Defense of U.S. Open Cup starts at home vs. Austin
For the first time, the Houston Dynamo enter the U.S. Open Cup seeking to defend their title after winning the team’s first last September.
“We need to start well. It’s going to be an opportunity for us after a little break to come back and play that game,” coach Wilmer Cabrera said in advance of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. game against the Austin Bold at BBVA Compass Stadium. “We have the responsibility and the pressure to win it.”
Cabrera hopes his team can work its way back into the Cup final, where Houston topped the Philadelphia Union partially thanks to two goals by forward Mauro Manotas. It was a victory that helped salvage a season in which the team missed the MLS playoffs yet punched its ticket to this year’s CONCACAF Champions League tournament.
This year, Cabrera is taking a similar approach to the last as he aims to make the tournament work for him until the team advances deeper into the competition. MLS teams enter in the fourth round.
With a three-week window between its next and last MLS games, he hopes to use the match as a warmup for Houston’s rematch with the Portland Timbers on June 22.
Publicly, Cabrera isn’t overlooking his opponent, a first-year team from the second-tier USL Championship league; but the match does offer him a chance to reach deeper down his bench with standouts such as Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto away from the team as they compete with Honduras internationally.
“Our priorities change depending on our situation,” he said. “We won last year, but we were playing game by game. When we went through the semifinal is when we decided, ‘OK, let’s put in all the effort.’
“It’s going to be important to try to use this game to bring the players back after a break.”
Austin Bold (5-5-4, 19 points in USL) currently reside in the middle of the USL Championship Western Conference pack after blowing a two-goal lead to tie the third-place Portland Timbers 2 — the MLS team’s USL affiliate — on Saturday.
While the Dynamo (73-3, 24 points in MLS) enter the game in the midst of an extended break, Bold coach Marcelo Serrano fielded his first-choice players in Saturday’s game. He told the Austin-American Statesman that Tuesday’s lineup will likely look the same, although it will depend on player fitness.
“I think we should play our best team no matter what,” he said. “That’s what we did (Saturday). The game on Tuesday is another talk. Play the best team tonight, and then let’s play our best team on Tuesday.”
Midfielder Juan David Cabezas is more intent to defend Houston’s title, but he also sees the competition as a tool to help supplement the team’s momentum throughout MLS play.
“The last year wasn’t good enough for us throughout the MLS (season). We need to keep going in this type of tournament. We have a big responsibility to show we can go forward with the opportunity we have in front of us,” he said. “(The 2018 Cup title) opened the door for all of us. We can’t allow ourselves to lose this opportunity to get more confident and grow as a team.”