Pick the Houston Dynamo Lineup against the New England Revolution

Last week went pretty well didn’t it? The Houston Dynamo have nine points in four games with last week’s 4-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls being among their standout performances of the year despite missing players to injury or rest. Erick Torres stood out in that game, not only because of his hat trick, but because of the work he did to pressure defenders, win possession, and find and make the right passes in the final third of the field. Dylan Remick stepped in for DaMarcus Beasley at the left back position and performed well as he added the first Dynamo goal, an equalizer, while providing crucial clearances out of the back. Mauro Manotas got his first start of the season and he helped earn the penalty that put the Dynamo up a goal before halftime.

It hasn’t been all good though for the Dynamo this year as they’ve benefited from a heavy home schedule early in the year while getting a week of rest during the international break – a luxury not every MLS team had. The team has played wonderfully at home, but still needs to earn points on the road to be a legitimate contender for the MLS Cup. At Portland things began well, but old tendencies of sitting back on leads resurfaced and the Timbers pounced using their possession based style to pin the Dynamo in their own half as they mounted enough chances to come back and win the game. It will be a good test to see if the Dynamo can put away the New England Revolution, a club struggling to get going this year.

Depth seemed to pass the test against the Red Bulls and that should provide Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera the opportunity to not rush players back from injuries. Notably Romell Quioto and Juan David Cabezas have both been upgraded on the injury report to doubtful and questionable respectively, but given how well their replacements played it could be better for Cabrera to keep his depth on the field to give his starters a chance to get back to 100%. Last week Leonardo was a late scratch as he had a hamstring injury during practice and he is currently listed as out so I would expect Jalil Anibaba to get another start at CB. Quioto’s exact replacement is harder to predict as Manotas had a much better game than Andrew Wenger, but Manotas was playing for the resting Alberth Elis who should get the start at New England. I think we see Wenger here, but it’s possible Manotas gets minutes or the veteran Vicente Sanchez.

My Projected Starting Lineup

So who do you want to see face the New England Revolution? Let us know and feel free to share your choices in the comments section below!