The Houston Dynamo are on the road for the second time this season, heading to the northeast and Gillette Stadium to face the New England Revolution (1-2-1, 4 points) this Saturday (1 p.m. CT; KUBE 57).
The Revs have a stockpile of offensive talent, with the likes of Kei Kamara, Diego Fagundez, Lee Nguyen, Juan Agudelo, and Teal Bunbury coming off the bench. As the home team, you have to attack with this talent.
Kamara has said he is still admittedly finding his role, but this is a group of players with attacking qualities and instincts. You have to add Kellyn Rowe to this group as well. These are all individuals that all can do special things but it's still a work in progress in 2017; do they get more definition in the final third? This is only their second home match, they put five goals up against Minnesota United in their first.
Last week, New England went on the road and earned a 1-1 draw against the Portland Timbers. Not only did they hold the Timbers to one goal, but only allowed three shots on target as well. It will be a different game at Gillette Stadium than the Portland game. They had a great fighting spirit at Portland, were fortunate but positioned themselves to get a point which is a huge achievement.
The biggest adds defensively for New England have been central defenders Benjamin Angoua from the Ivory Coast and Serbian Antonio Delamea, who was solid against Portland. Holding midfielder Xavier Kouassi protects the back four and is a hitter and a tackler. This core has upgraded the Revs in the central areas.
I think we have realized that the Dynamo offer real match-up challenges for opponents, and it has lead to games that have been open and had lots of chances created and goals. I expect 3+ goals in the this match with all the attacking players that will be put out by Jay Heaps of New England and Wilmer Cabrera of the Dynamo. New England will try to hit space in wide areas if the Dynamo over-commit with their pressing game, but will be wary that they want to get the game's first goal so as not to allow the Dynamo to set-up for the counter attack.
