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The Houston Dynamo are vying for a top-four playoff spot in the Western Conference with two matches to go, but they still have work to do starting with Saturday’s visit to St. Louis City.

Houston (14-9-9, 51 points) enters the weekend fifth in the conference, but only two points behind both the Seattle Sounders and Real Salt Lake. Nabbing a top-four seed means getting home-field advantage for the best-of-three series in Round 1.

The Dynamo have won two of their last three matches and four of their last seven following a 2-1 triumph over the New England Revolution on Wednesday. Defender Erik Sviatchenko broke a tie when he delivered a beautiful curling goal off Adalberto “Coco” Carrasquilla’s free kick.

“It was the best goal I’ve scored in my career,” Sviatchenko said. “Normally I’m over on the other side, but then it just happened that I decided to take it down, and it was perfect for a volley.”

Coach Ben Olsen, who has guided the Dynamo to playoff berths in his first two seasons on the job, called the match “a wild one.”

“New England entered the match with real desperation and fire, and we were lucky to have kept it scoreless in the first half,” said Olsen, who praised Steve Clark’s three-save performance. “… Now we have to patch ourselves up for another difficult task in St. Louis, but this win is massive as we try to move up the table.”

St. Louis (7-12-13, 34 points) is not heading to the playoffs following its surprise first-place Western Conference finish as an expansion club in 2023. But interim coach John Hackworth helped stabilize the team, which went 3-1-1 in September before falling 1-0 to Los Angeles FC on Wednesday.

It was St. Louis’ first shutout loss since July 17.

“Look, I want to make sure everybody knows that I don’t think we played a great game,” Hackworth said. “… But we also came on short rests across the country and played one of the better, best teams in the league, and we had a chance to be successful until the very end.”

Cedric Teuchert has scored five goals in eight regular-season matches since joining St. Louis, enough to tie the team lead with Eduard Lowen and Joao Klauss, who hasn’t scored since May. Ibrahim Aliyu has a team-high six goals for the Dynamo.

These clubs played to a scoreless draw May 4 in Houston.

–Field Level Media