From 2011 to 2013, the Houston Dynamo set Major League Soccer’s mark for home dominance.
The club strung together a 36-game home unbeaten streak across all competitions from June 2011 to May 2013, with 30 of those matches coming in the MLS regular season – the longest home unbeaten run in league history.
That record is beginning to come into jeopardy, however, with the LA Galaxy currently holding a 21-game home regular season unbeaten streak. The Dynamo have a chance to end that run and protect their own record on Friday, when they’ll face the defending MLS Cup champions at StubHub Center (9:30 p.m. CT, Univision Deportes).
With a promising 1-1 draw at LA in March and back-to-back wins in their pocket, the Dynamo are confident that they’ll be able to get the job done on Friday night.
“We’ve been playing well,” Houston forward Giles Barnes said. “At the moment with how we’re playing we feel we can compete with anyone in the league. We feel we can go there and take all three points, especially with the way we’re playing right now. We’re confident we can go there and take all three points in their own backyard.”
Houston’s impressive wins at Toronto FC in the Canadian side’s home opener on May 10 and at home against the Portland Timbers last Saturday have buoyed the Dynamo’s optimism, with Barnes pointing to hard work and a team-first mentality as the drivers for the team’s good fortune.
Their renewed solid defense has also stood out.
After conceding four goals each in a consecutive games against Sporting Kansas City and FC Dallas, Houston has rebounded over the last three weeks, allowing just one goal in each of their last three matches. The backline was particularly stout in the wins against Toronto and the Timbers, staying compact and defending as a unit against TFC’s and Portland’s high-powered attacks.
They’ll have another tough test on Friday, especially if Galaxy DP Robbie Keane – who returned to training this week – is able to feature after missing LA’s last seven games due to injury.
“I think that the last two games that we did a very good job in, they’re very similar teams as [LA] as they have very powerful attacking players,” said Houston defender Raúl Rodríguez. “As a team I think we’re in a good moment to go and play there. I think we’re in a good moment. It’s not just the wins, it’s everything about us feeling good on the field. We’re all looking for being solid against the ball and feeling comfortable defending.
“We’ve won two games in a row and we go to LA with confidence. I believe everything is about confidence.”
LA’s confidence could be hurting. While Keane is a possibility for Friday’s match, LA haven’t been their usual stellar selves to start the season, and are coming off their worst performance of the year in a 4-0 loss at Orlando City SC last Sunday.
“We’ve been planning that those players will be back and preparing for the quality they’ve got,” said Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle. “There’s no doubt about it, when champions get wounded like they did last week they’ll be looking to bounce back quickly. What we have to do is show the form we’ve been in.
“It’s a fantastic record, [21] unbeaten [at home], it speaks for itself. But we’ve shown before we’re capable of going in there and getting a positive result and that’s what we have to do.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
