The Houston Dynamo and San Diego FC will meet on Wednesday night in Southern California, each seeking a victory to reverse their recent fortunes.
Houston (13-9-6, 45 points) has won only once in its last eight while sliding from first place in the Western Conference to fifth.
But manager Ben Olsen was encouraged by Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Minnesota United, in which Duncan McGuire leveled in the second minute of second-half stoppage time after a 1-0 halftime lead turned into a 2-1 deficit.
“We’re excited to a certain extent about the Minnesota game,” Olsen said. “The more we look at it and the more we saw some of the hurdles we had to deal with on the day, still to get a point out of that was a step in the right direction for this week.”
The Dynamo have been shut out four times during their slide, and Guilherme has only scored twice in the eight-game span to take his team-leading total to 14 goals.
Host San Diego (8-12-8, 32 points) has struggled even more acutely, most recently in a 4-1 home loss to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night that dropped the second-year club to 12th in the West.
The game rarely felt competitive, with the visitors roaring to a 3-0 lead in the opening half-hour. Cedric Bakambu contributed a consolation tally for San Diego in the 60th minute.
Anders Dreyer and Marcus Ingvartsen have combined for 23 goals this season, but despite that production, San Diego has earned only two points in its last six matches to fall out of the playoff places. The club has conceded 17 goals in its last five matches.
And following one of their worst results of the season, Mikey Varas suggested that there has never truly been a point where this year’s team felt as cohesive as the group that finished atop the West in the club’s inaugural MLS season in 2025.
“It’s been the whole season. We don’t have any consistency in our actions. Every game has been a little bit different,” Varas said.
As for Saturday night, he added: “Nobody played good tonight, and I didn’t coach well enough tonight. We got outplayed, and that’s that.”
–Field Level Media
