The season is on the line for the Houston Dynamo when they host the Seattle Sounders on Sunday in Game 2 of the best-of-three Western Conference first-round playoff series.

Game 3, if necessary, will be played in Seattle on November 10th.

The Sounders, the fourth-seeded team in the West, won the opening game of the series on penalties after the teams went scoreless in the regular 90 minutes of the contest. Alex Roldan scored the winning shot in the shootout as Seattle converted all five chances against Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark.

Dynamo, the No. 5 seed, kept pace with Seattle in the shootout until Erik Sviatchenko fired his shot past the left post on the fourth. Houston didn't even have a shot on goal during regulation time.

Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei didn't have to make a save in regulation time as he recorded his 14th career postseason shutout, the second in league history behind Kevin Hartman's 15th.

The teams were the two best defenses in the regular season, and that strength was on display in Game 1. Seattle has kept six clean sheets and conceded just three goals while being undefeated in its last eight games and is tied for first in the league Top goals conceded (35) and shutouts (13) for the second year in a row.

“Our general philosophy is that defense wins championships,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said Friday. “It's out there. It's like that in many different sports, and certainly ours too. “It’s probably the staff and philosophy (that helped us succeed).”

Schmetzer assumes that Dynamo will be more aggressive in Sunday's game.

“(Houston) has to win,” he said. “So they will try to make sure their attacking moves are good, but we do the same thing. We’re not going to go there and just sit back for 90 minutes.”

Houston allowed just 39 goals in the regular season, third fewest in all of MLS. Dynamo also led the league with 59.2 percent possession, a strategy that allowed them to control games and dictate the pace of play.

The Dynamo are sticking to what they know and hoping to use the home pitch to their advantage.

“We'll take some confidence into our home and look forward to a better performance there,” Houston coach Ben Olsen said. “Our path is a little more difficult now, but we are looking forward to playing in front of our fans and forcing a third game.”

“We didn't do enough offensively to win in Seattle – we have to do better and I think we will,” Olsen added. “We have to make better decisions.”

Houston will be without star midfielder Adalberto “Coco” Carrasquilla for Sunday's game after the 2023-24 CONCACAF Player of the Year was cautioned for a red card in the 65th minute of Game 1 and will miss Game 2.

–Field level media