THE BASICS
Houston Dynamo at Sporting Kansas City
Friday, September 9, 2016, 7:00 p.m. CT
Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
BROADCAST INFORMATION
UniMás - 7:00 p.m. (CHANNEL LISTINGS | WATCH IN ENGLISH)
650 AM / Radio.com app- 6:30 p.m.
Univision Radio 1010 AM - 6:30 p.m.
PREVIEW
A critical contest in the makeup of the Western Conference field for the MLS Cup Playoffs is ahead when Sporting Kansas City play host to the Houston Dynamo at Children’s Mercy Park on Viernes de Fútbol. Sporting return home following a 2-0 defeat at Philadelphia Union in their last match, sitting in fifth place in the conference, three points above the red line. The Dynamo are at the foot of the West table, 10 points out of sixth place and the final playoff position, following their 3-1 home loss to FC Dallas at BBVA Compass Stadium last time out.
REFEREE: Alan Kelly. AR1 (bench): Kyle Atkins; AR2 (opposite): Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho; 4th: Sorin Stoica
MLS Career: 53 games; FC/gm: 25.6; Y/gm: 3.3; R: 12; pens: 23
INJURY REPORT, PRESENTED BY HOUSTON METHODIST (as of August 25)
HOUSTON DYNAMO—OUT: Tyler Deric – left elbow sprain; Agus – left knee sprain; Abdoulie Mansally – right quad strain; DOUBTFUL: Andrew Wenger – right calf strain; QUESTIONABLE: Will Bruin – left knee effusion; David Horst – left hamstring tightness; PROBABLE: DaMarcus Beasley – left knee surgery
SPORTING KANSAS CITY—OUT: Justin Mapp – calf; Lawrence Olum – abdominal injury
HEAD-TO-HEAD
- ALL-TIME (24 meetings): Sporting 5 wins, 27 goals … Dynamo 9 wins, 33 goals … Ties 10
- AT KANSAS CITY (11 meetings): Sporting 2 wins, 13 goals … Dynamo 4 wins, 14 goals … Ties 5
- The teams are meeting for the second time this season. Giles Barnes and Andrew Wenger scored first-half goals as the Dynamo took a 2-0 win May 7 at BBVA Compass Stadium.
- The Dynamo have won the last two meetings, both in Houston, the first victories for the home team in the series in the last 10 matches, following a Dynamo home win in 2012.
- The teams reached a 1-1 draw Aug. 1, 2015 in the last meeting in Kansas City. Sporting’s last win at home in the series came in 2011, winless in their first meetings at Children’s Mercy Park (0-1-4).
- Coaches record: Peter Vermes vs. HOU: P17 W4 L5 D8 … Wade Barrett vs. KC: first game
LAST MEETING (MLS)
5/27: HOU 2, KC 0 (Barnes 30, Wenger 46+)
- The opening goal came in the 30th minute. After taking a pass from Erick Torres just outside the penalty area on the left, Giles Barnes hammered a first-time shot on the half-volley inside the far post.
- The Dynamo then doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time, when Barnes sent a pass to Cristian Maidana from the left flank, and he slipped a short cross inside to Andrew Wenger, who made a move before driving a laser shot past Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia.
- HOUSTON DYNAMO (4-2-3-1): Tyler Deric - Jalil Anibaba, David Horst, Agus, DaMarcus Beasley (Abdoulie Mansally 67) - Ricardo Clark, Alex - Andrew Wenger, Cristian Maidana (Leonel Miranda 75), Giles Barnes - Erick Torres (Will Bruin 57).
- SPORTING KANSAS CITY (4-1-2-3): Tim Melia - Chance Myers (Jimmy Medranda 62), Nuno Andre Coelho, Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic - Soni Mustivar - Benny Feilhaber, Roger Espinoza - Brad Davis (Diego Rubio 67), Dom Dwyer, Graham Zusi (Saad Abdul-Salaam 77).
HOUSTON DYNAMO
The Houston Dynamo saw their undefeated run come to an end after three matches in their last match, FC Dallas hitting back for a 3-1 win Aug. 27 at BBVA Compass Stadium. The Dynamo are in 10th place in the Western Conference with 25 points from 26 games.
