The Houston Dynamo might reside higher in the Western Conference standings, but rival FC Dallas have been playing the better soccer of late.
Dallas, which has yet to win on the road this season, can sweep the annual Texas Derby on Saturday night by winning at Houston for the first time since 2016.
Houston (5-5-2, 17 points) enters the weekend eighth in the West. However, it’s totaled two goals and been shut out four times during a current 1-3-1 rut.
“Very frustrating result,” Dynamo coach Ben Olsen said following Wednesday’s 1-0 loss at Austin FC.
“We don’t have a lot of time to feel sorry for ourselves because we got another derby game coming (Saturday). Which is nice. We can get back to work very quickly, we can put this one to bed and go after Dallas.”
FC Dallas (3-6-2, 11 points) are four spots back of Houston but have won two of their last three in league play, beginning with their 2-0 home victory over the Dynamo on April 27.
Petar Musa and Sebastien Ibeagha scored second-half goals for Dallas. The club is in the midst of a 2-0-3 overall stretch against the Dynamo, but 0-3-7 at Houston since a 3-1 triumph there on Aug. 27, 2016.
Though Dallas is 0-4-1 on the road this season, it should be more rested than Houston following last weekend’s 2-1 home victory over Austin. Musa scored in the fourth minute of that contest and assisted on Jesus Ferreira’s 56th-minute strike for FCD.
Musa and Ferreira have combined to score half of Dallas’ 12 league goals this season, and each player has two assists.
“Game by game and training by training, we are more connected,” Musa told the team’s website about playing with fellow designated player Ferreira.
“We need to know each other on the field.”
Houston’s Ibrahim Aliyu has recorded just one of his team-leading four goals in the last six matches.
–Field Level Media