Paying their first visit to Yankee Stadium since 2019, the Houston Dynamo square off against New York City FC in MLS action on Wednesday.
On Sunday, the Pigeons came from behind to defeat the Chicago Fire 3-1, maintaining their sixth-place standing in the Eastern Conference, while Orange Crush pulled out a 3-3 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes the day before, moving up to 10th in the West as a result.
Match preview
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Over the weekend Pascal Jansen saw his New York City side end a two-match MLS losing run at Yankee Stadium in impressive fashion.
That weekend triumph was the first time all year that the Boys and Blue had won a match in this competition despite trailing at the interval.
A victory on Wednesday would equal their longest winning run at Yankee Stadium this season (two games), having beaten Orlando City and the New England Revolution in the Bronx in March.
The Pigeons are 0-2 against Western Conference opposition this year, with this team netting just one goal combined in those two defeats.
So far this season, New York City have been relatively compact defensively at home, conceding a goal or fewer in seven of their eight league contests as the home team and maintaining three clean sheets.
NYCFC have never lost a home game to the Dynamo, beating them 3-2 the previous time they hosted them at Yankee Stadium in 2019.
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Over the weekend, the Dynamo left more points on the table, which is far from the first time that has occurred for them throughout the 2025 MLS campaign.
Ben Olsen's men have dropped nine points in league play this season when scoring the opening goal, putting them two points below the Western Conference playoff line.
At the same time, they have points in their last three regular-season affairs and can match their longest unbeaten run of the season with a win or draw in this match.
Last year, Houston had the joint most away wins in the Western Conference (eight), but they have only claimed one victory as the visitors in the competition this year (2-0 at Dallas).
Interestingly, they have only claimed maximum points once all season when netting in the opening half, suffering four defeats when doing so.
Orange Crush have won two of their previous three meetings against NYCFC, though their best result at Yankee Stadium was a 1-1 draw in 2015.
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Team News
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Once again, New York City were missing Malachi Jones, Andres Perea and Kevin O'Toole with leg issues over the weekend, though Keaton Parks returned from the injury front, appearing as a substitute.
Second-half goals from Monsef Bakrar, Hannes Wolf, and Alonso Martinez powered them to a come-from-behind win against the Fire.
As for the Dynamo, Junior Urso, Erik Sviatchenko, and Daniel Steres sat out versus the Quakes with lower body problems, while Andrew Tarbell, Nelson Quinones and Lawrence Ennali were sidelined with knee injuries.
Houston got goals from Griffin Dorsey, Felipe Andrade and Ezequiel Ponce over the weekend, though the latter will not be available for this fixture due to yellow card accumulation.
New York City FC possible starting lineup:
Freese; Ilenic, Martins, Haak, Risa; Parks, O'Neill; Ojeda, Moralez, Wolf; Martinez
Houston Dynamo possible starting lineup:
Bond; Escobar, Awodesu, Ortiz, Andrade; Artur, Kowalczyk; Lodeiro, Bassi, Lingr; Olusanya
We say: New York City FC 1-0 Houston Dynamo
The Pigeons can be a streaky team, but they seem to show a lot of unity at home, and we believe their organisation and the attacking talent of Martinez will propel them to a narrow triumph.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
