First-place Dynamo ride clean sheet streak into St. Louis showdown

The hottest teams in MLS may come as a surprise.

When the Houston Dynamo square off against host St. Louis City on Saturday, it will be a matchup of the clubs with the longest unbeaten streaks in the league.

The Dynamo (12-6-2, 38 points) have won five straight, each by shutout, which ties an MLS record. The run has increased their unbeaten streak to eight matches (6-0-2) as they have surged into first place in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, St. Louis (8-6-6, 30 points) has gone 10 straight games without a loss (7-0-3), rising from next-to-last place in the West in May to sixth place now.

This comes from clubs that finished in 12th and 13th place in the conference last year.

"We're always a little bit of an afterthought," Houston coach Ben Olson said. "We're still digging out of that and we have to put ourselves on the map and make teams in the league respect us."

It's safe to say that Houston has the respect of the Vancouver Whitecaps, who lost to the Dynamo 1-0 for the second time this year on Wednesday. The wins have allowed Houston to overtake Vancouver for first place.

Houston is the only team in MLS that has already surpassed its point total from last year. With a win on Saturday, St. Louis also would accomplish the feat.

Despite their unbeaten streak, St. Louis City don't enter in top form as they are coming off a 1-1 draw Wednesday against last-place Sporting Kansas City.

"We need to step back and also not get confused between what's our goal, what's our standards, what's our expectation and what's our ambition," St. Louis coach Yoann Damet said. "Sometimes those four words get mixed up."

When the teams met on May 19 in the U.S. Open Cup, host St. Louis won on penalty kicks, 4-2, after playing to a 2-2 draw over 120 minutes.

Marcel Hartel, who departed earlier this month to return to Germany, scored twice in regulation and once in the shootout to propel St. Louis to the quarterfinal victory.

St. Louis now depends on Simon Becher (four goals, five assists) and Eduard Lowen (three goals, three assists) to lead a balanced attack.

Houston counters with Guilherme (12 goals, seven assists), who has scored in four of the five matches during Houston's five-game winning streak.

Goalie Jonathan Bond is tied for second in the league with nine clean sheets. During Houston's five-game winning streak, Bond has made 12 saves.

--Field Level Media