Dynamo Close the Western Trip Sunday Night in Portland: 8:45 in Houston, a Top-Four Spot to Protect at Providence Park
Wednesday's 1-0 win in Seattle lifted Houston into the Western Conference top four. Sunday night in Portland - the Timbers' final home match of the season - is where the Dynamo try to stay there.
HOUSTON - The Dynamo do not come home yet. Wednesday's 1-0 win at Seattle - Lucas Halter's 26th-minute header, Jonathan Bond's stoppage-time save, a night of defending - moved Houston into the Western Conference top four at 14-9-9 and 51 points, the club reported, and the trip closes Sunday night at Providence Park against the Portland Timbers. Kickoff is 8:45 p.m. Central, on MLS on Apple TV, with FS1 and FOX Deportes also carrying the match, the Portland Courant reported.
Portland is playing its final home match of the regular season and has dressed the night up for it - Native American Heritage Night, with a Dia de los Muertos ticket package, and a crowd that treats a home finale as an occasion regardless of the table. Entering the final week of October the Timbers stood 11th in the West with 37 points from 10 wins, 14 losses and seven draws, per the Courant - a team with nothing to protect and a home crowd to entertain, which is its own kind of danger for a visitor protecting a top-four place.
One scheduling quirk rides along: daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, so Houston's 8:45 kickoff lands at 6:45 on Portland clocks on the first evening of standard time. The Dynamo's task is simpler than the arithmetic - take the defensive shape that survived Seattle, add the goal Wednesday's performance kept threatening, and fly home still holding the top-four spot they flew west to chase.
