Houston Dynamo vs. Inter Miami: Keys to Sunday Night Soccer | MLSSoccer.com

A record number of Matchday 1 goals greeted us last weekend, one that was capped by San Diego FC’s excellent performance (and landmark win) vs. the LA Galaxy on Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire. I remain extremely impressed by how well-drilled and disciplined SDFC were off the ball, and how ruthlessly opportunistic they were on it.

In short, they didn’t look at all like an expansion team against the reigning MLS Cup champs. What a debut.

Let’s dive in.

Houston Dynamo FC

Inter Miami CF

Messi in town means lots of eyeballs, which means a chance to reassert to local fans that you’re a contender. Yeah, you can go toe-to-toe with the best, and should be here every week to see us do precisely that. Performances like that, in the middle of 2023, are what reinvigorated this fanbase in the first place, and culminated with that summer’s US Open Cup triumph:

“I get chills even thinking about the moment.”

As we prepare to host Inter Miami this Sunday, Griff recalls his huge goal in the 2023 U.S. @opencup ???? pic.twitter.com/JoSkUAHAWP

— Houston Dynamo FC (@HoustonDynamo) February 25, 2025

That’s history, though. Right now it’s especially important the Dynamo win, given 1) there’s unlikely to be another Miami appearance in Houston any time soon, and 2) they need to immediately wash the bad taste of last week’s Texas Derby implosion out of everyone’s mouth.

Beyond the points that are up for grabs – definitely don’t want to start with two straight losses at home – there’s the local vibe quotient for a team that largely overhauled a very successful roster this winter.

The time to impress the fans and show them the overhaul was the right thing to do is now.

The world’s always watching when Messi is on your team, so the stakes are always heightened. These guys know that.

Beyond that, this team is trying to win every trophy they play for. Every single one. That obviously includes repeating as Shield champs, and dropped points in March mean just as much as dropped points in September.

So they need all three points or they’ll have immediately dug themselves a hole in their quest to become the first back-to-back Shield winners since the 2010 & 2011 LA Galaxy.

Houston: Can they survive (or thrive) without Micael?

We haven’t made a big enough deal about the sale of the Brazilian center back, who for my money deserved to be a Best XI selection in 2024. Palmieras apparently agreed, ponying up reportedly more than $5 million to help set a Dynamo outbound transfer record. Other than Cucho heading to LaLiga’s Real Betis, there might not be a more impactful outgoing move in MLS this winter.

There’s no replacing the 24-year-old, not without significant investment and a lot of patience anyway.

Yes, the Dynamo’s game model is a mesmerizing pitter-patter of eating up real estate and time with the ball. But it’s not easy to push numbers forward and control matches around an opponent’s penalty area when you don’t have a human eraser ready to exert complete control of the depth you open behind your lines.

I’ve been waiting for Dynamo president of soccer Pat Onstad and the front office to land a Designated Player No. 10 – that’s important, and they’re working hard to get it done, either in this window or the summer – but the more pressing immediate need for now is a good bill of health for Erik Sviatchenko (and Franco Escobar), plus consistently net positive performances from Ethan Bartlow, Femi Awodesu or both. All of which is still TBD.

That sound you hear is Inter Miami’s attack licking their chops.

Miami: Maxi Falcón and who?

Do you sense a defensive theme here? Matchday 1 was a reminder that silly mistakes are prevalent early… and cost you the same points in February as in October.

Maybe I’m reading the tea leaves too strongly, but it seems like Maxi Falcón is the first-choice selection in the middle of new head coach Javier Mascherano’s backline. So the question then becomes, “Well, who partners the Uruguayan?”

It won’t be Tomás Avilés against Houston, as it was against Sporting KC in midweek CCC action, because Avilés did a young center-back thing on opening day and got sent off for a handsy and deserved DOGSO red card against NYCFC. That leaves Ian Fray, Noah Allen and David Martínez as realistic options. The latter doesn’t really seem like one currently, as he’s been carrying a knock.

Given the knock that kept Marcelo Weigandt out against Sporting, might we see Allen get the start in the middle with Fray deputizing on the right? Or will Gonzalo Luján get the nod at right back with Fray next to Falcón? With every game, we learn more about how Mascherano sees his defensive hierarchy.

Houston Dynamo FC

That winter overhaul saw Houston part ways with starting goalkeeper Steve Clark and Mexican legend Héctor Herrera, whose minutes McGlynn is replacing. They also sold midfielder Coco Carrasquilla to LIGA MX grandes Pumas UNAM, then sold starting center back Micael to Brazilian giants Palmeiras.

