The Houston Dynamo’s first preseason stay in Tucson, Arizona, comes to end tonight in their third and final match at Kino Sports Complex, this time against the Vancouver Whitecaps (7pm CT, HoustonDynamo.com/live).
Tonight’s match will be composed of four 30-minute periods as head coach Owen Coyle hopes to get extended minutes for the full contingent of players in camp the past week. Starters could go as much as 60-90 minutes.
“The week’s been great in terms of the physical fitness, the match fitness, and that’s what we look to build up,” Coyle told HoustonDynamo.com after Monday’s training. “Obviously now we go into a game against Vancouver that we’ll look to play extended minutes and try to get everybody that we have within the group here, young and old, in minutes. Again, cranking out that match practice.”
Fans still shouldn’t expect to see midfielders Chaco Maidana or Ricardo Clark in tonight’s action, as small injury concerns have kept them out of game action. The pair have been able to get training sessions under their belts, and Coyle is hopeful they will be healthy by the weekend for a scrimmage back home against Houston Baptist University (11 a.m., Houston Sports Park).
“[Maidana] was out at practice, which was great, and he continues to see the ankle to get better, but we won’t be forcing him into the game against Vancouver,” Coyle said. “We’d rather build that up, and then maybe towards the weekend … he could get some mintues there, and we expect to have Agus and [David] Rocha in at the club middle of this week as well.
“Rico as well, trained well again but we won’t risk him in minutes, but hopefully come the weekend he’s able to get minutes and we start building up looking close to people we feel will be starters in the team and start moving it from there.”
Tonight, however, the focus is on getting the first group as many minutes as possible, as that squad has built up from 45 to 60 minutes in the first two games. With the format change, younger players that haven’t seen as much playing time will still be afforded a half hour of play at minimum to show their skills in front of the staff.
