After squeaking out a 1 - 0 victory over Columbus Crew SC on opening weekend, the Houston Dynamo will be looking to put on a better showing as they welcome expansion side Orlando City SC for the first time at BBVA Compass Stadium. Both teams enter the match with question marks in defense, with Orlando missing center back Aurelien Collin after he received a red card in their first match against NYCFC and the Dynamo possibly not having a 100% Raul Rodriguez after he left the last match with an aggravated hamstring injury.
In their opening match, Orlando coach Adrian Heath lined up Collin with Seb Hines in the center of defense. While they were effective in closing down NYC's aerial game, Collin looked a step off with his tackles, which is what ultimately lead to a rough challenge on David Villa and his early marching orders. For the Dynamo, Rodriguez went down with a hamstring injury in the dying minute of the match, a re-aggravating of an injury he picked up in pre-season.
For Heath, he'll have to find a replacement, which means his safest bet is to move Amobi Okugo back into defense. Another option could be to use veteran defender Sean St. Ledger or even US U-20 defender Conor Donovan. In either case, the Orlando defense will be losing a big part of their defense, especially since Collin has made a career out of winning games against the Dynamo. Without that experience, the task of getting their first point(s) on the road became much tougher.
On the flip side, Dynamo coach Owen Coyle may want to think about holding back Rodriguez after re-aggravating his injury. Even if he shows well in training (and he isn't listed on the official Injury Report), it may not be wise to start him on the chance he'll have to be subbed out should the hamstring give way again. If Coyle does make that choice, the defense will be all the worse for it as David Horst is likely to take his place, who is coming off a disappointing 2014 campaign. With Kaka and Brek Shea supporting arguably the fastest offense in the league, it could be a disaster without Rodriguez to be the speed and positional defender needed to keep them in check.
Fortunately for Coyle and the Dynamo, they have Tyler Deric in goal, who completely stone-walled the Crew last week and was arguably the top player in the first week. After putting on such a great performance, and with Orlando's attack still trying to find it's rhythm, it's possible that another clean sheet is in the books. If that is going to happen, though, the Dynamo will need to be more secured along the flanks defensively. Against Columbus they gave up too much space that resulted in constant crosses into the box. The best kind of goalkeeper performance is the one where he isn't needed. That wasn't the case last week and the defense will be looking to rectify that.
Much like last week, also, the Dynamo will be relying heavily on Ricardo Clark and Luis Garrido to control the center of the field, limiting the service to and from Kaka. While they enjoyed some success last week, they'll need to be even more on top of their game as Orlando employs more speed than the Crew's possession game. Denying the one-two passing will give them a better chance to catch Shea, deployed as a left back, high up the pitch for Sarkodie and Garcia to exploit mercilessly.
If Rodriguez is ready to go, expect the Dynamo to have a field day up the right flank, but struggle some against the speed of Orlando. Fortunately the opposition offense is still trying to find its legs, giving the Dynamo defense a reprieve this week. A 1 - 0 victory for the hometown team is in the cards for this one.