Pick the Starting Lineup: Houston Dynamo vs. Real Salt Lake

The Houston Dynamo are coming off their first back-to-back wins of the season and have put together an impressive four game unbeaten run going back to the club’s 3-2 win over the LA Galaxy. Last week the Dynamo took over late to best New York City FC 3-1. The club now has a double game week playing both matches on the road. First up they’ll travel to Rio Tinto Stadium to face off against Real Salt Lake tomorrow before heading north of the border to Stade Saputo to play the Montreal Impact. The Dynamo have had issues with many players dealing injuries so some players may be expected to play heavy minutes.

The Houston Dynamo offense is in a four way tie for most goals finished and they’ve done that thanks to breaking out on counter attacks and for capitalizing on set pieces. Alberth Elis has been building a case to make the All-Star Game with 7 goals and 5 assists on the year so far and he should no doubt start against RSL. Romell Quioto has been instrumental in helping the team score goals as he’s been involved in nearly all of the team’s goals since rejoining the starting XI and he should also be a lock to start on the left wing. Mauro Manotas has been a bit of the odd man out of the offense with his hold up play needing work as well as his passing. He still would be my projected starter and he’s done a lot of the small things like firing shots at distance to test keepers and he helped draw the penalty against the Chicago Fire which ended up bringing the game level.

The midfield saw a boost with Juan David Cabezas coming off the bench against NYCFC even though he still appears on the injury report. I would think he isn’t quite ready to return to the starting XI, but could feature off the bench and possibly be ready for a start in Montreal. In place of him I think we see the same midfield we saw last week with Tomás Martínez playing above Oscar Boniek García and Eric Alexander. Martínez was able to put the Dynamo up a goal against NYCFC after putting back a squared pass from Boniek who won the ball in a good spot.

Along the back line is where we are likely to see the most variation in starting lineups. Last week Andrew Wenger was a late scratch from the lineup so I’ll list him as questionable, but I think he’ll play either against RSL or against Montreal. Centrally I would predict Alejandro Fuenmayor to continue to get minutes – especially after scoring a goal – with Adolfo Machado next to him. Who plays at left back becomes a little interesting because of any wear and tear DaMarcus Beasley might see due to heavy minutes. He could start against RSL and the Impact and be subbed off for newcomer Adam Lundqvist or the Swede could get his first start with the Dynamo in one of the games. I’d expect Beasley to start against RSL, but I hope we can get a look at our newest fullback sometime soon.

Injury Report

OUT: D - A.J. DeLaGarza (torn left ACL)

OUT: M - Juan David Cabezas (left quad injury)

OUT: D - Philippe Senderos (right hamstring injury)

OUT: D - George Malki (left knee sprain)

OUT: D - Dylan Remick (concussion)

OUT: D - Kevin Garcia (left hamstring injury)

OUT: D - Jared Watts (right hamstring injury)

M - Darwin Ceren (leg injury)

My Projected Starting Lineup

There are a ton of options, not to mention formations to play with so let us know who you think should be in the starting lineup against RSL!