Previewing Houston Dynamo at Orlando City with The Mane Land
(image via Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports)
The Houston Dynamo are on the road tomorrow to start their Leagues Cup journey as they take on Orlando City. We talked to our friend Ben Miller from The Mane Land get some insight on Orlando ahead of tomorrow night’s match.
Duncan McGuire has burst on to the scene with 8 goals this season. How has he been able to acclimate so quickly into the team and what do Orlando plan to do now with Ercan Kara?
I think he just fits the profile of a striker that works well with the way Orlando plays best. The Lions tend to have success when they can let the other team possess the ball and look to hit on the counterattack, and McGuire is excellent at finding pockets of space in between the lines and making intelligent, well-timed runs. His finishing is excellent, he usually stays composed, and generally just looks tailor-made for this team. As far as Ercan Kara is concerned, he hasn't had a bad season with five goals and two assists in 852 minutes spread across 15 appearances. McGuire certainly seems to be first choice, but Kara offers a different profile than he does and is more than capable of finding the back of the net. I haven't heard anything about him being moved on, and as long as he's getting goals he's a great guy to have as an option.
With Orlando in the Eastern Conference, Dynamo fans maybe don't get to see them as much. Who are some other players that Dynamo fans should keep an eye on Friday?
Facundo Torres was the talisman for Orlando last year with 9 goals and 10 assists in 33 appearances. He currently has 7 and 3, and while he hasn't quite hit the heights of last year just yet, he still remains extremely dangerous. Mauricio Pereyra had his Designated Player contract bought down over the offseason and has seven assists on the year which is the second-most on the team. He only trails Martin Ojeda, the man who slotted in as OCSC's third DP, who has eight assists and four goals.
Orlando has some good young players in NEXT Pro with Alejandro Granados looking to be on the verge of a move to Europe. Who are some other youngsters to keep an eye on, and maybe even get some time in the Leagues Cup?
Mikey Halliday is probably the most notable young player for OCSC. He's 20 years old and is a regular with the USMNT U-20 side, and featured for them at the U-20 World Cup back in the spring. I don't think we'll see him in this game, as he's been dealing with a left thigh issue and was listed as out on last Friday's injury report, but when he's fit he's been the first choice right back.
How is the health of the roster and do you expect anyone to be unavailable Friday? What is your predicted lineup and prediction for the match?
As mentioned above, I don't expect to see Mikey. Gaston Gonzalez, Adam Grinwis and Abdi Salim are all also listed as out. Junior Urso re-signed with Orlando on Wednesday but his availability is murky as of the time of writing this. Aside from his transfer paperwork needing to go through, he got a straight red card after the Lions' Leagues Cup match with Santos Laguna back in 2021. In theory that means he needs to serve a suspension, but this edition of Leagues Cup is being treated as a new competition with regards to record-keeping, so club officials are double-checking whether or not that suspension needs to be served and as of yet we haven't heard an answer.
Pedro Gallese; Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, Kyle Smith; Wilder Cartagena, Cesar Araujo, Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, Facundo Torres; Duncan McGuire.
I'll say 2-1 to Orlando City.
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We want to thank Ben for his time and wish our friends in Orlando the best of luck tomorrow.
