Football Previews
The Houston Dynamo will play Sporting Kansas City in the second leg of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday, November 23rd at Sporting Park in Kansas City. The winner of the match will advance to the 2013 MLS Cup Final. The Houston Dynamo are the current defending Eastern Conference champion, and are trying to return to the finals for the second straight season.
The first leg played in Houston on the 9th of November ended in a 0-0 draw, and both teams have a two week break to make adjustments because of some of their players will be representing their countries in FIFA international games.
Both teams are very familiar with each other, and there is no love lost between them because the Dynamo have eliminated Sporting Kansas City from the playoffs for the past two years. Houston could have been up a goal on aggregate, but a score by Kofi Sarkodie in the 17th minute was ruled offside, and disallowed.
Sporting Kansas City is hoping to take advantage of their home field advantage in the second leg because the Dynamo are not a very good road team this season. The Dynamo have 5 wins, 5 draws, and 7 loses on the road while Sporting Kansas city has 9 wins, 3 draws, and 5 loses at home.
Both teams were clearly fatigued going into the first game because of their schedules which had Houston playing 6 games in 17 days, and Sporting Kansas City playing 5 games in the same time frame. The two weeks off will also give the players some time to rest, and to heal for the injured players.
The Houston Dynamo are hoping to avoid another letdown in Kansas City, they lost 1-0 in the second leg of their playoff series last season, and were able to advance to the next round because of their 2-0 victory at the BBVA Compass stadium in Houston. Being held scoreless at home in the first leg puts extra pressure on them to get a win in Kansas City.
The Dynamo will be trying to avoid allowing an early goal, and apply pressure on Sporting Kansas City throughout the match, because they know if Kansas City scores first, they will sit on the lead and play defense for the rest of the match.
Kansas City finished the season with 58 points, which was the second best record in the league. They don’t seem to be intimidated by the Dynamo and their recent success, they should be able to get past the hump against the Houston Dynamo, and make it back to their first MLS Cup Finals since 2004.
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