Optimism opens upgraded venue
Defending home field is the gateway for the Houston Dynamo’s aspiration to qualify for the 2023 MLS playoffs.
And that starts on Saturday when Houston plays at home for the first time this season inside recently renovated Shell Energy Stadium. Following two road losses, the Dynamo welcome Austin FC for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
“Around here, the excitement level of coming home in front of our fans at a refurbished stadium — that looks great by the way — our hope is to reward our fans and ourselves from some of the hard work we’ve put up to this point with a win,” first-year Dynamo coach Ben Olsen said.
During the offseason, the venue expanded its premium offering with the 15,000-square foot allinclusive air-conditioned East Club. The installation of more than 20,000 allnew mesh seats is also part of the renovations. The Shell Energy Deck was part of phase one during the 2021 offseason.
New food and beverage options will debut at Shell Energy Stadium as part of the recently announced partnership with chef Hugo Ortega. The Houston Dynamo Football Club is expanding its local eateries at Shell Energy Stadium to 10 new restaurant partners.
The fan experience should be greatly enhanced at Shell Energy Stadium this season. The Dynamo plan for the level of play to improve as well after finishing 13th in the West in 2022.
“We need to wake up now and not harp on the past and the points we left on the road,” Dynamo midfielder Héctor Herrera said of the season’s first two losses at FC Cincinnati and New England. “The team is calm and conscious of what we are playing for on Saturday. The most important thing is for us to be focused and for our fans to be fully engaged.”
It may be only the third of 34 scheduled regularseason games for Houston (0-2-0), but there is clearly an urgency to turn things around. Especially at home against a state rival.
“I don’t know if it’s a must win, yeah we want to win, we’re at home,” Olsen said. “We want to reward our fans and that’s what we’ll go after.
“Protecting our homefield advantage is something we have not done a great job with over the last few years. And to me, it’s a recipe for getting into the playoffs. You take care of your home game, you should be in a good spot to play in the postseason. Without that, you have a very small chance to do that.”
The Dynamo have had two weeks to rectify areas of concern and work on improvement. They played a closed-door game against a Canadian team.
Olsen said the Dynamo tried to stay in a rhythm and used the match as an opportunity to work on things as well as prepare for Austin FC.
Having been outscored 5-1 over two games, Houston is looking to pick up its first points of the season.
“We’d all like to have a point or two, but we also are realistic that we went on the road twice and played pretty well in Cincinnati and thought we should have got something out of that,” Olsen said. “Then New England, a 3-0 game.”
After being on the wrong end of the crowd the first two games, the Dynamo are looking forward a partisan following against Austin.
“We need that energy,” Olsen said. “This game, whether it’s the physicality and the energy that we bring, having that homefield boost from our fans is going to be vital to getting results. My message is we need them.”
The importance of Saturday’s game is not lost on the players.
“We’re counting on the support of our fans on Saturday,” Herrera said. “We’re expecting them at home and I hope they know that they are a very important part of this institution and club.
“They are the ones who inject that energy into the team when we need it most. I hope we can count on their support, because they are going to be very important for us this weekend.”
Austin FC has six points over three games. In its previous MLS game last week, Austin posted a 2-1 victory at Real Salt Lake. This week, the club crashed out of the Concacaf Champions League, losing 3-2 on aggregate to Haitain side Violette AC.
“It’s a derby so it’s important, but it’s even more important for us because we’ll be playing at home, in front of our fans,” forward Ivan Franco said. “We need to try and get three points this weekend.”