THE BASICS
Houston Dynamo vs. Toronto FC
Saturday, June 22, 8:00 p.m. CT
Stade Saputo
BROADCAST INFORMATION
CSN Houston - 8:00 p.m. (7:30 p.m. pregame) CHANNEL LISTINGS
MLS Live (Special Offer)
Yahoo! Sports Radio 1560 AM - 8:00 p.m. (7:30 p.m. pregame)
La Ranchera 850 AM - 8:00 p.m. (7:30 p.m. pregame)
PREVIEW
The Houston Dynamo will be looking to end a rare home winless streak when they play host to a Toronto FC side looking to put together back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly a year as the two clubs meet Saturday evening at BBVA Compass Stadium. The Dynamo saw their overall winless streak extended to five games midweek, dropping a 2-0 decision at the Montréal Impact. Toronto FC put an end to an 11-game winless run of their own last weekend, with a 2-1 win at D.C. United.
REFEREES
Ricardo Salazar; AR1 (bench): Craig Lowry; AR2 (opposite): Colin Arblaster; 4th: Matthew Foerster MLS Career: 167 games; FC/gm: 26.9; Y/gm: 3.5; R: 50; pens: 58
INJURY REPORT, PRESENTED BY THE METHODIST HOSPITAL SYSTEM
HOUSTON DYNAMO -- OUT: Calen Carr – Left knee; Anthony Arena – right ankle sprain
Toronto FC -- OUT: Richard Eckersley – L hamstring strain; Stefan Frei – L hamstring strain; A. Wiedman – R MCL sprain
HEAD-TO-HEAD
- ALL-TIME (14): Dynamo 4 wins, 20 goals … Toronto FC 3 wins, 14 goals … Ties 1
- AT Houston (7 meetings): Dynamo 3 wins, 13 goals … Toronto FC 1 win, 7 goals … Ties 3
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The teams are meeting for the second time this season. Jeremy Hall gave TFC a lead in the second half, but Warren Creavalle scored deep into stoppage time to leave the teams in a 1-1 draw, April 20 at BMO Field. The Dynamo are undefeated in the last five meetings with Toronto FC.
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The Dynamo have a five-game undefeated streak alive vs. Toronto FC. TFC’s last victory in the series came in May, 2011.
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The Dynamo win at BMO Field last July 28, a 2-0 victory, was the club’s first ever on the shores of Lake Ontario. TFC had won two of the first five meetings there, with three draws.
- Coaches record: Dominic Kinnear vs. TOR: P14 W4 L3 D7 … Ryan Nelsen vs. HOU: P1 W0 L0 D1
HOUSTON DYNAMO
The Houston Dynamo saw their winless streak stretched to five matches, following a 2-0 loss to the Montréal Impact on Wednesday evening at Stade Saputo. The Dynamo are in a tie for third place in the Eastern Conference with 22 points from 14 matches.
LAST MATCH
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The Impact took the lead after 14 minutes. A wonderful through ball from Patrice Bernier beat the Dynamo's offside trap and found Felipe racing into the area, and he finished by poking the ball between Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall’s legs.
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The Dynamo had a glorious chance to level the score eight minutes later. Matteo Ferrari clipped Dynamo striker Will Bruin in the Montreal box, leading referee Chris Penso to point to the spot. Giles Barnes stepped up to take the penalty, but he skied his attempt into the East Stand.
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The Impact then doubled the lead in the 32nd minute. Corey Ashe weighed his back pass from midfield wrong and it turned into an assist for Marco Di Vaio, who raced to the ball and then in on goal before lobbing Hall with stunning composure.
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Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear made two changes to the team that played to a 1-1 draw with the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium. Jermaine Taylor and Bobby Boswell came into the team, in place of Eric Brunner and Jason Johnson.
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HOUSTON DYNAMO (4-4-2): Tally Hall - Kofi Sarkodie, Jermaine Taylor, Bobby Boswell, Corey Ashe - Warren Creavalle (Brian Ching 78), Adam Moffat (Omar Cummings 69), Ricardo Clark (Luiz Camargo 87), Andrew Driver - Giles Barnes, Will Bruin.
TEAM NEWS
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The Dynamo’s five-game winless run is their longest since a five-game streak last March 23-May 9. “I thought we had some good chances the first half and second half but we just couldn’t score a goal tonight,” said Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear.
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The Dynamo fell to 1-5-2 when conceding the opening goal, though they allowed a goal before the 30-minute mark for the first time this season in the Montréal match.
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“It’s tough to put your finger on why they were able to come out and outplay us in the first 20 minutes,” goalkeeper Tally Hall said.“We want to win and that has to be the attitude for 90 minutes. For the majority of the game I thought we had the right attitude but the start of the game killed us and we weren’t able to come out from that deficit.“
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The Dynamo were also shut out at the attacking end for the third time in the last five games, all since a 4-0 victory at D.C. United on May 8.
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“I think that with 2-0, they were maybe content to sit back just a little bit, but I told the guys if we defend well we’ll be able to break on them and get some chances and obviously we were chasing the game a little bit too,”said Kinnear.
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The Dynamo had their first-choice central defense partnership again intact, with Bobby Boswell and Jermaine Taylor both back from a two-match absence. Ricardo Clark again returned to his holding midfield role.
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The Dynamo missed a second penalty kick this season when Giles Barnes put his 22nd-minute chance well over the bar. The Dynamo, along with Chivas USA and the LA Galaxy, are the only teams to have missed multiple penalties this season; six teams in MLS still have yet to score from the spot this year.
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“It took us a while to get going but I thought 25 minutes into the game we started to control the game a little bit better,” said Dynamo striker Brian Ching. “I think it’s just a matter of finishing, they finished their chances and we didn’t finish ours. If we would have scored on that penalty kick, it would have been a completely different game.”
