Houston Dynamo FC vs. Toronto FC Pre Match Show

e e e all right we are live Glenn all right uh welcome in everybody a little Dynamo pregame show here Houston Dynamo Toronto FC uh everybody back to work here after the League's cup although on Sunday it'll be uh the Columbus crew taking on lafc and I think that's uh pretty much those are your standard bearers and for them to not only be successful in the league but also in the League's cup I I think says a lot about those two organizations um not sure how many people are out there but hopefully uh we can give you a little information here uh tonight's referee is Ted Uncle um the V referee is Kevin Terry Jr his father was a ref and MLS so Dynamo come into this at 107 and seven on 37 points it was almost two weeks they've been off since uh that shock late loss to TCA on penalty kicks they're 42 and five at home they got four out of the next five at home in their upcoming games here so incredible opportunity to set yourself up for trying to get home field advantage get into the playoffs comfortably and without angst um and I think the Dynamo are very much positioned well so here's how they start tonight Steve Clark Franco Escobar Griffin dorsy are the two outside backs fenko and Mikel the two center backs arur who's been outstanding this year in the six um just a real pillar there to allow everybody else to do things not only a part of the build but allows Hector Herrera to attack and have a free role um he's been as good as anybody in my opinion Latif blessing will get the KOCO carisk roll uh Koko remains out I believe it's a quad injury yes um alyu remains on the left a mean Basi just sort of short of him in Midfield and then Ezekiel Pon up front so let's first of all talk about a couple of players I'll go right to I'll go right to Latif blessing um obviously big match for him I I you know he's got five goals on the year had a little spell there scoring some goals for the Dynamo um important for him to do well line bossi I think excellent footballer in fact Ben Olsson said he's a very easy guy to play with and and I would assume that's because he's very technical the only thing that doesn't platform him to Next Level midfielder an MLs is he doesn't score goals he's not a threat to finish um and Ezekiel Pon I think if we looked and some of you out there said they didn't like the way he was playing and you didn't think it was very good um you know you were concerned about him I think he's accelerated and lifted his game to the point where the last game he finally scored a goal a good goal but again he will play in this system which is a very defensive system with his back to goal a lot it's not easy for a striker and that's why you notice you hear Ben Olsen always talking about the striker position and the work ethic that's done the pressing the pushing a play to one side of the field or the other um so you'll get your width late from Griffin dorsy you'll get it from alyu many of you are out there because Lawrence anali has come on and torched a few people um off the dribble and don't get me wrong he's an exciting prospect but I think you really got to put into context the fact that he's doing this against people that are exhausted in the last 15 minutes if I asked Ben olon hey at what point do we see him from the start because you want to probably you know figure out what he looks like as a starter from minute one uh and right now ALU still has the job uh Ben is cited uh his good work ethic uh his defensive responsibility remember this system that the Dynamo play is a defense first system because it is a very narrow system keeps the game very narrow keeps the game uh very compact when they lose the ball so that's what we got we got Brad Smith bartlo Steris from Ferrera uh Andrew tbell Yan gregush wow he hasn't seen him any playing time in a long time Sebastian kaval Brooklyn Reigns and Lawrence Denali um any any questions for me uh yes so with uh Toronto um explain a little bit about Toronto what should we well I was thinking Dynamo first let's go dyn first uh anything come to mind pressure's on here yeah let's so what we H we'll have to break for Ben to give anali the nod for a start over Ali well I think he'll get it I I don't know what what point I I don't think you want to you know change anything they felt they played pretty well um Ben made it pretty clear he didn't he wouldn't have done anything different against TCA I thought they got a little bit too deep defensively in a low block um with five substitutes for me it's easy for me to say because I'm not coaching the team but I would say I would like to have seen a bit of a mix and a little bit more higher pressure if you got five fresh players I don't think we have to assume we got to drop deep allow people into our area and and thumping crosses in in this this day and age whipping crosses in take a deflection um you know anything can happen so and and it did against TCA and that was too bad because the Dynamo deserved a win against TCA not deserved but I wanted to see them win that out because I thought they played very well against TCA and they played well against Atlas those were two the best games for me um all year what else you got uh explain the Dynamo team shape a little bit without Coco uh yeah I mean it's no different the the shape Remains the Same it's just a different piece of personnel um you've seen calch in there you've seen um obviously Coco in there that's his role it's kind of a tucked in right-sided player um and that's kind of a little bit of a Twist that the Dynamo have on their lineup so there you go here's Toronto FC Shawn Johnson played at New York City FC uh it's been a backup with the national team Kevin long sigurd rosted and Shane O'Neal So based on what we see off these official lineups it looks like they're playing and we're not going to go by this because people do funny things coaches with these things but it it is possible they go with a three-back system tonight here in a fiveman Midfield and conf confront the Dynamo in the middle um so then you got longstaff at the end Jr Flores Honduran International Jonathan of Soro Canadian International Lara Canadian International so you got a you got one two got four Internationals in a fiveman midfield for them you got berneski PTO Rico berneski who played for Juventus and Fiorentina played for the Italian national team very dangerous can make a play and then up front you got kind of a bank who's got five goals Prince U so Lorenzo and S not getting a start here tonight so