LAST GAME
- The Dynamo took the lead in the 19th minute, after Alex beat a pair of FCD defenders and ripped a line drive shot past goalkeeper Chris Seitz and high into the far side netting.
- But FCD leveled terms after a Tesho Akindele shot found the arm of Dynamo defender Raul Rodriguez in the area, and Mauro Diaz duly converted from the post in the 59th minute.
- From there Michael Barrios took over, first receiving an incredible long ball from Maynor Figueroa that covered all of 60 yards, chipping Dynamo 'keeper Joe Willis with his first touch barely a minute later.
- Barrios then doubled his count and the FCD lead with 11 minutes to play, receiving a pass from Akindele on the left of the area before curling a ball around Willis and in off the inside of the far post.
- Dynamo interim head coach Wade Barrett made three changes to the team that gained a 1-1 draw with Seattle Sounders FC at BBVA Compass Stadium. Agus came into the back four for David Horst, Eric Alexander started in midfield for Ricardo Clark, and Mauro Manotas came in up top to replace Erick Torres.
- HOUSTON DYNAMO (4-1-4-1): Joe Willis - Sheanon Williams, Raul Rodriguez, Agus (David Horst 42), Jalil Anibaba - Collen Warner (Erick Torres 73) - Boniek Garcia, Eric Alexander (Ricardo Clark 64), Alex, Cristian Maidana - Mauro Manotas.
TEAM NEWS
- While the Dynamo saw their home undefeated streak come to an end after eight matches with the defeat by FC Dallas, they have still gone five games since their last victory at home, the 1-0 victory vs. Philadelphia on July 2, with the loss preceded by four consecutive draws.
- “Should have been three points tonight for us, and it wasn’t. We’ve found some ways to lose games, everyone in there knows it, you guys know it as well, so there’s no hiding from it. Things will stay the same unless we change, so it’s on us,” said Dynamo interim head coach Wade Barrett.
- Alex collected his third goal of the season, his second in his last five games, making a fourth consecutive start where he’s played the full 90 minutes.
- Boniek García collected his sixth assist of the season, his first since June 26, when he set up both goals in the 3-2 loss at Portland.
- “There were three things, tactics aside, that we talked about – concentration, discipline, execution. I thought we came out with those three things, we had another couple good chances to score in the first half,” said Barrett. “I’ve talked about when you’re on top of a good team, you’ve got to have end results – we had one goal but I thought we should have had more.
- Agus made his first start since Aug. 14, coming into central defense. But he was forced off the field injured before the end of the first half, suffering a left knee sprain that will put him out for the next 3-4 weeks.
- Eric Alexander made his first start with the Dynamo, coming into a central midfield position and playing 64 minutes. Alexander had come on as a substitute in four of the previous five matches, totaling 70 minutes, after his arrival via trade from the Montréal Impact.
- Mauro Manotas returned to the starting lineup after a one-match absence, coming in as the lone out-and-out striker and playing the full 90 minutes – his first full match since coming to the Dynamo and MLS. All three of Manotas’s starts (in 23 career appearances in MLS) have come in the last four games.
- Midfielder Andrew Wenger missed his first match of the league campaign after sustaining a right calf strain in training in the days leading up to the Dallas match and is expected to miss 1-2 weeks. Forward Will Bruin missed just his third league game of the year, out with left knee swelling.
- “I’m going to look at everything. People like talking about putting two forwards on, but it means you’re taking a midfielder away against a lot of good teams that have really good attacking pieces in midfield. So, you always like the idea of what it sounds,” Barrett said. “I’m willing to consider anything. We talked about things, we’ll consider everything moving forward to try to improve.”
- On Sunday, the Dynamo and Chivas de Guadalajara played to a scoreless draw in a friendly at BBVA Compass Stadium.
- Here’s the Dynamo team: Joe Willis (Calle Brown 46); Jail Anibaba, Keyner Brown, Raúl Rodríguez (Damarcus Beasley 71), Sheanon Williams (Rob Lovejoy 46); Collen Warner (Alex Lima 46); Jose Escalante (Christian Lucatero 87), Ricardo Clark (Cristian Maidana 46), Eric Alexander (Zach Steinberger 82), Yair Arboleda; Mauro Manotas
