Houston Dynamo take on Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo

Ladies and Gentlemen: MLS IS BACK! The MLS season picked back up Wednesday June 25 with a 0-0 draw between Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact. This match is key for the Houston Dynamo for a couple of reasons first Montreal is in last place in the East with only 2 wins, 11 points, and only 13 goals scored all season. Second, Montreal will be playing its second game in less than 5 days so the team won't be as rested as the Dynamo so this should be the perfect game for us to snap our 4 game losing steak. The Dynamo haven't won a MLS game in over a month their last MLS win came on May 17^th against our AEG brethren the L.A. Galaxy.

Our story so far...

Although we haven't won a MLS match in over a month the Dynamo did snap their losing streak in a USOC match against the Laredo Heat. Subsequently near a fortnight later we were knocked out of the USOC tournament thanks to that team 4 hours to the north of us. With that said the Dynamo are primed to snap their MLS losing streak. Injuries have been a plenty for the Dynamo the past month; Ricardo Clark missing 9 games due to a concussion, Corey Ashe suffering due to his MCL, David Horst suffering a groin injury, and both Will Bruin and Alexander Lopez suffering hip injuries (right and left respectively) we have been severely depleted. But Darrell Lovell brought us some good news this morning-all of the aforementioned players have traveled with the team to Montreal. But like a 90s TV infomercial I can't help to say "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!" the team is also hopeful that Oscar Boniek Garcia will return to the club after a solid run in the World Cup with the Honduran National Team.

Although the Dynamo are still without our Captain Brad Davis I have feeling he will be cheering us on over 5000 miles away while he is Brazil while getting ready for the USA's  huge knockout game on Tuesday. Although we have struggled in the past month some of our players have finally stepped up namely our #10 Alexander Lopez who has had some great showings in the midfield in Boniek Garcia and Brad Davis's absence. Many people have questioned him (myself included) but he has risen to the challenge and is steadily rising to the occasion of being a Designated Player like his Honduran counterpart.

Know your neighbor to the far north...

The Montreal Impact or Impact De Montréal depending which language you want to go with have not had the ideal season. With only two wins all season long the Impact are still attempting to find their form. Goal scoring for the Impact is currently being lead by youngster Jack Mclnerney and Argentinean Andres Romero each having 4 goals apiece this season. Fortunately for the bulk of the league veteran Italian Marco Di Vaio hasn't found his goal scoring form that he had last season and has netted only one goal this season. That said it isn't for a lack of trying Marco Di Vaio leads the team with 31 shots and 12 on goal so the Italian veteran is making the attempts.  The good news for the Dynamo is that Di Vaio did miss Wednesday's game due to a nagging hamstring but is set to be back with the Impact against the Dynamo. The back four of the Impact tends to be anchored by former USMNT defender Heath Pearce and former Ligue 2 defender Hassoun Camara.

The match itself...

The Houston Dynamo are near full strength, less Brad Davis, our only major questions for Sunday's game are Ricardo Clark (concussion) and Will Bruin (right hip). While Rico may miss another game or two he is training with the team now and that is a good sign. Will Bruin's hip is still giving him some problems so don't be too surprised if he sees little to no playing time on Sunday. We still have attacking options with Alexander Lopez, Giles Barnes, Omar Cummings to help lead the attack. Furthermore don't let Montreal's record fool you they are a very dangerous team, especially with Di Vaio and Mclnerney leading the attack for them. The last time we played Montreal this year we came away with a 1-0 victory but they had a very strong showing against us. If our attackers can find away to get around the back line of the Impact we should be able to come away with the 3 points to start the next half of the MLS season properly.

Tune in Sunday at 6:30PM CST to see the Houston Dynamo take on the Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo on CSN.