Preview: MNUFC at Houston Dynamo

For the third time in all competitions tonight Minnesota United will play Houston Dynamo tonight at BBVA Stadium in Houston, TX. This is the club’s second meeting in MLS play and second in Houston during the year, both times so far MNUFC has been successful in winning over Houston. Back in May the Loons won 1-0 on the back of a Romain Metanire goal. In June Minnesota came back from down 2-0 to win in 3-2 in Houston and advance to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Quarter-Finals.

The last five games for Houston and Minnesota have been completely different affairs for each side. MNUFC is 2-2-1 in their last 5 with a win on Sunday night on the road against Western Conference and Supporter’s Shield leaders, LAFC. Dynamo on the other hand is on a pretty bad winless skid, not only are they 0-4-1 in their last five, but they haven’t won a match since July 20th against Toronto.

Even though Houston has had an awful stretch recently Head Coach Adrian Heath is not taking Dynamo lightly.

“If all their big guns are fit and healthy, they’re a formidable team to play against at home,” said Heath. “They may be the most dynamic counterattacking team in the league with [Romell] Quioto, [Mauro] Manotas, [Alberth] Elis and [Tomas] Martinez. They’ve got really good attacking pieces. As you always are as a coach, you’re disappointed to see somebody like Wilmer [Cabrera] lose his job. But Davy [Arnaud] will come in now and he’ll get them worked up and they’ll be well organized and we know it’s not going to be an easy game for us but if we can put a performance in similar to the one in LA, we give ourselves a good chance.”

This will also be Christian Ramirez‘s first match against his former club since being traded to LAFC last season. Just over a month ago Ramirez was traded from LAFC to Houston but hasn’t done a ton for them in his month with Dynamo. While Ramirez is the all time goals leader with Minnesota United with 74 goals he has only scored 5 times in 21 appearances between LAFC and Houston in 2019. In his month with Dynamo he has started twice and come off the bench twice, scoring once, with no assists.

Injury Report:

Minnesota United FC

• Out: None
• Questionable: M- Darwin Quintero (general)

Houston Dynamo

• Questionable: None
• Out: D – AJ DeLaGarza (foot)

Loonum Staff Predictions:

Tim McLaughlin: 1-1 Draw

Jacob Schneider: 3-0 Houston

Ashle Norling: 2-1 Loons

Judson Lohman: 2-0 Houston

Zak Lippert: 2-1 Loons

Colin O’Donnell: 1-0 Houston