The Portland Timbers had to scratch and claw to ultimately win the Western Conference regular season title. Seeding means virtually nothing in the MLS playoffs, though, and the argument could be made that the teams that get out of the knockout round are at a bit of an advantage. The Houston Dynamo might have needed to play 120 minutes to see out Sporting Kansas City from the playoffs, but at least they're going to be staying at home and needn't worry about traveling all the way from the Pacific Northwest.
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Houston Dynamo
Portland Timbers
Draw
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Houston won 12 of its 17 matches in the regular season at BBVA Compass Stadium, and though it needed a long time to finally break the ice against Kansas City on Thursday night, the job was finished to move onto the conference semifinals for the first time since 2013.
The Dynamo have been waiting for this moment for quite a while, and though this isn't the greatest home field advantage in the MLS, it's still a big challenge.
Still, of the four teams that are playing at home over the course of the conference semifinals, the one that is clearly the most likely to be beaten is Houston. This Portland team hasn't had a great history away from Providence Park, but a 4-4-9 record is just about as good as anyone did away from home this year out West.
How They Got Here
The Timbers needed some magic on the last day of the regular season just to get into this spot. Facing a big Decision Day duel against Vancouver, Portland fought back from down a goal at home to strike twice to go from potentially playing on the road in the knockout round to earning the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
Houston was in the playoffs when it reached Decision Day, but the reason why it was able to play at home was due to its 3-0 win over Chicago. That final win of the campaign gave the Dynamo home field advantage over Sporting Kansas City in the 4/5 matchup in the knockout round, and it was that advantage that proved to be crucial.
Though Houston was the better team for our money throughout this match, it's hard to say anything short of the fact that it was played right at the pace Sporting Kansas City would have wanted. Opportunities were few and far between, and physical play was the name of the game. There were 10 cards issued in that knockout round match, and all of the pushing, shoving and general physical play had to be music to the ears of the Timbers.
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The raw emotion that had to be expended just to get to this point has to be wearing on Houston. Alberth Elis made himself a hero by scoring in the 94th minute to send the Dynamo to the conference semifinals, but those last 15 minutes or so were pure hell on the Houston defense.
Between Darlington Nagbe and the rest of the extremely talented Timbers, we have a hard time imagining that Houston is going to be able to hang in there. Expect to see Portland bring another physical experience to the Lone Star State, except this time, the Dynamo won't be able to hang in there. This 180-minute series very well could be over after 90.
MLS Odds: Portland 2, Houston 0
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