Houston Dynamo Vs Sporting Kansas City: 3 things we learned – Western tilt entertains

2. Houston’s persistence pays-off

Houston Dynamo boss Wilmer Cabrera clearly wanted to get men forward for the duration of the match.

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The Colombian manager saw Sporting’s backline as a weakness to be exploited, and thus his side would morph into a 2-4-4 in the attacking third in order to exploit one-on-one match-ups against a generally shaky Kansas City back-four to create havoc in the box.

Houston Dynamo’s gameplan bore fruit just six minutes after Sporting took the lead. As we can see in the video above, the determined Alberth Elis received A.J. DeLaGarza’s cross-goal header from the back post before smashing a half-volley of his own into the upper-right corner of the Kansas City goal.

This passage of play was a direct consequence of Cabrera’s attacking strategy, with the numerical pressure that Houston forced onto their visitors telling by having three players in and around the six-yard box. The Dynamo head coach should receive credit for sticking with it.