Dynamo host old foe SKC in USOC Round of 32: What to watch for
(image via Houston Dynamo FC)
The Houston Dynamo return to play in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup tonight. The Dynamo will host Sporting Kansas City in the Round of 32 match up. Houston defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies, 1-0, in the previous round and are coming off a 0-0 draw with Real Salt Lake this past Saturday. SKC beat Tulsa Athletic 3-0 in their opening USOC match and are coming off their first win of the MLS season, a 2-1 win at Seattle on Sunday.
When: Wednesday, May 10 | 7:33 PM CT kickoff
Where: Shell Energy Stadium; Houston, Texas
TV/Stream: US Soccer YouTube
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Houston and Sporting KC will meet in an elimination match for the 11th time since 2011. Each team has won five of those meeting. The Dynamo eliminated SKC from the Open Cup in 2016 and in 2018 en route to lifting the trophy. Sporting eliminated Houston in last year’s Round of 16. The Dynamo have advanced to the Round of 16 in their last nine appearances in the USOC and they will look to keep that streak going against a SKC team who come in hot. Sporting not only picked up their first win of the MLS regular season on Sunday, but they did it on the road against reigning Concacaf Champions League winners, the Seattle Sounders.
Head coach Ben Olsen, in his 12th season as an MLS head coach, faces another long time manager in Peter Vermes, who is in his 15th season with SKC. Olsen expects to see much of the same from a Vermes coached team. “They've had a lot of success in the Open Cup,” Olsen said this week. Peter (Vermes) is one of the great coaches that this league has ever seen, and they'll be prepared and hungry, and we'll have to counter both of those things. We expect Kansas City to play in the way that they've always played since he's taken over there – aggressive, combative, organized.”
Rotation, rotation, rotation
I mentioned before Saturday’s match against RSL just how busy the Dynamo schedule is for this month. Tonight’s match falls between that league match against RSL and a visit from Seattle this coming weekend. Olsen hinted at rotating the team for this match when he spoke on Monday. “We’ll have our
work cut out for us, but we're certainly looking forward to having a home game and getting some guys out there that need minutes and are hungry to be a part of that quote-unquote first team,” the Dynamo head coach said.
Rotation is key for any team, especially at a time like this when there are fixtures piling up. “It’s vital to get through these stretches. You need everybody,” Olsen went on to say. You can't play every player Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday for two months. This will be our first stretch where we're really relying on some players that haven't had significant minutes. That’s an exciting thing for a coach because you don't really know how some of these players are going to do that haven’t gotten the right minutes. It's also opportunity for them, and that's been stressed that, ‘Okay, you want to be a starter for this club? Show me. Show us as a staff that
this is the quality that you have on certain games or when you're called on to do a job that you perform at a level that we can use.’ That’s whether it's depth or starting spots that we're competing for.”
Who’s up?
With all of this talk about rotating and giving guys chances to compete for starting jobs, who might those players be? U-22 signing Ibrahim Aliyu has arrived in Houston and begun training with the team. He should be available tonight, although it may be too quick to see him start. Fellow new signing Erik Sviatchenko has yet to make an appearance yet but could be ready to see action after recovering from a minor injury. The other players who have been in backup roles this season that could start tonight would include DP striker Sebas Ferreira, Griffin Dorsey, and Luis Caicedo. Chase Gasper is almost a definite to get the nod at left back, although Brad Smith could see more minutes as he ramps up his return from injury. As for youngsters, Brooklyn Raines feels like a given but could other Dynamo 2 players like Talen Maples, Mujeeb Murana, or Jacob Evans join the team? We’ll all find out around 6:30 tonight just what Olsen’s rotation and depth looks like.
Availability Report
Houston Dynamo – None provided
Sporting Kansas City – Out: Kortne Ford (Achilles), Tim Leibold (hamstring), Kayden Pierre (hamstring), Willy Agada (tibia stress fracture); Questionable: Nemanja Radoja (hamstring)
Predicted Lineup
