Following a winless September, Western Conference-leading San Diego FC hit the road for their final two matches, starting with a Saturday night contest against the Houston Dynamo.
San Diego (17-9-6, 57 points) is tied for the top spot with the Vancouver Whitecaps (16-6-9, 57 points), who have a game in hand. San Diego finishes the season at Portland on Oct. 18, while the Whitecaps still have home games against the San Jose Earthquakes and FC Dallas sandwiched around a road date at Orlando City.
San Diego FC went 0-2-1 in September, including a 1-0 loss to the visiting Earthquakes last weekend.
“The most important thing now is to maintain calm, know that we are a good team,” San Diego coach Mikey Varas said. “We have good players. We work really hard, and finding that little extra that we need to make sure that we turn these into not just good, statistically speaking, performances, but wins.”
The good news is that both of San Diego’s final two games are on the road, where the team has compiled a 10-4-1 mark, best in the league.
Houston (9-14-9, 36 points) is two points behind ninth-place San Jose (10-14-8, 38 points) in the battle for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Dynamo come in off a 3-1 loss at Nashville SC that saw them play the last 81 minutes with 10 men after defender Erik Sviatchenko was shown a red card for a foul on Hany Mukhtar at the edge of the box.
“We’re still in this thing,” Houston coach Ben Olsen said. “We’ve got to look for some results now and all we can do is take care of San Diego at home and hopefully get the results (ahead of traveling to Sporting Kansas City on Decision Day) where we can sneak in with a win there. Six points still give us a good chance.”
However, Houston learned Thursday it will have to do it without arguably its best player, Jack McGlynn. The midfielder, who has career highs in goals (six) and assists (eight), will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery for a foot injury sustained in the Nashville loss.
“I am very disappointed that I will be unable to help the club push for the playoffs or join the U.S. national team for this important upcoming camp,” McGlynn posted on his Instagram account. “Get behind the team. I know they will make us proud.”
Houston won the first meeting at San Diego 4-3 on July 5 as Argentine forward Ezequiel Ponce scored a brace, including the game-winner in the 10th minute of second-half stoppage time.
–Field Level Media
