Who: St. Louis City v. Houston Dynamo When: Tuesday, February 20 @ 7:00 pm CST Where: CityPark; St. Louis, MO Records: St. Louis City (17-12-5), 1st, MLS West, 2023 Houston Dynamo (14-11-9), 4th, MLS West, 2023 TV: FS2/ViX Radio: ??? This is the first game of the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup for both teams. St. Louis qualified by having the best regular season record in the MLS Western conference in 2023. Houston qualified by winning the 2023 US Open Cup. The 2nd leg will be in Houston on February 27. Highest aggregate score will advance to face Columbus Crew in the Round of 16 in March. This tournament has away goals in effect as a tie-breaker . The series will go to extra time and then a shootout if the total is still level after two legs. This is the first appearance for St. Louis City in a Concacaf tournament. It is the 8th appearance for Houston. The Dynamo have a record of 14-12-10 in those games with 45 goals scored and 43 allowed. In head-to-head rounds the Dynamo advanced twice and were eliminated 4 times. The league games between the teams in 2023 were a 3-0 win for St. Louis up there on June 3 and a home draw, 1-1, for the Dynamo on September 16. St. Louis was 1-4 in their last 5 league games of 2023 including the first round of the playoffs, scoring 6 goals and allowing 10. They lost their last 4 games including being swept in the MLS playoffs by Kansas City. They were outscored 9-2 in those final four games. St. Louis was 12-6-2 at home in all competitions in 2023. They open the 2024 MLS season hosting RSL on February 24. The Dynamo finished 2023 with a record of 2-1-2 in the last 5 games, all in the playoffs, scoring 5 and allowing 5. Houston was 6-10-7 in away games in all competitions last year. The Dynamo next host Kansas City in the MLS opener on Saturday, February 24, then St. Louis in the return leg on Tuesday, February 27, and then NY Red Bulls on Saturday, March 2.
Dynamo @ St. Louis, all-time: 06/03/23 STL 3-0 HOU That's 0-1-0 with 3 goals allowed and none scored.
Weather tonight in St. Louis: @ 7 pm CST 51F 54% humidity Clear wind 6 mph SSE 1% chance of rain Temps should fall slightly during the game in to the mid-40s. A lot better than it could have been. BTW, long-range forecast for next Tuesday in Houston is 72F for kickoff.
Tonight's Starting XI in our first #ConcaChampions Match.#Hustlin4More pic.twitter.com/fYCZbQfqHc— Houston Dynamo FC (@HoustonDynamo) February 21, 2024
If Sebas has a serious injury, would put the Dynamo in a really tough spot. Nice pass by Coco and finish by Alliyu but looked to me like Coco was offside.
Crap. The Sebas injury looks bad and is very bad for our team. The three most important players for our team are now out injured. Opportunity for someone to step up. We are lucky not to be down 1. Can I just say — DONT PASS BACKWARDS against a team that feasts on pressing. Just don’t do it.
I don’t mind it. We are playing an energy drink chaos team. They feast on your possession in your half. STL has had two decent looks and both came off turnovers in our defensive third. I say hoof it away. We only need one to work out to upend the whole game. STL has gotten nothing from building their attack.
Best chances we've had (including the offside goal) came from hoofing the ball forward. If they are going to press with 5-6 guys in our end then you have to hoof it over the top where they are most vulnerable.
If hoofing is the game plan, don't start our resident tortoise in Sebas. Go with better speed up top at center forward to stretch their backline. When I typed the previous comment Sebas had not gotten injured. With him out now, Aliyu is at center forward so let's go! Westie brings up the Roosevelt Lounge! Hahaha!!!
Aliya with the great pass and great run timing by Kowalcyk! Watching Parker celebrate pissed me off. Lets go Dynamo!!
Crap. Well … nothing the Dynamo can’t turn around at home. Raines has to do better there. Team makes defensive subs and we lose all control of the match left desperately defending. For me that is the most disappointing part.
Tubby tubs Sebas broke a sweat then broke his hammy. It's almost as if a player that can never get in shape always breaks his body trying to get past the first gear. Coco looks kinda lost as a play maker. We need HH out there to run things cuz Coco aint it Brooklyn Sh^t the bed. Kid has been in the wings for a few years now and can't clear a simple ball. Hope he gets over it quickly Aliyu looked better than I expected Clark is still a man. Game could've been 4-1 easily without him Still not convinced Aliyu touched to ball on that offside call. When you have to review it for 10 mnts, just go with the original call. Also, ref seemed to let a lot go tonight. Not marking Parker on a set piece is glass licking stupid. WTH??? St. Louis seemed porous so we can advance if we keep our heads in the game PS Is anyone really going to a 9:30 start time game next week? Does no one work in the morning??
Don Juego’s Hungarian looked good! This was a game for HH. Saint Luis is a team that doesn’t mind ceding possession and HH could’ve ran the middle.
Given the fact that they played this game with 0 DPs basically, that’s a decent performance. The last goal sucked. Raines looked the part for 92 minutes until he didn’t. I’d still start him against SKC or STL leg 2.
Aliyu looked a lot better off the ball. It was really evident on the called back goal. His assist was really good as well.
Thought our guys played well. Even towards the end, just gave up a late match winner like years gone by. I thought those days were behind us. The Polish middie is hard nosed and goes box to box a la Rico. Me likey. 0-1 in these Purple Drank uniforms btw.
Raines made a mistake. He's 18, mistakes will happen (and he wasn't alone, Sviatchenko almost gave away a goal in the first half). Apart from that, I was generally impressed with him. Really tidy on the ball in tight spaces. Again, easy to forget he's only 18. He's looking like he'll be a really good player.
Ditto. School night, work night. No chance I'm rolling in the door at midnight from a game as much as I'd love to be here.