Heat headed to Houston to take on the MLS Dynamo

Via Laredo Heat press release:

The Laredo Heat will be concluding its preparation for the 2009 Premier Development League season with a visit to the Bayou City.

The Houston Dynamo organization will be providing the Heat with its toughest challenge of the preseason by giving the Heat a game on Saturday.

Kick-off is slated for 10 a.m. at Robertson Stadium, located on the campus of the University of Houston.

Since the game will be treated as a scrimmage for both teams, admission to the stadium will be free of charge.

The match, taking place just a week before the Heat’s regular season opener versus the expansion Rio Grande Valley Bravos, should give the players a great opportunity to play in a Major League Soccer stadium and should give them a great incentive to play well.

Additionally, for the younger players that have never had the opportunity to play against some of the best players in the United States, the game should give them a real test of how hard they need to train in order to reach the highest level of soccer in our country.

“This is very unique opportunity for our club,” Heat owner and president Shashi Vaswani said. “An opportunity that I hope will give our players and coaching staff an idea of what we are trying to strive for here in Laredo.

“We were able to form a working relationship with the Dynamo when we were both dealing with Felix Garcia’s transfer and future allocation to their organization. Since then, we have had open lines of communications with several key members of the Dynamo administration.

“I am just happy that the Dynamo accepted our request to play in Houston on one of their free weekends and that the game was a good fit for us. I think the players are really looking forward to the challenge and are looking forward to seeing how they stack up against one of the successful soccer organization in the United States.”

The Houston Dynamo is a two time Major League Soccer Champion, winning consecutive MLS Cup Championships in 2006 and 2007.

The Dynamo play in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer are currently in sixth place behind Chivas USA, the Seattle Sounders, the Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake and the San Jose Earthquakes.

The Dynamo has only played five games this season and is under the direction of Coach Dominic Kinnear.