that's pretty big um that's uh I believe what did we say here is his thigh thigh injury yeah okay so their benches maika Franklin cvan who was up in Dallas DeAndre Kerr Henry Wingo Charlie sharp uh Coy Thompson who's a TFC 2 player and Luke Gavin coaches John Herdman very rare coached the Women's National Team sat in the hotel room with him talking about the Women's World Cup um and then uh then he took over the Men's National Team he's been questioned about the whole drone incident because some of that is supposedly dated way way back um but John Herdman is the coach now very very different and um for him because you know he's coaching a team on a daily basis as opposed to a national team any predictions on Jefferson alde yeah he will not play here tonight he's not on the bench uh will Ben experiment with a different lineup no he's not experimenting with a different lineup we just we just went through him um Raphael I I think Ben's a creature of habit um I think he feels very good with where the team shape is where the understanding is with the players and I don't think you're going to see that type of a change the only time you could see a change if something drastic happened um but you know for those hoping for two Wingers it's not going to happen for those hoping an alali and alyu could be on either side of the field to bring you width and Pace I don't see that happening unless maybe they're behind at least not at the moment um you know since this is the first time uh the Dynamo have played TFC since uh 2019 uh describe TFC a little bit what should we expect from them tonight well I think it's a team um that they they've had some crazy results this year given up three four five goals I don't think they're a very good defending team um that may be the reason why they're going with a fiveman Midfield or part of it is because back four doesn't suit them here keeps them more aggressive keeps them maybe higher up the field against the Dynamo the Dynamo will come out trying to put these guys under um I think I think Federico berneski is is is going to be an interesting watch here tonight because this is not a comfortable place to play and this is a guy that's got a ped pedigree um he's an emotional player very talented player Cuts in on his left foot if he's out on the right so you got to be very very careful of him um so there you go hi David that's my buddy David you see David manakas be hey David how are you buddy um yeah so I think it's a very up and down team look they're they're desperate they're up against it they got a win tonight they only have eight only got eight games two wins in their last 10 as Justin just said umis it's not a good team you know everybody is always going to Hype the opponent up it's it's a very inconsistent team in MLS and that said in MLS we always know inconsistent teams can win on any given day but to that point um I I see the Dynamo scoring a couple goals here tonight they're going to get their chances against this team and you know our our our favorite thing is you know 60% of the teams make the playoff no 62% 62% sorry uh you know it's somehow even it's not my favorite thing it's reality no yeah um but even with their their string or their uh form lately I mean only winning two two of their last 10 they're somehow still in a playoff spot they sit eighth on the table and E you just you just said 62% of the things like the playoffs so that's why they're still in a position and pretty much everybody is um and that's just that's MLS um they only have 24 points available so we'll see both the teams went out in the round the 32 in the League's cup um just for your information Toronto took penalties over the Red Bulls they beat pachuka two to one and then they lost four to three to enter Miami that was a crazy game but again they give up a lot of goals um 47 goals they got a negative 13 goal differential they're only 38 and three on the road and um look there they in a conference where right behind them is Atlanta Philly Montreal Nashville DC and even Chicago you could say I mean they basically got to win out but there's a lot of teams that are Urgent and are still quote unquote in the playoff hunt uh real quick guys be sure to like share subscribe follow us on all the social media platforms Twitter SLX uh Facebook YouTube um Instagram uh soccer matters uh it's the handle on all those then you have Glenn's uh Glenn Davis sock on Twitter yeah and and listen um if if you guys want to hear uh the local call uh with me on the call you're certainly welcome to do that you click on uh the Apple if not you take the U the other call that's fine uh hi Raphael thanks from New York City excellent Raphael we got I will be up there uh I will be up there in a week not next week the week after I'm heading up East where's Edson Ed's at Monteray right now Monteray Edson uh I suggest a cabrito I take the whole damn animal and lay it out on a table it's phenomenal I've had it down there uh good uh anybody else got anything before uh we take off here by the way LEL Messi's back training that's just some other news that's out there um see what the scores are real quick there are some scores we can give you but um we're getting ready for this one I I think it's going to be interesting to see how all the MLS teams now you know know after leagues Cup come out of this because it is that time in Major League Soccer where things are Urgent they feel more consequence they feel a bit more pressure and that pressure either gets turned into positive football or negative football so we'll see but I I'm going to stick with the Dynamo scoring a couple goals here tonight because this has not been a good defensive team at all all right real quick we've got uh Minnesota Seattle Sanders tied two2 in 60th we have uh Montreal down uh one nil at home against New England the 35th minute Charlotte's up 1- nil against New York rebels in a 36 minute DC United is losing at home the FC Dallas uh 2 to one and the 37th minute inter Miami with Suarez having two goals in the 36th minute over FC Cincinnati nycfc is up 2-0 over Chicago that's your scores right now so all right um thanks for tuning in everybody uh we're going to take a break we're going to get ready to call this game we'll come back after the game if you'd like I would love to hear uh your thoughts on the game as well uh thank you very much uh for tuning in and uh we'll see you after the game and uh David I'm sorry about your dad uh praying for him hope he's okay we'll gu we'll see you guys after the game later