After what looked like a rebound win the week before against Chivas USA, the Dynamo came out flat against the Columbus Crew on Saturday and lost 2-0. Houston now heads on the road for their next two games, starting this Saturday in DC against United. The two teams met previously this season on April 29th in Houston with rookie Will Bruin’s hat trick pacing Houston to a 4-1 win. Since that game, the Dynamo have won just once in nine games.
With Jamaica’s loss on Sunday to the United States in the Gold Cup Quarterfinals, the Dynamo will retain the services of defender Jermaine Taylor and midfielder Je-Vaughn Watson. Fellow Jamaican Lovel Palmer will miss this week’s match after picking up a red card against Columbus. Watson could start in place of Palmer alongside Geoff Cameron at center midfield or Brad Davis could me moved inside. If Davis moves inside it likely means that Danny Cruz is healthy, allowing him to start on the wing opposite Colin Clark.
Forward Brian Ching returned to action last week as a substitute so he could be available to start. I would guess Ching would again be used as a sub, allowing Cam Weaver and Bruin to start up front. The defense of Hunter Freeman, Andre Hainault, Bobby Boswell, and Corey Ashe will likely remain unchanged although we could see Taylor or Mike Chabala at some point on the back line.
DC United comes into this match off a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake on the road this past Saturday. A late “embellishment” by Charlie Davies earned a penalty kick that resulted in the equalizer. United has a very young back line which showed when they allowed four goals in the previous meeting. They have some potent weapons on the attack including Davies, former US international Josh Wolff and budding young stars Chris Pontius and Blake Brettschneider. Dax McCarty has been a Dynamo menace during his years with FC Dallas and he will be in the middle for DC, stirring things up as he usually does.
The Dynamo have struggled recently but luckily for them, so has the rest of the Eastern Conference. They currently sit fourth in the East with DC just one point behind them. Houston is going to have to start winning tough road games like this if they want to make a push for the playoffs here in the middle part of the season. I look for a Davis free kick goal to be the difference in a 2-1 Dynamo win.
(image courtesy of Wilf Thorne/Houston Dynamo)
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