After a bad run of form, the Houston Dynamo finally got a much needed 2-0 win on Saturday over the New England Revolution. The win allowed Houston to stay in the playoff picture for another week, but they're going to need to continue to get results like that in order to push themselves much farther into the discussion.
Houston is currently sitting on 49 points, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference. That's in the playoff picture, but only a point ahead of the Columbus Crew, who stayed right behind them with a 3-2 win over Philadelphia on Saturday. Houston has little hope of catching the surging Sporting KC, New York Red Bulls or Chicago Fire, but they are only two points behind DC United, who are still looking to stay up despite losing Dwayne De Rosario.
The schedule is fairly kind to Houston late on, with their final three games coming against mediocre teams. They'll play the Montreal Impact, Philadelphia Union and Colorado Rapids to close out 2012, with the first two coming at BBVA Compass Stadium.