Kinnear stresses focus against Galaxy

Coach Dominic Kinnear was pleased with his squad's preparation for the MLS Western Conference championship after the Dynamo held a closed practice Thursday afternoon across the street from the main stadium at Home Depot Center.

"The mood is good," Kinnear said. "I think we're confident. Obviously we'll be very focused and concentrated when we head over to the bus tomorrow."

The Dynamo will face the L.A. Galaxy tonight at Home Depot Center.

"We talked about penalties," Kinnear said. "We talked about team shape. Obviously we talked about L.A. and certain situations, what makes them dangerous. But mostly it's concentrating on ourselves and making sure we're focused as we head into the game."

Spot checks

With tonight's game a winner-take-all match for the right to play for the MLS Cup, the Dynamo allocated time in Thursday's practice to work on penalty kicks in case a shootout is needed to decide the outcome.

"I feel fine," said forward Brian Ching, who hit the decisive penalty kick that gave the Dynamo the 2006 MLS title in a shootout over the New England Revolution. "I feel confident in my abilities to step up in a game and take a penalty kick. I missed a couple in the past, but I let those things go pretty easily."

Ching says he and his teammates were relaxed during the penalty practice.

"The guy who steps up is pretty serious," he said. "Everybody else is pretty relaxed and calm. We've been in this situation a number of times; Pachuca at home and New England in the finals of the SuperLiga and New England in '06 as well for the MLS Cup. We've had a lot of guys that stepped up before and took them before and we're pretty confident."

Chemistry lesson

In understanding how the Galaxy went from being a basement dweller to a title contender, it is important to acknowledge the work by coach/GM Bruce Arena, who overhauled the team during the offseason and complemented its dangerous offense with a stingy defense.

But perhaps just as important has been the quality of contributions by Landon Donovan (12 goals, six assists), the best player in MLS, and David Beckham (two goals, three assists), the most popular, and their improved tolerance for each other on and off the field.

"Our chemistry on the field has always been good; I think we see the game the same way," Donovan said. "I think what has changed this year is we've both become more accepting of the other and we're learning to respect each other more and I think the guys now also take David as he is.

"And he's been fantastic around all of us. He's been a leader in the locker room and instrumental in deciding games for us, scoring some goals."

That is hardly the Beckham Donovan described in The Beckham Experiment, a book by Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl that came out in July, just as Beckham was rejoining the Galaxy after a five-month stint with AC Milan.

In the book, Donovan questioned Beckham's commitment to the team and leadership skills. His comments led to an impasse with the English icon that required the intervention of Arena.

Donovan came to regret the forum he chose, but he never took back what he said. But the experience, he said, helped them and the team.

"It opened the lines of communication, which were lacking," Donovan said. "And communicating is important in any environment, but for what we do it's important to communicate and I think that's helped us a lot."

Beckham praised Donovan during a stop in Houston.

"When you play with good players, you enjoy yourself a little more," Beckham said. "We've got good players and good unity in the team, and Landon, obviously you give him the ball in a certain place and he'll go and score goals; that's what he does."

Gonzalez honored

It's been raining awards for the Galaxy this week. Days after Bruce Arena was named MLS Coach of the Year, defender Omar Gonzalez was honored as Rookie of the Year by the league on Thursday.

Mix and match

With Mike Chabala suspended for today's winner-take-all match against the Los Angeles Galaxy, coach Dominic Kinnear has a decision to make at left back.

The leading candidate for the post is veteran Wade Barrett, who was forced out of the starting lineup by injury early in the season only to watch Andrew Hainault and later Chabala stake a claim to the spot.

"The obvious (move) is for Wade to slide in there," Kinnear said. "There are other options we've thrown around, so we'll see.

"We're going to look at L.A. videotape one more time, see what's happening and then make a decision from there."

One option could be to have Hainault, currently a right back, move back to the left side, with Geoff Cameron sliding to the right and Eddie Robinson or Ryan Cochrane replacing Cameron at center back.

jesus.ortiz@chron.com

bernardo.fallas@chron.com

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