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Sounders, Dynamo meet in West final after long delay (Nov 21, 2017)
The Seattle Sounders are the defending MLS champions, while the Houston Dynamo are in the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
Conventional thinking says that alone should tip the scales toward the Sounders when the two sides meet in the MLS Cup Western Conference finals beginning Tuesday at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston.
The contest is the first leg of a two-match, total-goal series. The second leg will be played in Seattle on Nov. 30.
But don't try to pin the underdog label on the Dynamo, who have gotten this far in the playoffs by leaning on unconventionality. Houston thrives on the counterattack, using a surprisingly good defense to thwart the opposition's parries and quickly advance the ball up the field to its speedy forwards.
"We know that we have been overlooked because we have been against all the statistics, but that doesn't affect us," Houston coach Wilmer Cabrera said. "It gives us a little bit of, 'OK, we have more to win than to lose,' and at this point, we feel strong.
"We are not going to think that someone is going to look over our shoulder. We know what kind of team we are. We are humble enough to recognize that, but we are ready to play on the field because on the field everyone is equal."
Houston advanced to the West semifinals by beating the Portland Timbers, the top seed in the conference, while Seattle beat the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Dynamo had to beat Sporting Kansas City in the knockout round to advance to the semifinals, and needed 120 minutes to do so.
Anything Houston gets in this series has to be considered a bonus, especially since the Dynamo are forced to play without starting goalkeeper Tyler Deric, who is suspended by the league following an alleged domestic incident on Oct. 31.
That made for some big shoes to fill for Joe Willis, who made three saves and allowed one goal in Houston's second-leg win at Portland on Nov. 5.
"Everyone on the team is pretty excited," Willis said. "This entire season we've been a little overlooked, and the past few weeks we've proved our worth. We just need to keep doing the same thing we've been doing. We have stayed compact defensively, we have been hard to break down, and when we attack, we attack quickly and with purpose."
They also have manpower concerns, with an injury to defender A.J. DeLaGarza and with their Honduran trio of Alberth Elis, Romell Quioto and Boniek Garcia still jetlagged from a grueling trip Down Under for Honduras' unsuccessful World Cup playoff series against Australia. Elis' availability is most concerning, but Cabrera has not been afraid to sit his top guys to keep them fresh.
Seattle enters the series in good form. The Sounders took the recent time off for the international break to rest some of their veterans and others who were injured, including Jordan Morris and Ozzie Alonso. The group is confident and has very recent experience and confidence that winning an MLS title produces.
"We have tremendous depth and we've been preparing for weeks for this game," Seattle midfielder Cristian Roldan said Monday afternoon. "Houston is going to be a tough opponent. We have to get that one goal, that one result to bring back to Seattle."
It will be nearly a three-week stretch between the second leg of the Western Conference semifinals and the first leg of the Western Conference championship. According to Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer, "the players just want to play."
"We all want to win," he said. "We're a proud franchise -- we want to defend our Cup."
The Sounders have never won an MLS match in Houston, which had one of the most dominant home records in the league this season at 12-1-4. If Seattle wants to buck that ominous historical trend on Tuesday, it will mean overcoming a unique set of obstacles that trips to the stadium always seems to present.
"It's a tough place to play," Sounders defender Chad Marshall said. "The grass is different, they play this different style, so if you're not ready going to their place, they can get on you early and it's tough to come back. It's just about keeping them off the board and hopefully poaching one there and being able to come home and doing what we did last series."
The Dynamo share their home pitch with the Texas Southern University football team. The choppy surface in the semifinal series with Portland led then-Timbers coach Caleb Porter to call it "the worst field I've seen in five years in this league."
"We'll see what the field conditions are like," Schmetzer said. "That's out of our control. I'm sure they've worked hard at it to get it in a playing condition. I'm sure because Wilmer (Cabrera) wants to play good soccer, too."
The teams have met before in the MLS Cup playoffs, in the 2009 Western Conference semifinals. The first leg of the series ended 0-0 in Seattle, while the second was a 1-0 Dynamo win in Houston.
