The Houston Dynamo are back on the road this weekend as they travel to Utah to take on Real Salt Lake on Saturday for the third meeting between the teams this season. Kickoff is at 8:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast over-the-air in Houston on KUBE 57.
The home team has come out on top in the previous two meetings, with RSL taking a comeback 2-1 win on April 30 and the Dynamo coming away 1-0 winners on May 15 after a postponement due to weather.
Real Salt Lake is firmly in the playoff picture as the fourth seed in the Western Conference with a 12-9-8 record (44 points), 10 points clear of seventh place. They're undefeated at Rio Tinto Stadium this season with an 8-0-6 record, but are coming off a 1-0 loss in Portland last Saturday.
RSL is led by their attacking trio of Joao Plata (9 goals, 11 assists), Yura Movsisyan (9 goals, 3 assists), and Juan "Burrito" Martinez (7 goals, 3 assists). Midfield maestro Javier Morales (4 goals, 4 assists) continues to pull the strings for the Claret and Cobalt in his 10th season. The team will be missing midfielder Sunny Stephen after receiving a one-game suspension from the MLS Disciplinary Committee.
Here's Dynamo interim head coach Wade Barrett's thoughts on RSL, heard on the Dynamo Coaches Show with Jeremy Branham: "You have to pay very close attention to their attacking three. They have Movsisyan that kind of leads the charge up top, he’s a big, strong, powerful player but he’s got a good nose for goal. Plata is a player that they’ve given a lot of freedom to attack, freed him a little from that defensive responsibility.
"Martinez is a very good player. He can do a lot of good things on the ball, he can pick a pass, he can also pull off a moment of individual technique to break you down. And then they’ve got good players throughout the rest of the team as well. But those three in particular I think you have to pay real close attention to."
