HOUSTON – The Houston Dynamo are Western Conference Finals bound.
It’s a sentence that deserves a re-read because no one could have predicted that. No one could have expected Houston to be in this position after five seasons of being affixed to the bottom of the standings.
A team most, if not all, Major League Soccer media pundits picked to finish in the bottom of the Western Conference will face off against defending MLS Champions Los Angeles FC for a berth in the 2023 MLS Cup.
While most outside the club brushed the Bayou City club aside at the start of the season, the team knew where it wanted to go — the MLS Playoffs. A place it hadn’t visited since 2017.
But the Western Conference Finals?
Houston isn’t supposed to be here. Not yet, at least. And not this soon.
“We didn’t set out this year to be in this position. It just wasn’t necessarily in the cards. It would have been nice,” said Olsen. “But it was in the cards to be in the playoffs and be in the postseason, put ourselves in this situation to, maybe, be in this position.”
The Dynamo are in this position after eliminating longtime playoff rival Sporting Kansas City 1-0 Sunday night in front of a sell-out crowd at Shell Energy Stadium. The tight game proved nerve-racking for fans as the Dynamo failed to double its lead while Sporting knocked on the goal’s door in the second half.
Houston prevailed, and the close scoreline was just to Olsen’s liking.
In his first year as Dynamo head coach, Olsen told the press on more than one occasion throughout the season that the team needed to win in every form possible, from shoot outs to one-nils.
Sunday’s game was proof of that. And while Olsen knows the offense has gotten the bulk of the credit over the latter half of the season and the playoffs, the former DC United midfielder gave a shoutout to his defense.
“Some of the rhythms that we’re playing with now are getting a lot of attention, but our defense is as good as anybody in the league,” said Olsen. “Another shoutout here at home during the playoffs, it’s really impressive.”
The Houston defense had its head on a swivel, stomping out Sporting KC’s attack left and right, including a goal-line clearance and three saves from Dynamo keeper Steve Clark.
“It feels really good as a goalkeeper to make those couple of saves for the team,” said Clark. “It felt good tonight. We were having such a good time as a group. To keep us in it and move on is awesome.”
Houston has been a dark horse all season long. The club knows it. That point was driven home even more when neither Olsen nor Hector Herrera were candidates for Coach of the Year or MVP, respectively.
The Orange also knows it won’t be favored or even looked at as dangerous against LAFC, but that suits La Naranja just fine.
“I think we’re used to that. All year, we’ve been kind of that dark horse, and even when we get compliments, they hurt sometimes – it’s like a backhanded compliment. “We hear that stuff, and it’s good. said Olsen.
“We’re still in that space where we’re trying to prove to everyone that we’re real, and this helps. This helps. I think this puts us on the map a little bit more. And now it’s about two games away. And I don’t think the money’s going to be on us away, but that’s okay. We can live with that. We’ve punched above our weight, and hopefully, we can do it another time here next week.”
Jesus Acevedo Jr. is the Editor-in-Chief of The Bayoucitian. He’s an award-winning bilingual journalist from Houston, TX. A graduate of the University of Houston, he has written for the Houston Chronicle, La Voz de Houston, MLSsoccer.com, and ProSoccerUSA.
Before becoming a journalist, Jesus spent his early 20s drumming his way across Houston with two bands — Shortcomings and InsertNameHere. The memories that Jesus made as a musician were the seeds that started the idea for the comedy, Houmans: The Series.