Minnesota United will try to snap a five-game losing streak when it hosts the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
The Loons (7-12-8, 29 points) enter the contest seven points below the playoff line with seven matches to go. The good news is that four of those final seven matches are at home at Allianz Field.
The bad news? It’s the same story. Four of the final seven games are on their home pitch.
Minnesota is just 2-5-6 at home this season, the worst home record in MLS. The Loons, who are just 1-8-7 overall over their last 16 matches, haven’t won a home match since a 2-0 victory over Portland on April 18.
Head coach Cameron Knowles has a simple strategy for his team entering the busy final weeks of the regular-season.
“One game at a time for sure, the games are going to come quick,” Knowles said. “We have to come and attack that 90 minutes with a real intensity and a real purpose.”
Houston (13-9-5, 44 points) is in fifth place but trails second-place St. Louis City by just three points in the tightly bunched top half of the Western Conference. The top four teams earn home field advantage for the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.
The Dynamo have suffered just three losses in 13 matches since the World Cup break but come in off a 2-0 home setback to lowly Sporting Kansas City on Sept. 27. Houston fell behind 2-0 in the first half before midfielder Hector Herrera picked up a red card in the third minute of first-half stoppage time.
“I thought our box defending in the first half was not good enough and led to some goals, and then the red card in some way put the game to bed,” Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen said.
Herrera will be suspended for Saturday’s contest, and Olsen expects a tough match despite Minnesota’s recent struggles. The Dynamo are a solid 5-7-2 in road matches this season.
“It is still a league of parity, and no matter where teams stand in the table or their results, none of it really matters, because teams are so close,” Olsen said. “And everybody has game-changers. Going on the road is always hard in this league.”
Kelvin Yeboah (Minnesota) and Guilherme Augusto (Houston) each have 14 goals for their respective clubs.
It’s the first two matches between the two teams who also play on Oct. 24 in Houston.
–Field Level Media
