Busy 2024 ahead for Houston soccer
(image via Jordan McKendrick/Cristobal Zelaya)
Houston, Texas is a city of soccer. Each and every year, the city we love proves how rich its soccer heritage is. The Jose Mourinho way, ha! But seriously, Houston has a massive soccer scene that goes beyond what the professional teams offer. Here is what you can expect when it comes to soccer events in the Bayou City in 2024!
Houston Dynamo
The Houston Dynamo will have a busy schedule in 2024. For the people that follow the team closely, this 2024 schedule will start to feel pretty common with just how many games the team will be playing in.
Concacaf Champions Cup
The Dynamo qualified for the 2024 Champions Cup after beating Inter Miami in the Lamar US Open Cup final. Therefore, their first competitive match in 2024 will be against St. Louis CITY in the continental competition on February 20th.
MLS Regular Season
The Major League Soccer regular season kicks off just a few days later when Houston hosts Sporting Kansas City on February 24th at Shell Energy Stadium. Houston will have a number of home games to start the season that continues all the way until December 7 when MLS Cup takes place. Of course, Ben Olsen and his team will want to get another chance at making the final in 2024.
Leagues Cup
The tournament that welcomed Lionel Messi into MLS will be back again in 2024. The month long tournament is slated for July 26 through August 25. The fixtures are yet to be determined, but expect for the Dynamo to get at least one home game in the LigaMX/MLS competition.
Lamar US Open Cup
There is still a lot unknown on whether MLS teams will compete or not in the US Open Cup. Clearly, Major League Soccer’s plan to move away from such a historic tournament is quite sad. The US Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer will need to come to terms on what the future holds for the tournament. I expect the Dynamo to play in the tournament this year, if not, it will be Dynamo 2 trying to defend Houston’s championship.
Houston Dash
The Houston Dash struggled last season, in what looked to be a promising launchpad from 2022 when the team made their very first playoff appearance. That didn’t happen, with the team yet again moving away from their head coach mid season. The Dash will now be under newly appointed manager Fran Alonso with the regular season starting on March 15th. As of today, the full schedule has yet to be released for the 2024 season. The in season tournament that was NWSL Challenge Cup has now been converted into a a single pre-season match between the current NWSL Shield holder and the current NWSL Champions, a similar structure to the FA Community Shield match in England. The Dash will take part in an in-season tournament during the Olympic break this summer. The format and international teams involved has yet to be announced but that event is scheduled to kick off on July 19.
Houston Dynamo 2
Houstonians might not even know about Dynamo 2, if we are being honest, but man this is one team that is fun to watch. There are a lot of the players in MLS NEXT Pro on the brink breaking into a first team and helping to fuel the next wave of talent. I recommend checking out one of their games in 2024. The team plays at SaberCats Stadium, which is a short walk from Houston Sports Park. Like the Dash, Dynamo 2’s schedule is yet to be released, but their season will go from March to September.
CONCACAF W Gold Cup
Now we move into international competitions that Houston will host matches for. This one here is an exciting one because it will be the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. This is a massive step forward for women’s soccer in our region. Only 4 cities were selected to host the tournament and of course, the city of soccer was one of them.
The tournament is broken into 3 groups that include 4 national teams. Houston will host every fixture for Group C. The group is composed of Canada, Costa Rica, Paraguay and the winner of El Salvador or Guatemala. Shell Energy Stadium will host all 6 games that are held on February 22, 25 and 28. Get your tickets and support this new women’s soccer event and help grow the game!
Copa America
Here is another big international tournament that the city of Houston will be a part of. The prestigious Copa America is back in the United States this summer, from June 20 to July 14. Houston was selected as one of 14 cities that will host games for the tournament.
NRG Stadium will host 3 games during Copa America. The first two are known as Mexico will play Jamaica on June 22 and on June 24, Colombia will take on Paraguay. The last match in Houston will be on July 4, when NRG Stadium will host a quarterfinal match between the winner of Group A and the runner up of Group B. Many people will be dreaming of an Argentina versus Mexico match up. I know I will!
Friendlies
Houston has a pretty busy soccer schedule in 2024, but friendlies might still take place in either NRG Stadium or Shell Energy Stadium. Houston always attracts national teams to host friendlies since the city is so diverse. National teams like Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala are just some who tend to schedule exhibition games because they know that their fans will show up. There are also LigaMX teams like America, Tigres, and Rayados who sell out their friendly matches at Shell Energy Stadium. And of course, European teams stop in Houston during their preseason tours.
There are countless more soccer happening around the city every day. Rice and the University of Houston have women’s teams and a number of junior colleges in the area have soccer. There are academies and youth soccer happening in all stretches of the Houston area and are friends at Volt League are getting ready to kick off the second half of their season. You never know when you’ll run into a game kicking off in our great city.
Houston is a city of soccer, no doubt. Get ready for 2024!
