Pick the Houston Dynamo lineup against Sporting Kansas City

Houston Dynamo FC have drawn their last two matches against quality opponents in LAFC and most recently FC Dallas. This week will be a test for Head Coach Tab Ramos with it being a midweek game before another fixture against the Colorado Rapids this Saturday. One of my observations from the Dallas game, and it’s been a trend for Ramos, has been his poor timing regarding substitutions. With so many games in such a short amount of time, Ramos may have to alter his starting lineups some which have only changed once in his four games this season. That will mean some of the usual suspects to start may only receive cameo appearances off the bench and it could give rise to new players getting the start.

Along the back line, and including the goalkeeper, these are players that typically can withstand a large number of minutes without being too phased. Even if they’ve lost a step to being a little sore, proper communication and positioning goes a long way to saving legs for future matches. I think it’s a no brainer that Marko Marić remains the first choice goalkeeper for this one. Defensively we only saw one change last week and that was Maynor Figueroa starting over Oscar Boniek García. I think we’re likely to see a similar backline with Adam Lundkvist at left back, Zarek Valentin at right back, and Figueroa and Tim Parker partnering in the middle half.

In the midfield I think we see some changes, but not too many. Derrick Jones was the first substitute for Ramos and Ramos was largely positive of Jones following the game. I think he sits in the deepest defending midfielder position again. Matías Vera is likely to start again and probably in the same position he did against Dallas. Vera and Jones occasionally took turns pushing up the field with Vera being a little more active in that regard as the more experienced player. At the 10 spot I struggled between Darwin Quintero and Oscar Boniek García. Ultimately I went with Boniek as he can contribute more to the defensive side of the ball than Quintero, but we could see Memo moved back to this position with Quintero moved out wide.

Up top I opted for the same front three as last match with Memo occupying the left wing, Maxi Urruti as the center forward, and Fafà Picault on the right. Memo and Picault could switch sides at will as they did last game and Urruti does great work on both sides of the ball. We could see Quintero or Ariel Lassiter start, but midweek matches aren’t easy to predict and depend on how players are feeling at the time.

My Projected Starting Lineup:

This is just the lineup that I think we’ll see, but what do you think we’ll see? What should the starting XI look like in the Dynamo’s game against Sporting Kansas City? Let us know in the comments below!