The Seattle Sounders host the Houston Dynamo in Game 1 of their best-of-3 playoff series tonight. The Sounders will be missing Obed Vargas, who picked up a red card in the regular-season finale while the Dynamo are closer to full strength. Notably, they’ll also have Hector Herrera and Ezequiel Ponce, who didn’t play in either of the two previous meetings with the Sounders.
Here’s what you need to know:
Injury news
Sounders
OUT: Obed Vargas - Not Due to Injury
QUESTIONABLE: Josh Atencio - Head; Cody Baker - Head
Dynamo
OUT: Lawrence Ennali – Knee; Nelson Quinones – Knee; Brad Smith – Thigh (Out)
Stats to look smart
- The Sounders have been very good against the Dynamo for most of their history, especially at home. The Sounders have won eight straight games against the Dynamo at Lumen Field where they are 14-0-3 against them across all competitions.
- No team held more possession in MLS this year than the Dynamo, who hled hte ball for an average of 59.2% of their games. While an effective tool at limiting the chances they give up — only the Sounders and Charlotte FC allowed fewer goals — it doesn’t create a ton of offense. The Dynamo’s 47 goals were the fewest among Western Conference playoff teams.
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Tactics to impress
- The Dynamo are going to have a ton of the ball. In their last game against the Sounders at Lumen Field, they had about 65% of possession. Although the Sounders don’t want to be defending quite that much, they are okay with losing the possession battle if it means they can get some counter-attacking opportunities.
- To that point, the Dynamo have two big weapons they didn’t have in their previous meetings with the Sounders. Herrera is one of the best midfielders in the league while Ponce had five goals in less than 750 minutes. The Sounders can’t afford to let the Dynamo just ping balls around, they need to be more aggressive in their counter-press and be tidy with the ball to keep the Dynamo from getting too comfortable.
Kit matchup
Opposition research
Sounder Strategy: A trio against the Dynamo
The Dynamo love to possess the ball but aren’t quite as good at scoring it.
Andrew Pearson
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