THE BASICS
Houston Dynamo at Real Salt Lake
Saturday, July 18, 9:00 p.m. CT
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah
BROADCAST INFORMATION
ROOT SPORTS - 9:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. pregame) CHANNEL LISTINGS
Yahoo Sports Radio 1560 AM - 9:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. pregame)
La Ranchera 850 AM / 101.7 FM - 9:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. pregame)
PREVIEW
A pair of clubs looking to jumpstart a rise up the Western Conference face off when Real Salt Lake and Houston Dynamo meet for the first time this season, Saturday evening at Rio Tinto Stadium. The teams are both sitting outside the playoff positions in the division, separated by just a single point. Real had their winless streak extended to four games last time out, falling 3-1 at Rocky Mountain rivals Colorado Rapids, while the Dynamo snapped a three-game winless run with a 2-0 win at the San Jose Earthquakes to start their road swing.
REFEREE: Robert Sibiga. AR1 (bench): Greg Barkey; AR2 (opposite): Brian Dunn; 4th: Tyler Ploeger
MLS Career: 1 games; FC/gm: 20.0; Y/gm: 2.0; R: 0; pens: 0
INJURY REPORT, PRESENTED BY HOUSTON METHODIST (as of Thursday, July 16)
HOUSTON DYNAMO – OUT: Rob Lovejoy – Right hamstring strain; Boniek García – Right adductor strain
REAL SALT LAKE – OUT: Jamison Olave – Right groin strain; DOUBTFUL: Luis Silva – hamstring
SUSPENDED: RSL: Sebastian Jaime (through July 19); Jeff Cassar (head coach; through July 19)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: RSL: Kyle Beckerman, Nick Rimando (USA, CONCACAF Gold Cup); Demar Phillips (Jamaica, CONCACAF Gold Cup) … HOU: DaMarcus Beasley (USA, CONCACAF Gold Cup); Giles Barnes (Jamaica, CONCACAF Gold Cup)
HEAD-TO-HEAD
- ALL-TIME (19 meetings): Real 5 wins, 28 goals … Dynamo 9 wins, 28 goals … Ties 5
- AT SALT LAKE (9 meetings): Real 4 wins, 9 goals … Dynamo 1 win, 4 goals … Ties 4
- RETURN MATCH: 9/12: Houston Dynamo vs. Real Salt Lake, 7:30 p.m. CT
- Real won the only meeting between the teams a year ago, a 5-2 victory May 11 at BBVA Compass Stadium – their first win ever in Houston. They suffered eight defeats and one draw in their first nine visits to Houston
- RSL has won the last two meetings between the teams. Their win in the last meeting at Rio Tinto Stadium, Aug. 10, 2013, was their first victory against the Dynamo since the 2010 campaign. RSL has taken points from their last five home games vs. Houston, with three draws in that time.
- Coaches record: Jeff Cassar vs. HOU: P1 W1 L0 D0 … Owen Coyle vs. RSL: first game
HOUSTON DYNAMO
The Houston Dynamo put an end to their winless run after three matches, defeating the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 on Friday evening at Avaya Stadium. The Dynamo are in eighth place in the Western Conference with 24 points from 19 matches.
LAST MATCH
- The opener came in the 10th minute. Alex Lopez’s simple cut back on the left wing opened him up to deliver an inswinging cross to the far post, and Ricardo Clark knifed in front of a defender to bounce a diving header past Quakes goalkeeper David Bingham.
- The visitors then put the game away in the 81st minute when Sanna Nyassi played a pass into space towards his own goal. Houston substitute Leonel Miranda quickly scooped up the ball to race in on goal, before feeding a square pass to Will Bruin, who passed the ball into an open goal.
- Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle made four changes to the team that reached a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire at BBVA Compass Stadium. Tyler Deric returned between the posts in place of Joe Willis, Kofi Sarkodie started in the back four for Jermaine Taylor, and Alex and Nathan Sturgis came into the midfield for Luis Garrido and Giles Barnes.
- HOUSTON DYNAMO (4-4-1-1): Tyler Deric - Kofi Sarkodie, David Horst, Raul Rodriguez, DaMarcus Beasley - Alex (Leonel Miranda 70), Nathan Sturgis, Ricardo Clark, Alexander Lopez (Rasheed Olabiyi 79) - Brad Davis - Will Bruin (Mauro Manotas 90).
TEAM NEWS
- The Dynamo put an end to a three-game winless streak overall with the victory against San Jose, also winning on the road for the first time in four matches.
- The Dynamo kept a clean sheet for the first time since April 11, when they had three defensive shutouts in the first six games of the season.
- “We needed to get back to being difficult in respect to not giving up goals through individual errors,” head coach Owen Coyle said. “When I look back at the games, there’s nobody that’s really cutting us wide open … it’s selfinflicted errors. We scored two goals and kept a clean sheet … we played very, very well against a good San Jose side.”
- Said Ricardo Clark: “Locking it down defensively, especially in the midfield and the center backs, was key for us. When you do that, they’re chasing the game and you’re going to get opportunities on the counterattack.”
- Will Bruin scored his eighth goal of the season, his first goal since June 5, when he netted twice vs. New York Red Bulls. It is the fourth consecutive season where Bruin has had eight goals or more; he’s had fewer just once in his MLS career, his rookie season of 2011, when he had five.
- Ricardo Clark scored his fourth goal of the season, matching his single-season career-high, which he’s set each of the last two seasons. He had 17 goals total over his first eight league seasons.
- “The combination play was brilliant,” Coyle said. “Again, when we pass and move the ball well consistently – and that word keeps cropping up – we’ve shown we can create chances against anybody. This is San Jose who coming into the game had the best defensive record in MLS and we scored two and could’ve had a few more. That was because we took care of the ball.”
- Tyler Deric returned between the posts after missing the Chicago match through illness, making his fourth shutout of the season.
- Kofi Sarkodie returned to the starting lineup for the first time since June 20, making just his second league start over the last nine matches.
