Houston are on the road for the first time this season.
Game Updates
Updated throughout the game.
Who
Houston Dynamo at DC United
What
Today is the first road game of the season for the Houston Dynamo. They are trying to rebound from last week's 2-1 loss at home to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Dynamo have done well to start the 2017-2018 offseason, but now they face tougher decisions.
The offseason has treated the Houston Dynamo well thus far. They re-upped Alberth Elis and Juan David Cabezas on full transfers, crucial successes that reaffirm their 2017 core, and they re-signed Eric Alexander just before free agency hit full gear.
IT'S THE TEXAS DERBY BABY! The first matchup ended up in a 0-0 draw in Frisco, TX. This time around Houston plays host to Dallas. You can check out the full preview here.
Where
BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, TX
When
Friday, June 23 at 8:00 pm CT
How to watch
Unimas
Unimas (SAP)
SportsRadio 610
Univision Radio KLAT 1010AM
Injuries
Out- George Malki (torn left ACL), Eric Alexander (right MCL strain)
Fan Lineups
The 4-3-3 was the overwhelming favorite for tonight's lineup.
The Dynamo are hosting the Loons for the first time ever. The new club has struggled this season not getting their first win until the fifth game of the season. Last week they suffered a 2-0 defeat to that team from Oklahoma.
A young Designated Player has joined Atlanta United, while the Houston Dynamo have bolstered their midfield with the addition of an MLS veteran.
Atlanta United announced the signing of21-year-old forward Hector "Tito" Villalba as a Young Designated Player. Villalba joins the upcoming MLS club from Argentina's San Lorenzo.
Come on down the Rapids. Well deserved for outlaw Shane.
Shane O'Neill, Eric Alexander, Luis Gil... Yedlin. Nice work Herr Klinsinator.
UScamp opens January 6th in California and jumps midstream to Sao Paulo through the 25th and then finishes up back at the Artist Formerly Known as HDC in early February.
Notes from Union training camp. Algeria tops Senegal, advances to Africa Cup of Nations knockout round. Academy's Elney and Wilson get US U-18 callup. Tuesday's trades. USA-Chile today. More.
Casey admits Union attack was disjointed on Saturday, Le Toux says it will come together with time. PPL Park out of WCQ contention? Champions League action returns. More news.
Overcoming a 2-0 deficit is a big challenge, but United can do it if they check off everything on this list.
Today is not going to be easy for D.C. United. MLS teams have faced this precise deficit in twelve aggregate situations, and only two have advanced. No one has pulled it off since 2004.
HANOVER, N.J. As the New York Red Bulls warmed up for their match against the Seattle Sounders this past Saturday, Eric Alexanderwas informed of something neat by teammate Dax McCarty. It turned out Alexander was just moments away from earning his 100th career start in MLS, an admirable achievement and one that speaks to his durability and versatility.
The New England Revolution ended its losing streak at eight on Wednesday with a 3-0 win against the Colorado Rapids and now looks to take that momentum into New Jersey on Saturday as they face the New York Red Bulls.
Luis Robles made 10 saves to help the Red Bulls get the shutout. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduamaphotography.com)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution drew their largest crowd of the season on Sunday with 23,950 at Gillette Stadium, but didn't give the fans much to cheer about as they fell 2-0 to a severely undermanned New York Red Bulls.
Bradley Wright-Phillips just cannot stop scorin' mates! SWP bailed us out again, scoring the tying goal at Columbus and allowing the NY Red Bulls to get out of Cow Town with a 1-1 draw and a precious road point. This
It was a frustrating game as the Red Bulls should have had (at least) 2 goals at the break.
After another lackluster fist half, the Red Bulls roared back and handed the #DOOP boys a 2-1 loss @The Cathedral of Football. A much needed victory for our boys, with Thierry Henry and Lloyd Sam finding the back of the net. Philadelphia pulled one back late, through a penalty (committed by Sekagya - who saw Red on the play), and it was a very nervy 17 (or so) final minutes.
After a number of players left the club in the last few weeks, the New York Red Bulls ensured that three current players would be in the squad next season
The Red Bulls announced today that Eric Alexander, Peguy Luyindula, and Kosuke Kimura have all signed new contracts with the club.
It was without question a very ugly game. It was far from the Union's best performance of the season. But thanks to the back line and MacMath, the Union were able to hold on for a 0-0 draw at Red Bull Arena, their first ever road points against New York Red Bulls.
The first half was a rather slow affair not consisting of a lot of good chances.
When the tests returned on Tim Cahill's banged up knee, the New York Red Bulls learned that they would be without a leader on the team and one of their best players this season for up to a month.
On his weekly conference call with the press, Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke said that Cahill would miss the next 3-4 weeks with a torn PCL in his right knee.
Native Canadian TFC Midfielder, Jonathan Osorio (artist's conception)
Red Bull fans may still be in a state of shock after the unexpected destructification of the then-Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Impact last weekend.
