The 3rd and 4th place teams on the west coast will go head-to-head in this match, and the 3rd place Seattle Sounders will hope to beat Houston Dynamo and end their home slump.
Seattle was only able to draw with Orlando City in the last round of the league with no records on each other, and has not won a single match in the last five league matches, three points away from the top team in the West Coast table.
I believe Seattle is one of the best defensive teams in the USL, with 10 shutouts in 20 league games. However, their problem lies in the front line, where they have failed to score in 4 of their last 5 league matches, so their goal-scoring ability is seriously lacking.
Gustavo Lourdain will be playing for the USA in the Gold Cup and will be out of action for up to a month. In other words, they will be without one of their main players, but Redillas, who didn't play last time, will have a good chance to come back to the front line this time. The Peruvian striker has suffered a lot from injuries this season, but he is still the most threatening player in the squad.
On the other hand, Houston Dynamo suffered a 0-3 defeat at the feet of FC Austin in the last round of the league, but they beat the defending champion FC Los Angeles twice at the beginning of the month, which is a pretty good performance. Now they are only two points behind Seattle, and I think Amy Bass's goal tally and Hector Guerra's good performance in the midfield are the main reasons why the team is now at the top of the league table. But like Seattle, Houston also has some key players who are out due to national team commitments or injuries, including the influential Panamanian midfielder Carla Skinner.
