Whitecaps, Dynamo jostle for playoff position in West

The Vancouver Whitecaps travel to Houston to battle the likely short-handed Dynamo on Wednesday in a late-season Western Conference clash with huge playoff implications.

The Whitecaps (13-8-6, 45 points) are a point clear of Houston (12-8-8, 44 points) with a match in hand. Vancouver is sixth in the West and the Dynamo are seventh. Second and seventh place in the conference are separated by just four points.

Houston returns to its home pitch after a rousing 4-1 win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday, increasing their undefeated stretch to three matches (2-0-1). Amine Bassi, Griffin Dorsey, Sebastian Kowalczyk and Ezequiel Ponce found the net for Houston in the win, while Coco Carrasquilla added two assists.

The only downer from the win over RSL was the early exit of playmaker Hector Herrera, who left before halftime in favor of Kowalczyk with a hamstring injury.

"We'll see how bad it is and how he responds to therapy," Houston coach Ben Olsen said of Herrera. "There is no set timeline for his return. I don't anticipate him playing Wednesday."

The Dynamo still have six matches to go, and half of them are against teams sitting above them in the Western Conference standings, beginning with Vancouver.

"We play a lot of good teams here in this final stretch -- continuing with Vancouver," Olsen said. "We just have to keep coming, keep pushing."

The Whitecaps are 2-0-1 and have posted three straight shutouts since returning from the Leagues Cup competition. Vancouver heads to the Bayou City on the heels of a 2-0 win at home over San Jose on Saturday, in which Fafa Picault and Stuart Armstrong scored and Ryan Gauld had both assists.

Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka recorded two saves while producing his seventh clean sheet in MLS play this season.

"It's the fact that we play really well," Whitecaps coach Vanni Sartini told the Vancouver Sun about the shutout. "We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box so it's really hard for the other team to attack us.

"And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we're very solid."

Vancouver dominated Saturday's match with the last-place Earthquakes, outshooting the visitors 19-5. The Whitecaps have seven matches left to play in the regular season.

Houston has won the past two meetings with the Whitecaps, including a 4-3 decision in July in Vancouver.

--Field Level Media