The Major League Soccer playoffs are up and running and the first set of games are the knockout rounds in each conference and on Thursday the Houston Dynamo will take on the Montreal Impact at BBVA Compass Stadium in Texas and the game will be live starting at 8:30 pm ET on the NBC Sports Network, CSN Houston and on the radio on ESPN 97.5 in Houston.
The Dynamo come into the match as the favored team since they are at home and finished ahead of Montreal in the standings and the team is now looking to win the Eastern conference for the third straight season and they will have a tough road ahead in the knockout round game. The Impact are coming into the playoffs after losing in their final match, but the team was able to clinch for the first time since being a team in 2012 and now the two teams will have another matchup after already playing three times and the winner of this matchup will advance to face the tough New York Red Bulls in a game that will be on Sunday.
Check here for the Houston Dynamo and Montreal Impact Coverage live from NBC Sports.
Houston is now in the postseason for the third time in a row and they are hoping to make it all the way to the MLS Cup finals again and this year it will be different, as the team with the best record will host the championship. Giles Barnes will be looked at to perform as the top scorer on the club this season and the Impact are coming into the playoffs after struggling towards the end of the season. Montreal was near the top of the standings at one point and now has salvaged the season enough to make the playoffs and the match against Houston should be a tough one, as they have made runs to the finals in the past two seasons and will not falter easily. Marco Di Vaio is one of the best scorers in the league and while he did not win the Golden Boot, he will be the main focus for the opposition on Thursday.
The first knockout round in the western conference was a solid game with the Seattle Sounders taking on the Colorado Rapids and the game was in Washington and ended up a 2-0 victory for the team in the Pacific Northwest and now they will move on to play in the next round against the Portland Timbers, one of the toughest teams in the league. The Western conference semifinals will have the fourth seeded Sounders playing against the top seed in the west and the two leg round will be decided on aggregate goals and will get started up on Saturday and that first game will be in Seattle, meaning the crowd should be going as crazy as it usually does.
Seattle was helped along with a goal from Brad Evans as well as one from star Eddie Johnson and now the team heads into the next round with some confidence after getting the shutout and two goals in the victory. The Rapids are now done after coming in fifth place this season and the Rapids had a terrible finish to the year while losing its last four games on the road. The match between Houston and Montreal should be an even one and whoever can get the first trike to score could end up being the winner and advancing to play the Red Bulls. Montreal comes in struggling as well, winning only one of their final eight matches of the season and with Houston being so successful in the past in the playoffs, this could be it for them in the Major League Soccer postseason.
The match in the MLS playoffs for the knockout round will be at BBVA Compass Stadium and starting up at 8:30 pm ET and the match will be airing on NBC sports Network for the Houston Dynamo and the Montreal Impact.