Raise your hand if you had the Houston Dynamo smacking FC Dallas 5-0 on Saturday.
Yeah, me neither.
The Dynamo pulled off the most surprising result of the young season on Saturday, annihilating their Texas rivals at BBVA Compass Stadium in the first battle for El Capitán of 2016. The win snapped Houston’s five-game losing skid against their in-state rivals and should serve as a statement of intent to the rest of the Western Conference: The Dynamo are dangerous.
Offseason acquisition Andrew Wenger has been a terror on the flank, scoring in the Dynamo’s 3-3 draw against New England on opening day and adding a goal and two assists on Saturday. Cristian Maidana, who was acquired with Wenger in a December trade with Philadelphia, might not have the pedigree of some of the bigger name No. 10s around MLS, can pull strings with the best of them in the middle of the field.
Their arrivals open things up for other Houston attackers, too. Maidana, who left Saturday’s match after suffering an injury just before halftime following a nasty challenge from Maynor Figueroa, pushes Giles Barnes out wide, allowing the Jamaican international (who also left injured on Saturday) to focus less on creating and more on finishing. Forward Will Bruin should get plenty of dangerous service from all three of Wenger, Maidana and Barnes; if he’s able to hold off Houston’s other strikers and keep his starting spot, he should be in line for another season with double-digit goals.
In addition to acquiring some intriguing pieces in Wenger and Maidana, the Dynamo added a ton of depth this offseason. They don’t have the top-line players of most of their Western rivals, but a cursory glance at their roster shows legitimate, quality competition at nearly every position.
Boniek Garcia was huge coming off the bench for Barnes on Saturday, and Leonel Miranda showed well in relief of Maidana. Hell, Cubo Torres, reportedly bought for a nice chunk of change last winter, can’t even get a sniff behind Bruin. That sort of depth is huge for dealing with the inevitable injuries, international call-ups and the general wear-and-tear of an MLS season, especially for a team like the Dynamo, who generally don’t spend big on Designated Players.
Head coach Owen Coyle and GM Matt Jordan, now both in their second seasons in Houston, deserve credit for assembling such a deep roster. Whether or not their group can build on Saturday’s success, of course, remains to be seen. Both of their games this year have been at home, where they went a respectable 9-4-4 in 2015. That stands in stark contrast to their 2015 road record, which was a putrid 2-10-5.
They’ll have their first two away tests of the season in the next two weeks. Both matches will be against talented sides in need of a win, with the Dynamo traveling to New York to take on the 0-2-0 Red Bulls on Saturday before they head north of the border to face the Vancouver Whitecaps – also 0-2-0 – on March 26.
It’s still very, very early, but those matches could be telling. A pair of good showings, and we just might have to stop looking at the Dynamo as merely dangerous, and start viewing them as a serious contender to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
