Wednesday night in Texas, the Vancouver Whitecaps will take on the Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium.

For the first time this season, it feels like the pressure is starting to mount on Jesper Sørensen’s side, as they are coming off losses in four of their last five MLS matches, and it appears as though Pedro Vite is on the brink of being sold. Can this match create some momentary relief for a troubled Whitecaps team? Let’s have a look.

So far this season, Houston sits 10th in the West with 26 points from 22 matches. Diving into their numbers, it’s hard to find anything that stands out, their goals for and against, both expected and actual, are below league average. They’ve also had both impressive results and troubling results: They’ve beaten LAFC, Minnesota, and San Diego, but they’ve lost to CF Montreal, Sporting KC, FC Dallas, and Real Salt Lake.

Ok, I lied to you earlier, I did find one area that stands out for this Dynamo team, and it’s in goal. Unfortunately, it’s not in a good way. Of all 59 keepers that have played MLS minutes this season, Jonathan Bond ranks 59th in terms of post shot expected goals at -4.9 (-0.35 per match).

In three seasons at the LA Galaxy, Bond was a below-average MLS goalkeeper; however, his numbers didn’t look this bad, as he was 0.17 goals below expected per 90 minutes. Then, interestingly, Bond was at Watford last season, and although he was not the starter, he played well over 9 matches, saving 0.36 goals above expected per 90, the best of his career. Given that bounce back, and the fact that goalkeeper can play well into their thirties, I can see why the Dynamo took a flyer on Bond this offseason, but safe to say, that has not payed off thus far.

Elsewhere, Argentine forward Ezequiel Ponce leads the way with 7 goals and 1 assist. Ponce is a very serviceable finisher, but the fact that he has never put up big numbers outside of Greece probably tells you what you need to know about the player. Whitecaps killer Griffin Dorsey is having another good season from the fullback spot with 2 goals and 4 assists, but beyond that, the drop off is pretty steep in terms of offensive contributions, with young American midfielder Jack McGlynn being the only other player worthy of a shout out.

In terms of tactics, Ben Olsen’s side has played in a 4-2-3-1 most of the year. Key fixtures of the Dynamo lineup have been Brazilian midfielder Artur in one of the double pivot spots, Amine Bassi at the ten, and Ponce as the lone striker. Centreback has been a bit of a rotating cast of characters, which probably goes some way to explaining the poor defending and goalkeeping results, even though Ben Olsen’s teams are usually well-drilled in their defensive third. The Dynamo sit right behind the Whitecaps in possession, within the top third of the league, so I would expect Houston to attempt to control proceedings through their play on the ball, and to avoid transition defending as much as they can.

We can now turn things over to the Whitecaps. The team will be without Pedro Vite for this trip, as he considers his future in Vancouver. Andres Cubas, Emmanuel Sabbi, and Tristan Blackmon will all make the trip, but their status is questionable. Jayden Nelson is back from suspension, and both Sebastian Berhalter and Brian White should be well settled back into the team at this point. I imagine that if Cubas is available, he would go straight into the XI, as Vancouver could really use his services to re-stabilize that area of the park. It will be interesting to see how Sørensen looks to use a player like Edier Ocampo against a possession-based team like Houston, as he could start as a winger, or look to join the attack from a deeper fullback role.

Vancouver should be able to at least get a draw out of this match. With Nelson and White up front, I think that’s enough for the Whitecaps to find a goal or two, so I’ll say they pull out a 2-1 win.