Who: Houston Dynamo v. Toronto FC When: Saturday, April 21 @ 2:00 pm CDT Where: BBVA Compass Stadium; Houston, TX Records: Toronto FC (1-3-0), 11th in East Houston Dynamo (1-2-2), 9th in West TV: KUBE-57 Radio: 610, 1010 am (Spanish) This is the sixth regular season game of year for Houston and the fifth for Toronto. In 2017 Toronto defeated Houston, 2-0, up in Canada in April. The last time Toronto came to Houston was a 1-1 draw in July of 2016. Toronto's most recent game was a road loss 2-0, at Colorado on Saturday, April 14. Before that they drew at Club America, 1-1, in the CCL on April 10. They will also host Guadalajara on April 17 before traveling to Houston. Toronto finished 1st in the East in 2017 with 69 points and went on the win MLS Cup for the first time. The Reds have started off slowly in MLS but have been very successful in the CCL so far this year. They are now 2-2-1 in their last five games including the CCL scoring 7 goals and allowing 6. In MLS action solely, Toronto is 2-3-0 in their last five scoring 5 goals and allowing 6 dating back to the 2017 MLS Cup. Toronto is 0-2-0 in road league games so far this year and was 7-4-6 last year on the road. It has been announced that Toronto will field reserves in the game against Houston. They will next travel to Guadalajara on April 25 in the CCL and then host Chicago in MLS on April 28. The Dynamo are now 1-2-2 in the last five games scoring 9 goals and allowing 8. Houston is 1-2-0 so far at home this year after going 12-1-4 last year. The Dynamo next travel to Minnesota on April 28 and then return home to host LA Galaxy on May 5.
Toronto @ Dynamo, all-time: 07/15/07 HOU 0-0 TFC 06/08/08 HOU 3-1 TFC 05/30/09 HOU 3-0 TFC 09/08/10 HOU 1-2 TFC 07/09/11 HOU 2-0 TFC 06/20/12 HOU 3-3 TFC 08/25/12 HOU 1-1 TFC 06/22/13 HOU 0-0 TFC 07/19/14 HOU 2-2 TFC 07/14/16 HOU 1-1 TFC That's 3-1-6 with 16 goals scored and 10 allowed.
Is this a TV time mandated 2 PM kickoff? My buddies and I enjoy very much the 7:30 Saturday night traditional kickoffs for our club. Our city's Astros are away to the White Sox this weekend. Should be incredible weather of the rain holds to Friday. DALE ETERNO BI-CAMPEON!!!
sooo, we should win this game right? Any reason this game should be more than an average challenge for us? 2-0 is a reasonable expectation unless im missing something.....
I was listening to Soccer Matters w/ Glenn Davis and the GM of Toronto was on and he said they will be fielding a lesser team possibly lesser than that because they are unabashedly focusing on the Final. He believes they are going to make the playoffs and the beginning of the season won't affect them as much. This brings up a point we've touched on about basically the first half of the season means nothing. To many teams make the playoffs and the having a playoff in general means not having to take every game seriously. Every league, every game could mean life or death for the lower clubs and could mean not winning the league/making CL for the big clubs .... the cup matches are usually meant to blooden some youngsters.
Current weather forecast for Saturday afternoon. @ 2 pm: 71F 74% humidity wind 15 mph SE Scattered thunderstorms 35% chance of rain The forecast right now is calling for chances of rain and scattered thunderstorms on Saturday morning with somewhat clearing skies throughout the early afternoon. The chance of thunderstorms will remain but it will be in the 30% range during 2 to 4 pm time period. This forecast has been changing over the last few days and now has the better chance of thunderstorms moving into the evening hours with 70% and higher probabilities after 6 pm. Hopefully that trend will continue.
Match preview: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2018-04-21-houston-dynamo-vs-toronto-fc/preview HOUSTON Suspended: None Suspended after next caution: None International duty: None Injury Report: OUT: D - A.J. DeLaGarza (torn left ACL), M - Juan David Cabezas (left quad), D - Philippe Senderos (right hamstring), D - George Malki (left knee sprain), D - Dylan Remick (concussion) Projected Starting XI (4-3–3, right to left) GK: Chris Seitz — Adolfo Machado, Alejandro Fuenmayor, Leonardo, DaMarcus Beasley— Darwin Ceren, Tomas Martinez, Eric Alexander — Alberth Elis, Mauro Manotas, Andrew Wenger TORONTO Suspended: None Suspended after next caution: None International duty: None Injury Report: OUT: D - Nick Hagglund (hamstring); DOUBTFUL: M - Victor Vazquez (back spasms) Projected Starting XI (4-3-3, right to left) GK: Clint Irwin — Nicolas Hasler, Jason Hernandez, Eriq Zavaleta, Ryan Telfer — Ager Aketxe, Liam Fraser, Jay Chapman — Tosaint Ricketts, Ben Spencer, Jordan Hamilton OFFICIALS Referee: Drew Fischer Assistant Referees: Jeffrey Greeson, Matthew Nelson 4th Official: Dave Gantar VAR: Younes Marrakchi
We couldn't beat a below average San Jose team, I don't think anything for us will be a sure win this season.
