Pick the Houston Dynamo Starting Lineup against the Seattle Sounders

The Houston Dynamo have now been eliminated from playoff contention and have lost their last 2 matches after putting together their first back-to-back wins of the season. While Wade Barrett had been criticized for his lack of offensive punch in his schemes, the Dynamo have scored 9 goals in the past 5 matches. With a game coming up this Sunday against the LA Galaxy, Wade Barrett now can shake things up enough to keep players fresh for next game and to audition players for next season.

Last week’s match against 2^nd place in the Western Conference the Colorado Rapids had some moments that showed the strength of the team, specifically in the 2^nd half, but also showed the same weaknesses we’ve seen all year. When the team sits in, as it did for most of the 1^st half, opponents control the majority of the chances to score. But we were able to see the offense come alive as it supported forward Mauro Manotas who finished with a brace.

Because the team is playing on Sunday, the team’s last home game, we could see some deviation from the personnel traditional in the Barrett’s formations. I wouldn’t expect too much change as Barrett is still very much trying to win out the year to impress the front office so that he can have the interim tag removed from his role as manager. I think a healthy mix of different players – new and young, could be key against Seattle and would allow Barrett to use whatever lineup he’d like against the LA Galaxy.

Two players that I think are most likely to get the call to start could be David Horst in central defense as Raul Rodriguez has had some trouble lately. The other player that could get the starting nod would be Jose Escalante who has looked very good on the wing in his minutes off the bench.

My Preferred Starting Lineup

This is the lineup I think we should roll out against Seattle other than a 4-4-2, but that just won’t happen, so this is what I think would work well. Escalante gets a start and adds plenty of punch in the offense while we see Horst help control things from the defensive side. The rest is more or less the same – the central midfielder trio of Ricardo Clark, Alex Lima, and Collen Warner remains the same and Oscar Boniek Garcia gets the starting nod at RM over Andrew Wenger.

There are plenty of options to choose from so who do you want to see start against the Seattle Sounders? Let us know below and share your starting squad in the comments below!