St. Louis City will try to add to their lead atop the MLS Western Conference when they head to Houston to face the Dynamo on Saturday.
St. Louis (15-10-3, 48 points), which enters Saturday’s slate of games seven points ahead of Seattle, defeated the Dynamo 3-0 on June 3 in the only other meeting between the two clubs this season.
St. Louis is 4-4-2 in road matches against Western Conference teams this season and is 5-7-2 overall away from home.
St. Louis will be without forward Samuel Adeniran in Houston. Adeniran, who has seven goals in 14 matches (eight starts) and has scored five times in his last six matches, will serve a one-game suspension after receiving two yellow cards in last weekend’s 2-2 draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
“For sure, he’s a weapon starting, and he’s a weapon off the bench, but now we’ll just have to give the other guys the responsibility and accountability, and we move on from there,” head coach Bradley Carnell said.
“Houston is a tough game, and they’re in good form too. Every road game we have are coming up against teams that are all running in the playoffs at the moment, so points are tight on the road.”
Houston (11-10-6, 39 points) sits in fifth place in the Western Conference, nine points back of St. Louis, and enters the match on a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2).
The Dynamo have recorded five straight clean sheets — the longest shutout streak by any MLS club this season. Houston holds the MLS record for consecutive shutouts in a season with seven (2006).
“The whole team defends as a unit, and we’re really organized and stingy at the back,” goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell said. “We take a lot of pride in being good defensively, and it shows. We don’t plan on changing that.”
The Dynamo are 9-2-2 at home this season but have lost eight of their last 10 matches against expansion teams.
–Field Level Media
