Los Angeles FC will attempt to proceed their excellent begin below new head coach Marc Dos Santos on Saturday night time after they go to a Houston Dynamo facet that was among the many busiest in MLS when it comes to offseason transactions.
Dos Santos’ Black and Gold opened their common season with a dominant 3-0 victory over Lionel Messi and Inter Miami on Feb. 21. On both facet of that, LAFC (1-0-0, 3 factors) defeated Actual Espana within the first spherical of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, 6-1 away within the first leg in Honduras and 1-0 within the return fixture at house on Tuesday.
Denis Bouanga recorded 4 targets in an help over these first two matches, and Son Heung-Min added 4 assists. But Dos Santos nonetheless determined to play the star duo for the primary half of the return leg on Tuesday, regardless of being just about assured of advancing.
“Rhythm,” he mentioned. “Sonny did not have an ideal preseason, so it is essential that he retains getting rhythm. And I instructed each Sonny and Denis this week that I might have them 45 minutes on the sector, that at halftime we might make the modifications. So that they have been conscious of it.”
The Dynamo (1-0-0, 3 factors) opened their common season with a 2-1 house victory over the Chicago Hearth on Feb. 21, coming from behind on a pair of targets from the Brazilian Guilherme Augusto in his MLS debut.
Along with the 30-year-old former Santos captain, the Dynamo added former LAFC winger Mateusz Bogusz from Cruz Azul and introduced again Hector Herrera from Toluca this winter to bolster a squad that completed twelfth in Western Convention in 2025.
Herrera, 35, was beforehand a part of the Houston facet that reached the 2023 West remaining. He has but to see the sector in his return.
Houston supervisor Ben Olsen steered his new-look facet’s second take a look at could possibly be much more tough than the primary. It additionally may be a very good measuring stick.
“A crew that’s nearly as good as, I feel, any crew in league historical past in how they transition and the standard they’ve within the assault,” Olsen mentioned of LAFC. “We’ll have our work reduce out for us, however I feel it is a problem that this group may be very enthusiastic about.”
The 2 groups have break up the previous 5 conferences, with both sides profitable twice and taking part in to 1 scoreless draw.
–Area Stage Media
