The Best MLS Team That You Probably Don't Care About
A team beat Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami to win a US Open Cup, and that same team are in the semifinal of the MLS playoffs but nobody is talking about them… Why?
The Houston Dynamo are the most underrated team in America right now. They’re also the least talked about team. At the helm is someone we never thought would get near a trophy again… and yet he already has one under his belt this season - Ben Olsen.
Olsen’s team is captained by HH - Hector Herrera who is… no pun intended a complete dynamo in the midfield for this team.
But that’s just one player, and a coach who after winning the 2014 coach of the year with DC United was the laughing stock of MLS for years. After missing the playoffs the last 5 years, how did this team win a trophy and now have the chance to win an MLS cup, while being a completely unknown commodity to most MLS fans? This is one of the craziest developments this year, and I can’t wait to bring you what I’ve found.
Playstyle
The team sets up in a 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 variation that is very stable in the midfield. It creates a line in front of the defense that provides a foundation to build and keep possession with the ball, while holding a steady mid block while without.
On the surface this is a very balanced team from front to back. The stats can tell you part of the story. They are high in expected goals but not at the top, they are high in excepted goals against but not at the top. There was one category they were at the top of - and that was team aggression. They had the highest amount of yellow cards and the third highest amount of red cards. At a 30,000 foot view, Houston Dynamo are a good team who believe they can win. When their opponents try to play a pretty style, they likely hate to play against Houston.
If you’ve ever played soccer, you know that there is something to this psychology where even if you might be the better team, when that first tackle comes in and it crunches you or your teammate, you think to yourself “this is going to be a slog of a game.”
When I’m coaching my teams I’m constantly telling them on defense “nothing easy nothing easy” essentially telling them to get stuck in, and make sure if someone gets past you that they earn it with physicality. I feel like Houston is the embodiment of that philosophy. Making the other team earn every inch on the pitch.
While Houston wants to, and can play a fluid attacking style of football, the big wins are mostly down to a determination of grinding out difficult results. That’s a deadly combination against any team in the league and we saw it work in the US Open Cup which they won. Fall asleep for one moment and they'll pass right through you onto goal, and if you are paying attention you’ve probably been punched in the mouth.
Another sign that this is not just a skill gap with Houston - They used the 3rd least amount of players throughout the season, only 25. For context Toronto used 39 different players this year! What that should tell us is that these players are familiar with each other. They have built true chemistry.
We only need to look as far as Ben Olsen’s own words to see how he has tried to build this team with a complete focus on winning.
“We revamped the team [this offseason], but we revamped it with winners and guys that have been around in these types of games, been in championships, have won championships. ... I think that really helps."
Players
I mentioned HH, and while it’s true he is only one player, I found this stat to be absolutely fascinating: when Hector Herrera was on the pitch for Houston this season, they had a +1.16 xg difference per 90 minutes. With HH they were expected to either score one additional goal or prevent one additional goal. I can’t think of another player that has that much tangible impact while on the pitch bar Lionel Messi.
Other difference makers on the team include MLS veteran Corey Baird up top, and pair of speedsters on the wing in Colombian youngster Nelson Quinones and Panamanian Adalberto Carrasquilla. Leading from the back is, at this point we have to call him legendary goalkeeper Steve Clark.
Matchup
While the Hell is Real Derby will take the focus for these semifinal matches, we cannot overlook this match as a pass through for LAFC.
I’m looking at this matchup and I would honestly be scared if I was an LAFC fan… Houston have won the last two meetings by a combined 5-0 and beat them in LA last time they played. Houston’s personnel line up well against LAFC and their way of playing a gritty, grind it out style can expose the more liquid football style that LAFC want to play.
It's been a rapid turnaround for the Dynamo. After missing the MLS Playoffs the last five seasons, they've already lifted the 2023 US Open Cup and are now heading to the Conference Semifinals to take on LAFC this Saturday night.