Perhaps a welcome break from league football as Chicago Fire & Houston Dynamo face off to decide who makes it to next stage of the US Open Cup. All the pre-match information is available here!
Everyone involved with the away team has to get their travel gear ready for this match as there's a whopping 1700 kilometers to cover before arriving at the match.
It's no vacation for neither Chicago Fire nor Houston Dynamo as both were in action only a few days ago. Expect some tired legs on the pitch and/or possibly some changes to the lineups.
Chicago Fire form and stats
Chicago was eliminated in the 3rd round last season in the US Open Cup.The story so far in the Major League Soccer for Chicago Fire at their home stadium (SeatGeek Stadium) is 2 wins, 6 draws and 0 defeats.
The club members are hoping that Chicago Fire will strike back in this fixture, putting things right after the 0-1 away loss in the match against Cincinnati. Burks, defender, was given a rating of 7.11/10 in that game, top of the team. Burks won 2 of 4 duels.
Preceding that game was the away draw at Toronto that finished 0-0.There's a new fixture coming up fairly quickly for Chicago Fire, as the Major League Soccer home game vs Columbus Crew is only four days away.
Chicago Fire have proved capable of finding the net in their games here at SeatGeek Stadium with 13 goals in 8 league matches. Chicago's goalkeeper has had to pick the ball out of their own net 11 times. For more goal stats, check the Statistics tab above.
Houston Dynamo form and stats
Houston Dynamo was sent out of US Open Cup in the round of 16 last season.Two away games in a row for Houston, who will hope to get a better result in this one after losing 0-3 versus Saint Louis City. Midfield player Franco was the top player of the team with a match rating of 7.02/10. Franco hit four key passes.
Preceding that game, the 2-6 loss visiting Vancouver Whitecaps's place.As mentioned above, the odds for this match puts the home team as favourites. Perhaps this eases the pressure on the away team, who are capable of producing an upset here on a good day. Looking at earlier matches with similar odds and Houston Dynamo playing away, we found 11 games. Results were 0 away wins, 1 draw and 10 home wins.
The visitors are returning home after this fixture, hosting Los Angeles FC in just four days.
Head 2 Head
H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Chicago four wins, two draws and Houston Dynamo four victories. As for goals, four matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), six games had two or less.
Top Goalscorers
  A. Bassi 6 goals |   K. Kamara 4 goals |  K. Przybyłko 3 goals |
Chicago Fire missing players
Houston Dynamo missing players
| Chicago Fire | Houston Dynamo | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 13 | Played | P | 14 | 25 | ||
| 9 | 5 | Won | W | 3 | 11 | ||
| 10 | 8 | Drew | D | 5 | 6 | ||
| 6 | 0 | Lost | L | 6 | 8 | ||
| 43 | 25 | Scored | S | 14 | 31 | ||
| 32 | 15 | Conceded | C | 23 | 28 | ||
| 88% | 85% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 93% | 92% | ||
| 76% | 77% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 79% | 68% | ||
| 64% | 62% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 50% | 44% | ||
| 32% | 38% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 14% | 16% | ||
| 24% | 23% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 7% | 4% | ||
| 48% | 62% | BTTS | BTTS | 57% | 40% | ||
| 36% | 38% | Clean Sheets | C S | 21% | 44% | ||
| 28% | 15% | Failed to Score | F T | 29% | 24% | ||
| 4 | 4.9 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 3.5 | 3.5 | ||
| 4.7 | 3.9 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4.5 | 5.1 | ||
| 2.1 | 1.9 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2 | 1.9 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 2 | 6 | ||
| 9.5 | 11.4 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 8.7 | 9.2 | ||
| 3.1 | 3.5 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.3 | 3.4 | ||
| 49% | 54% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 28% | 36% | ||
| 11.1 | 10.4 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 11.5 | 11.9 | ||
| 4 | 4 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 4.1 | 3.9 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Cincinnati | 16 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 39 |
| 2 | Nashville SC | 16 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 24 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 13 | 31 |
| 3 | Philadelphia Union | 16 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 27 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 30 |
| 4 | New England | 16 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 25 | 20 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 27 |
| 5 | Columbus Crew | 16 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 33 | 24 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 14 | 9 | 24 |
| 6 | Atlanta United | 16 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 32 | 28 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 13 | 18 | 4 | 24 |
| 7 | DC United | 17 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 24 | 21 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 3 | 23 |
| 8 | Orlando City | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 20 | 17 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 23 |
| 9 | Charlotte | 17 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 22 | 30 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 18 | -8 | 21 |
| 10 | New York RB | 17 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 16 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | -5 | 19 |
| 11 | Montreal Impact | 16 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 27 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 24 | -12 | 19 |
| 12 | Toronto | 17 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 16 | 20 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 12 | -4 | 18 |
| 13 | Chicago Fire | 16 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 21 | 25 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 14 | -4 | 17 |
| 14 | New York City | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 11 | -5 | 17 |
| 15 | Inter Miami | 16 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 15 | 21 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 15 |
