The reigning USL Playoff champions FC Los Angeles will face the recent USL Cup champions Houston Dynamo in a battle of two teams that are good at dealing with knockout matches and are expected to fight for a spot in the finals.
I played as a goalkeeper during my playing days, so I was very impressed with the performance of FC Los Angeles' goalkeeper Kiribio in his team's 1-0 win over the Seattle Sounders. He made a number of good saves to keep the team from conceding a goal and keep their chances of winning the game alive, which is exactly the kind of performance you need to deliver to advance to the later stages of the knockout rounds. He deserves the most credit for the shutout and is the main reason why FC Los Angeles is in the West Coast Final.
Dennis Boyega scored another great goal for FC Los Angeles, firstly he drew the ball in with high speed on the left side and then he shot into the net, he was really hot. He has scored 12 goals in his last 8 matches for the club and the national team, so I'll be keeping an eye on him this time around.
However, at times I felt that FC LA's defense looked a bit shorthanded, especially with Chiarlini's lack of speed, and could be a gap for Houston-Dynamo to try and make a breakthrough.
In Houston Dynamo's win over Sporting Kansas, the flanking aspect of the game was quite dangerous, and I thought Nelson Quinlanis was a huge threat from the left side of the field.
Carrasquina is a creative player who has the ability to create a lot of problems for the opposing team's defense, so FC Los Angeles will have to guard against his threat on the right side of the field. And it is precisely the center of the midfield, Hedda Boot Lira, who has successfully handed out an assist for Nicolas Escobar's goal from a corner kick in the last game, and he is definitely the lifeblood of the offense and defense of Houston-Dinamo.
