The Houston Dynamo continue their three-game, coast-to-coast road trip on Wednesday night when they travel to San Jose, Calif., to face the Earthquakes.
The eight-day, 5,077-mile trip started with a 4-0 loss at Portland last Saturday. The final stop will be in Foxboro, Mass., on Saturday when the Dynamo face the New England Revolution.
Houston (7-4-3, 24 points) enters the Wednesday night contest in fifth place in the Western Conference. San Jose (5-6-4, 19 points) is tied for eighth place on points with both Sporting Kansas City and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Dynamo are anxious to move on from the lopsided loss to the Timbers in Providence Park.
“This game will leave a sour taste in our mouth,” Houston midfielder Marlon Hairston said. “Wednesday can’t come fast enough for us. Hopefully we can right our wrongs on Wednesday.”
Diego Valeri scored a goal on a penalty kick to go with three assists for Portland, which finished with a 10-1 edge in shots on target.
“We didn’t do well when we were attacking,” Houston coach Wilmer Cabrera said. “Most of the goals we suffered were in transition, (and) we knew they transition very quickly. Basically, three goals came in that situation, where we were attacking inside their box and they won the ball, and we didn’t react well to their transition and we got punished.”
Next up is a San Jose team that comes in off a 3-1 loss at Los Angeles FC on Thursday night in a U.S. Open Cup match that was much closer than the final score indicated. Chris Wondolowski, named to the 2019 MLS All-Star team on Monday, headed in a goal that was disallowed for narrowly being offside, and Magnus Eriksson blasted another shot off the post. LAFC goalie Pablo Sisniega finished with eight saves.
“I thought it was one of the most unjust results for various reasons,” San Jose coach Matias Almeyda said. “First because our team played very well, and the opposing team is much deeper than ours. We pressured a team that is the best in the league.”
“We’re not scared of anyone anymore,” said Wondolowski, who has eight goals in his past four MLS matches. “We’re not changing our way. We’re going to be who we are, and we have an identity now, and we’re going to continue that.”
–Field Level Media