to adapt."

Although Houston's roster enjoyed more stability this offseason, Brad Davis' continued injury woes -- as well as the Olympic team commitments of Stuart Holden and Patrick Ianni -- leave Kinnear with the same selection limitations as in the first leg. Brian Mullan and Franco Caraccio are the only experienced substitutes available, but given the lack of match fitness of both, the amount of effective minutes they can provide will be limited.

It leaves the Dynamo heavily dependent on a starting 11 that last week struggled to cope with the pace of the Guatemalans. Part of this was due to the near mile-high altitude of Guatemala City, an element Kinnear admitted left his players "gasping after the game." But the Houston manager added that Municipal added a tactical wrinkle that also caused his team problems.

"The thing that really threw us … was they didn't play Mario Acevedo," said Kinnear, referring to Municipal's 39-year-old forward. "When they play him, they like to play a lot of balls into the box and push in. But with the Mario Rodriguez kid, they really played a lot of balls over the top."

Whether Municipal will revert to type remains to be seen. The smaller dimensions of Robertson Stadium should make it easier to negate Municipal's speed, and might better suit a box player such as Acevedo. But given the success enjoyed by Rodriguez, as well as flank players such as Carlos Figueroa, it seems likely that manager Jorge Benitez will stick with what worked in the first leg.

Despite these questions, it is Houston that is in control, although the fact that the Dynamo enter the home leg tied is something of a novel concept for them, given their propensity for dramatic comebacks. In the 2006 and 2007 MLS playoffs, Houston dropped the opening match of its conference semifinal series before prevailing at home, and it duplicated the feat in the quarterfinals of last year's CCC, defeating Costa Rican side Puntarenas 2-1 on aggregate after losing the first leg.

Such a herculean effort won't be needed this time. But a tolerance for navigating tricky situations will be.

Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPNsoccernet. He can be reached at eljefe1@yahoo.com