As the Major League Soccer season winds down, neither Sporting Kansas City or the Houston Dynamo have locked up a playoff spot. Sporting currently sits in second place in the West, but it would take a longshot for them to miss out on postseason contention over the last two weeks. A win against the Dynamo would have secured their postseason berth and let them try to secure a first-round bye moving forward. Houston, however, is caught in the logjam in the Western Conference and needed a result to keep themselves in the thick of things.
While both teams were without several starters because of World Cup Qualifying, several of Houston’s key attacking pieces would miss the match, including Hondurans Romell Quioto, Boniek Garcia, and Albeth Ellis and Panamian Adolfo Machado, who played key roles in helping their countries earn results.