Austin FC, Dynamo trying to rise above the Western pack

The center of Texas will play host to a clash of teams in the middle of the Western Conference standings when Austin FC play host to the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday.

The Dynamo (5-4-2, 17 points) sit in seventh place amid the 14-team West standings, while Austin FC (4-4-4, 16 points) are eighth.

The teams played at Houston April 20 with Austin FC coming away with a 1-0 victory on an 86th-minute goal from Emiliano Rigoni off an assist from CJ Fodrey.

The loss was the first of three consecutive matches in which Houston failed to score. But the third of those was a scoreless draw against St. Louis City that also prompted a three-match unbeaten run.

On Saturday, Houston earned a 2-1 road victory over Sporting Kansas City that was the club's first victory since April 13. Hector Herrera scored in the first half for the Dynamo and Ibrahim Aliyu put away the match-winner in the 78th minute. Aliyu leads Houston with four goals.

Herrera's first of the season came from the left corner of the penalty area and into the far-right corner of the goal. It was just Herrera's fourth match after an early-season injury.

"The goal is gravy for him," Houston head coach Ben Olsen said. "We didn't sign him to score that type of goal. He's there for rhythm and leadership. Then he can certainly be a provider as well. It was just a really classy goal."

Not only does Austin FC have a 6-3-0 lead in the all-time series against the Dynamo, they also have won each of their past four meetings between the teams in Austin.

Austin FC's recent 4-1-1 run ended with a 2-1 road defeat against FC Dallas on Saturday. The club did see midfielder Sebastian Driussi end a four-match scoreless streak with a goal.

Now Austin FC head into their second consecutive match against an in-state opponent.

"They're very fluid in what they're doing," Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff said about Houston. "Where they maybe have not gotten the results they wanted, they're certainly in all these games. We know they'll come in extremely motivated."

Driussi is tied with Diego Rubio for the Austin lead in goals with three.