Let's talk about statement wins. That's what the New York Red Bulls, Real Salt Lake, and Portland Timbers wanted to talk about this weekend. Those three teams showed what they're all about as they each bagged three points against big-time foes.
The Games
New York Red Bulls 4-0 Montreal Impact
The Montreal Impact's defense continued to leak goals in Saturday's fixture at the New York Red Bulls, who put four past the visitors to cruise to a win.
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the New York Red Bulls, with stars such as Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill on the team, are in a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference.
What is surprising though, is that the standout player in the last few weeks has been right midfielder Eric Alexander.
As the sweaty tedium of summer drags on and transfer rumors dominate the headlines, it's important to be sure you get your regular dose of actual competitive matches to serve as thenourishmentnecessary to get through this difficult period. Like a meal of cake and pizza with vitamins hidden inside, this batch of MLS goal of the week nominees is especially wonderful.
When Hans Backe was relieved of his Red Bull head coaching duties on November 9, 2012 it signaled the end of an unsuccessful Nordic reign in Harrison and - most RBNY fans hoped - the beginning of a more positive style of football.
The New York Red Bulls played their worst home game of the season and dropped all three points to the visiting men from 'The Great White North'. The Whitecaps, who hadn't won an away game in something close to a year, took advantage of shocking mistakes/crap play by RBNY to take all three points.
For most of the match, the injury-depleted San Jose Earthquakes looked nothing like the team that won the Supporters' Shield and scored by far the most goals in Major League Soccer last year. The final few minutes and stoppage time [...]
UPPER MONTCLAIR, N.J. Playing at JELD-WEN Field under normal circumstances is intimidating. Playing there in a season opener is even worse.
The New York Red Bulls have the honors (or bad luck) of having to play out the second scenario, as they visit Caleb Porter and the new-look Portland Timbers on Sunday in their first game of 2013.
Thierry Henry is a far better soccer player than he is a teammate.
Despite starting two defenders that did not actually play, one of whom is not even an MLS player anymore,DCU4LIFE logged the round's top score with 81 points. Thierry Henry (NY, $10.7) was the captain and scored 40 points with a goal and three assists.
Dax McCarty of New York Red Bulls (Wikimedia Commons)
The New York Red Bulls will look to stretch their unbeaten run against the Vancouver Whitecaps and will have to do so without Tim Cahill in the midfield. As the Aussie is off on international duty, Juninho and Dax McCarty must pick up the slack in order to continue their unbeaten run.
Earlier this week, I talked to a pair of current New York Red Bull starters who have FC Dallas ties in midfielders Eric Alexander and Dax McCarty, both of whom were members of the 2010 team that advanced all the way to MLS Cup. Here's what this talented duo had to say about several different subjects.
Eric Alexander joined the Timbers in August of 2011 after successful rookie and sophomore campaigns with FC Dallas during which he scored two goals in 39 appearances. His first few months with the Timbers featured just three starts and five appearances overall, as he struggled to combine fully with his new teammates.
Yesterday we saw the Portland Timbers trade away Eric Alexander, the Timbers' leader in assists in 2013. A week before that saw Kris Boyd leave. Appreciations threads for both players will be coming soon, but before we get to that I wanted to take a moment to go over some etiquette for these threads.
Merritt Paulson took to Twitter this morning to do two things. First he wished Eric Alexander luck in New York, as any good club president would do, and then he hinted that more player news would be coming later this week. While we have no doubt that the Portland Timbers weren't finished building their squad, news coming so soon after the team returned from Arizona is very welcome!
I've stated before that Eric Alexander made the most sense for a possible trade and it now appears that that is exactly what is happening. Ives Galarcep, no stranger to getting it spot on with regards to Portland Timbers trades before they're announced, is this morning reporting that Alexander will be heading to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for a bit of allocation money.
Line Up: Donovan Ricketts; Ryan Miller, David Horst, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Michael Harrington; Diego Chara, Jack Jewsbury (Eric Alexander), Diego Valeri, Will Johnson; Darlington Nagbe, Ryan Johnson
The Timbers started off the game in a 4-4-2 diamond formation with the same first team players that they have been using in practice.
The Red Bulls beat the Revolution 2-0 in a game the losers deserved to win, by every statistical measure. This only goes to show, unfortunately, how critical a couple of bad mistakes can be in deciding the outcome of a game.
The first goal, in the 17th minute, came off a Lloyd Sam free kick that was headed in easily by a totally unmarked Eric Alexander.
The Portland Timbers returned to Portland after 10 days of training in Arizona to prepare for their pre-season tournament next week. While players resume the search to find roles within the team's depth chart, the Timbers are also exploring other options to solidify their group. To that end, midfielder Eric Alexander was traded to New York for allocation money in what Merritt Paulson indicated on Twitter to be a potentially busy week for player news.