Outside of the NFL, no league has a regular season where every game is perceived at meaningful. I’m not going to get into the merits of promotion and relegation but that does supply a good deal of interest to games between also-rans for most of the season in the EPL, etc. MLS would have to make the playoffs only top 8 in league or 4 in each conference to make all 34 games meaningful. But then as we get to 24/26 teams you’d have probably 40% of the league playing out the string after Labor Day. And it’s a lot easier to sell tickets and make claims of team success when more clubs are in the playoff hunt. It’s an issue, there are already issues with the perceived value of certain games during the first 4 months of the season and then when you have clubs like the Dynamo who care more about creating positive cash flow at the lowest possible investment level it doesn’t create a whole lot of excitement for a random MLS game in April
Looking at that lineup we should smoke them. That defense is so meh. Even our beat up defense should keep the score down. We lose 4 - 1
Early Saturday Game against a C team Toronto. Assistance will be ugly but ill be there. I understand the 2pm slot as it was going to be tough to compete in the evening with Rockets AND Astros playing at same time.
Rockets and Astros are on the road. This game time was set months ago. Apparently it is kids’ day so maybe they have a lot of group sales and wanted a day game before it gets too hot. Only other consideration was Canadian TV wanted a day game for national broadcast up there. That said, there is zero buzz for this game. I noticed the FO kept putting up the ads on twitter and the website showing Altidore and Bradley even though it’s been known for 10 days they aren’t coming. Ticket sales probably aren’t terrible because they have been packaging this up with the LA game to see Zlatan and forcing folks to buy 3 games worth of tickets. Although I did see some “Free Parking” 4-packs on sale Dynamo 3-1, they played decent last week and TFC is calling up guys from USL to play
The amount of TFC players on the game day 18 with jersey numbers in the 50s I’ve never seen before - like spring training
may end 7 or 8-0. This TFC back line looks like it has never played together. I can’t wait until the FO puts the article out about beating the “defending champs”
Lucky VAR overturned that goal on offsides, looked like Seitz lost the ball in the glare off of all the empty seats
5-1.... against the backups backup.... whatever 3 point is 3 points. Time to move on and use the confidence to motivate us to beat a team with actual professionals.
Defense with the exception of Wenger was horrible. They were picking on Beasley, Leonardo kept losing his man, they put two in the net, one counted, and this was a B or C team. Couldn't help but notice they pulled Leonardo as a defender. Davis was talking like if Peralta is signed he's going to RGV frst. Curious how Remick is doing with the concussions because they need anyone they can get.
Guys, we just beat the defending champs by 4 goals. We should pressure the FO to give Matt another extension. Say an extra year for each goal? He's a genius!
It's still kind of a "goals set up by pressure" approach -- or by the forwards setting each other up -- and not much from the actual mids. That Mino kid was running circles around people. I think we can do better than every single mid starter. Good to see Elis scoring for himself. You do hope this is the beginning of Quioto waking up but he has to do the thing every week like Elis. Robinson was raving about his service but I thought a lot of his crosses were actually a bit high every time. Subs were pushbutton for the most part and while Boniek was ok Alvarez continues to do nothing special. He also needlessly committed the foul that gave them a (saved) PK. I'll be curious if Cabrera perseverates a la Sanchez or if others get a chance. I don't see the point in a veteran rotation where the veterans don't earn it. Willis I thought the longer and more accurate distribution was helpful. I think that offers an alternative way to get the ball downfield. He also saved the PK. However, other than that, I think GK is a downgrade this year and the other teams seem to be good for a couple goals a week (this week's second was called back). I don't see any special saves. Without Deric or better I think we lack a keeper who can earn the points by themselves. So every defensive wart shows because a special save doesn't clean it up.
To me this game came under the heading "better win it," they did, enjoy the result, bank the points, but they need to keep getting results. Still below the red line. Couple away games and LA at home won't be easy.
While TFCs backline was terrible, I thought the Dynamo gave up way too many quality chances to a C squad.
We need a midfield playmaker but failing that all the offense wouldnt need to start wide if we could get a “Moffat.” Maybe thinking of that Svensson-azo.