By Bruce Nolte
The Vancouver Whitecaps are coming off a 2-1 win last Saturday in Seattle to get back in the winning bracket after dropping their opening two matches to Montreal 3-2 and Sporting KC 2-1. The upcoming match against Houston is expected to draw a sellout crowd of 22,120 at BC Place.
Houston sport a 1-1-1 record, good for 4 points, sitting in 6th place in the Western Conference. Having scored 11 while allowing 7 on the backline, the Dynamo have a 1-0-1 record at home and 1-0-0 on the road. The Caps are 0-1-0 at home and 1-1 on the road, scoring 5 goals while allowing 6 against. With 3 points in the standings, they are good for 9th place in the Western Conference.
The Caps are led by Pedro Morales who has 3 goals and an assist on the season. Jordan Harvey and Kendall Watson are the only others to have found the back of the net so far in 2016. Goalkeeper David Ousted finally came up with a big effort in the win over the Sounders last Saturday allowing only a goal against after letting in 5 in the first two games.
The Caps will be without four starters from the game against Seattle as Kendall Watson, Tim Parker, Christian Bolaños, and Blas Pérez are playing for their respective national teams. This means Vancouver will have to go the likes of Pa Modou Kah, Cole Seiler, Masato Kudo and Andrew Jacobson to fill the void left by these these players in the game against the Dynamo.
Houston have started the season hot on offense, led by Will Bruin with 3 goals and two assists as well as Andrew Wenger with 2 goals. Goalkeeper Joe Willis has played every minute this season for the Dynamo giving up 7 goals.
This should be an interesting match between these two teams that know each well. It promises to be intense on the pitch when they play against each other at 7:00pm PST on Saturday.
Prediction: Whitecaps 2 – Dynamo 2
