North Texas Mean Green vs. Memphis Tigers Pick & Prediction OCTOBER 19th 2024

The Houston Dynamo flouted most expectations in ending fourth in the Western Conference and earning an MLS Cup playoff berth with ease, but they now bear most of the pressure entering Match 3 at home against Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

The Dynamo have never been behind in the best-of-three Round One series, and yet find themselves one game away from elimination after losing on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw at RSL on Monday night.

Between garnering a conference best-tying 11 regular-season wins at home and capturing the 2023 U.S. Open Cup title, the zenith for this team feels much higher than at the beginning of the season, Houston coach Ben Olsen admitted.

"My expectations were to make the playoffs," Olsen said of when he first took charge of the Dynamo before this season. "The expectations of the team now are greater than I thought they would be at this moment. That means we're progressing in the right direction. The expectations are probably that we should win this game because we're at home, so that's great. That's what we've signed on for, and that's where we want to push this club."

Amine Bassi has scored in each match for the Dynamo, and Hector Herrera also found the net for Houston in a 2-1 win in Match 1. But Bassi also was rescued from the penalty spot in regulation before scoring on the rebound and failed to convert again in the tiebreak.

Houston will have to confront the challenge of RSL forward Cristian Arango, who missed the opening match with an injury but helped turn the tide of Match 2 after coming on as a second-half substitute.

Fifth-seeded Salt Lake eventually leveled through Jefferson Savarino and may be able to get more minutes on Saturday from Arango, who scored six times in 11 appearances after making a return to MLS this summer. He was the leading scorer on the 2022 MLS Cup champion LAFC squad before a short stint at Pachuca in Liga MX.

"I think when Chicho comes into the game, not only does it bring faith into the stadium, but it's contagious within the group," RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. "It's something that we haven't had for probably a month now with Chicho, but really excited with his fitness levels, and the runs he was making, his pressing ability, heading into (Match) 3."

PREDICTION

North Texas Mean Green

Memphis Tigers

North Texas Mean Green vs. Memphis Tigers Recap OCT 19TH 2024

Griffin Dorsey transformed the concluding kick of the tiebreaker to raise the Houston Dynamo into the Western Conference semifinals with a 4-3 victory on penalties following a 1-1 draw with visiting Real Salt Lake in their Round One series decider on Saturday night.

Dorsey's triumphant kick -- which just barely evaded the diving Zac MacMath -- came after substitute Danny Musovski struck the post with Salt Lake's fifth penalty.

Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark saved Diego Luna's effort, but MacMath responded by denying Nelson Quinones to set up the dramatic finish.

Corey Baird scored his first goal of the postseason to give the Dynamo the first-half lead in this deciding game of a best-of-three series.

Luna answered with a 65th-minute header, as RSL came from behind to tie for a third consecutive game.

But Salt Lake never led in this series, with Houston winning the opener 2-1 before tying the latter matches at 1-1.

And this time the fourth-seeded Dynamo won the penalty tiebreak, earning them the right to host eighth-seeded Sporting Kansas City in a single-elimination semifinal to be played on Nov. 25 or 26.

Baird put Houston in front in the 28th minute. After RSL failed to completely clear a free kick from the right, Nelson Quinones reached it on the left flank and sent in a second cross toward the back post.

The ball skimmed off a Salt Lake defender before reaching Hector Herrera, who headed it back across goal for Baird to

jab

home from just inside the 6-yard box.

Baird nearly had a second in the 63rd minute when he reached Griffin Dorsey's cross after a counter down the right, but defender Justen Glad intervened just in time to take the shot wide of the near post.

Luna leveled three minutes later on one of RSL's best sequences of the match that eventually saw the ball come to fullback Bryan Oviedo on the left.

Oviedo played a clever cross back toward the penalty spot in the path of the late run of Luna, who sent his header bouncing off the turf, beyond Clark's dive and inside the right post.

MacMath nearly gifted Houston a second goal 15 minutes from full time when he played a bad pass leading to an immediate Dynamo break.

He made up for it with a desperate lunge that deflected Hector Herrera's pass that, if received, would have set up a shot into an empty net.