It’s a ton to try to replace. But we saw that head coach Ben Olsen’s game model, which has worked so well since about June 2023, can still thrive in 2025:

The Dynamo – as expected given their offseason changes – had major issues in goal and central defense in their opener. Their loss was self-inflicted.

But they also showed that they’ve got the same gameplan as the past two years, and the ability to execute it. pic.twitter.com/xW19WVVTJy

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) February 23, 2025

The first problem, then, wasn’t the game plan. The first problem was individual errors – gigantic ones from center back Ethan Bartlow and goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell. If they’re even a quarter as careless against Messi & Friends, it won’t just be a 2-1 loss. It’ll be much, much worse than that.

Back to Olsen’s tactical approach: You get a lot of it from that clip and analysis above. That slow, methodical possession is who they are, and it’s why Onstad went out and acquired McGlynn from Philadelphia in a cash trade that can reach $3.4 million if all incentives are hit. McGlynn’s ability to orchestrate sequences with small passes and off-ball movement, then open the game up for fullbacks on the overlap (Griffin Dorsey is among the best in MLS at pushing up into the attack) is elite. He’s also elite at hitting third-line passes to attacking midfielders in the half-spaces, but that gets us to the second problem.

That problem, in short, is a lack of high-end talent in the final third. The Dynamo were first in MLS in possession last year, just ahead of Columbus, LA and Miami. Those three teams each won a trophy and finished second, third and first in total goals, respectively.

Houston finished 21st in goals and won no trophies. Their No. 10, Amine Bassi, has been a good – not great – MLS player. Same for Ponce so far. Left winger Aliyu Ibrahim is still much more potential than production, while they’re replacing Carrasquilla at right attacking midfield with either Sebastian Kowalczyk or veteran Nico Lodeiro, neither of whom are match-winners (or in Lodeiro’s case, is not a match-winner anymore). Also, U22 Initiative wingers Lawrence Ennali and Nelson Quiñones are recovering from torn ACLs.

The Dynamo are at a talent deficit in attack. Ponce is supposed to at least partially fix that. If he’s really gonna be the guy, now would be a great time to start to show it.

Inter Miami CF

Full credit to Mascherano, who seems to have scrapped any leftover bells and whistles from last year to create a simple structure based around Messi’s unparalleled genius on one side of the ball, and his, um, let’s call it “lack of field coverage,” shall we? – on the other side of the ball.

Let’s start with who Miami are in attack. What we’ve seen so far is they’re playing out of what I’ll call a 4-4-1-1, with Messi as the “1” underneath Suárez up top. He’s free to go wherever he wants, but his proclivity is to drop into the right half-space, which means the right midfielder on that side (probably newcomer Tadeo Allende) stays wide and threatens in behind. There’s lots of unselfish running from that spot.

On the other hand, the left midfielder has tended to stay more central and operate much more in possession. Part of that is to ensure the Herons don’t get out-numbered in central midfield, but the other obvious part is clearing out the left flank for Jordi Alba on the overlap.

None of this is set in stone. The way Miami have played looks much less like the Barcelona teams of a decade back, even if there are four familiar faces from those squads, and much more like recent vintage Argentina. Both this version of Miami and the current version of Argentina are much less dependent upon pure possession than the vintage Barca sides, and as such, I’d expect them to happily concede 55% or more of the ball to the Dynamo in this one.

That 45% of the time they have the ball, then…

Messi releases a pass. The defender turns his head for a half-second. Messi is gone.

How many hundreds of times have we seen this over the past 20 years? pic.twitter.com/tYKsw0wpyO

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) February 23, 2025

Don’t turn your head. Even for a second. If you do, we all know how the story ends.

Defensively, the structure is designed to protect Messi from having to do too much work and to ensure there’s stability behind him in central midfield and along the backline. The right back doesn’t overlap much and essentially becomes a third center back. Neither Sergio Busquets nor Federico Redondo, the preferred central midfield pairing so far, take many chances pushing into the attack off the ball. Whoever the left midfielder is absolutely can do that, but has to be much more selective than the right midfielder.

In other words, it’s a bet that Messi, Suárez, Alba and one guy doing a lot of running up and down the right wing will be able to solve any defense. That’s essentially the same bet Argentina national team head coach Lionel Scaloni made when he took over six years ago, and all they’ve done since then is win the World Cup, two Copa Américas and the Finalissima.

So, you know, smart bet.

4-2-3-1 that morphs into a 3-4-2-1 in possession.

4-4-1-1 that can morph into a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-2-1 or a 3-5-2 depending on what Messi’s doing. Everything is oriented around his movement.