DC United @ Houston Dynamo: Preview, time, and how to watch
The World Cup break is over, and DC United is back on the field for the first time in over six weeks tonight as they travel to Texas to take on the Houston Dynamo and head coach Ben Olsen. For the Black-and-Red, it’s a chance to start the second half of the season on a positive note by getting three points on the road.
The team is very much focused on the game in hand, but overall it’s an opportunity to start fresh with what feels like a new season. “It’s, for all teams, the same starting point. Of course you want to show some progress, some development,” head coach René Weiler said during media availability on Monday. “So, everybody wants to play a better second part [of the season] than the first part. But…I’m looking only for the next game. So, we want to start well on Wednesday to have this first good impression from this second part and all the rest we will see later.”
DC United has a couple of new additions to the squad, as Andre Dozzell officially joined the roster as well as Nathan Ordaz, who was acquired last week. Weiler said that Dozzell has been integrated into the squad, but it might take a little longer for Ordaz to work his way up to fitness. Still, with the exception of Jordan Farr and Conner Antley, everyone on the roster was deemed fit and available for selection for tonight by Weiler.
DC United captain Lucas Bartlett said that the team had been grinding since early June with practices and closed door scrimmages, and they’re excited to finally face another team. Still, they head to Houston which will have sweltering temperatures even with a 7:30pm local time kickoff. “We played two games leading into this, and I think both those games have been at 11:00am and 103 degrees,” Barlett said. So if that doesn’t get you ready for it, I don’t know what does…so, I’m excited for it. We’re ready for it.”
The Black-and-Red enter this match sitting in the 9th and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference. The Dynamo are in 7th place in the West with a couple matches in hand with some of the teams at the top of the table. DC United is back on the field, so tune in and watch.
DC United @ Houston Dynamo
Location: Shell Energy Stadium, Houston
Kickoff time: 8:30pm ET
Available streaming: Apple TV
DC Lineup is out and it’s…odd?
Johnson; Hefti, Bartlett, Neallis, Kurokawa; Hopkins, Dozzell, Servania, Peglow; Munteanu, Baribo
Subs:
Peltola, Stroud, Murrell, Leveille, Ordaz, Bono, Markovic, Avilez, Kijima
No Rowles at all (or Turner) and Peltola has been relegated to the bench instead of Servania
Hard to tell for sure, but Rowles appears to be in one of the pre game pictures. Maybe he was a late scratch?
I’m assuming that Rowles picked up some sort of injury. Maybe Turner did too. Congrats to Avilez and Leveille for making the game day squad!
Bit of a nervy start here for DC
Must… dial… down… from World-Cup-level… viewing expectations… nnnnrghhaaaargh.
Gotta pick an EPL team and form that mental flexibility 🙂
Oh, I have one (Villa). But I didn’t psychologically prep, just turned on the stream and started watching. That’s what I get for being lazy, lol.
Well, erm, don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s an… interesting signing coming Villa’s way.
Gonna cover it tomorrow for sheer peculiarity
Oh yes, there will be takes on that one.
Exceptional unfortunately by Bond to deny Peglow’s run toward that throughball
Munteanu is going down a lot trying to buy calls it seems.
Dozzell looks good to start this game. Good tempo, and very quick, clean passing. Almost picked out beautiful through ball assist, that was well read and well played by Bond.
Ref is certainly calling this interestingly
You could say that yes.
Both sides incredibly mindful of game state and its importance to their setups
Which, for now, is a lot of footwork and not a lot of real punches
Apple does NOT go to an ad during the hydration break
Which, knock me over with a feather
Hopkins has been really good on defense so far
There’s no era where the wingers in a 4-4-2 can take off the out of possession grind
There’s been criticism of Peglow and Hopkins for impact, but I think that’s a profound misunderstanding of what their jobs are
Apple indicates that the Nono signing announcement should be happening soon
Herrera is one shot, on goal for Houston
Gotta get back into it, certainly can’t concede again to have any shot
Hector Herrera puts Houston up 1-0
Well shit…
Well, Dozzell has a well above average
left footed cross for a central midfielder
Sorta a shame that Hopkins was the recipient and well covered
Well, mixed bag, some decent moments and some poor plays in about equal measure. No surprise there. For now, it’s good to see the team didn’t lose anything in terms of organization over the extended break. <shrugs> Still a fair amount of talent infusion required before we become anything other than a puncher’s chance team.
If we don’t see Peltola this half, something’s up
My theory was that he would melt in the heat
Well, some time to melt, it seems
Think it’s Dozzell scooting wide to the right
Good for Johnson, but that’s an incredibly bad shot choice by MGuire
Hopkins comes off injured and Peltola replaces him. No idea what that means for the formation
I’ve been wanting Kijima to get some minutes, but I also have no idea what this shape is
Not Kijima’s fault,
Yah, the team cohesion was already starting to break up before the triple sub, and now it’s getting rather ragged. Which is a bit odd, since the triple sub put everyone back where they’re nominally supposed to be.
From an attacking standpoint, looks like early season DCU. Not clear where the goals are going to come from tonight.
Apparently very, very randomly
Three Houston players just kinda compete to flub it that thoroughly
1-1
Goal Baribo! Tai game!
I think Ordaz made that play, with the assist.
Well, it fell to Ordaz who made a fantastic decision and executed it sharply, but it got there because Houston lost an aerial duel off a throw in only their players really contested
Dozzell cramping
For the love of god, just let Kijima partner Peltola
I swear it’s legal
Houston is not south Texas…its east Texas…
Correction. It’s western Louisiana.
Good enough for now.
Truly a groundbreaking display of “Weiler needs more attacking pieces to work with” core
Although, I think he’s overlooking some use cases, but regardless, we could use more
Off-topic, but after watching this dreary excuse for a scocer game, I’m watching highlights from other games. The Philly-NYRB game? Thrilling, The highlights package is long and worth every second.
Also, Cavan Sullivan is really good — and 6’6″ Neil Pierre, often mentioned as a contender to start at CB for the USMNT in 2030, comes on for 2nd half corner kick, making his MLS debut, and…SCORES!! Later on, he somehow failed to bundle over a ball into an half-empty net from about 2 feet, as the ball went off his thigh and then amazingly off the crossbar. Still, I think if Sullivan and Pierre are playing for the USMNT in 2030, we are going to be in pretty good shape.
I’d love for a DC United match to be this well-played and exciting.
Playing against NYRB this year can make any team look exciting. Just look at our 4-4 game with them
Full throttle offense all the time.
Lucas MacNaughton with a beautiful header for a goal on a St. Louis City corner kick. Why didn’t he do that for DCU?
He sorta did
He was really good at headers in the box
It was just literally anything to do with out of possession play… or passing… or tackling… sorry, there’s a lot of weaknesses and defects in this truck, where do you want’em?
But, yeah, if I could detach McNaughton’s offensive heading abilities and attach that to Bartlett, I’d throw the rest away comfortably.
DCU does need someone to do that. It’s just, McNaughton couldn’t really deliver anything else