Several key players missed matches on Saturday and it was the team's that were well-equipped to handle those losses that prevailed.
When Sebastian Giovinco and Erick 'Cubo' Torres were absent from their respective teams' lineups on Saturday, the easy reaction to those absences was to believe that Toronto FC and the Houston Dynamo would struggle without the focal points of their attacks.
Neither team did though. Instead, both relied on strong bench options to post a pair of impressive victories that saw several teams turn to their reserves and yield positive results in the process.
Toronto FC chose to rest a quartet of key starters for Saturday's visit to Seattle, a move that made sense considering that TFC played on Wednesday — beating Orlando City — and because coach Greg Vanney was a firm believer in his team's depth.