HOUSTON – DaMarcus Beasley’s days as a member of the Houston Dynamo may well be numbered, according to the man himself.
The 34-year-old left back becomes a free agent at the end of the season and the wily veteran isn’t ready to hang up his cleats just yet, but he’s just not sure it will be with the Dynamo.
“My gut feeling is, probably not,” Beasley said when asked if a return to Houston was on the table. “Just because I haven’t really had talks with them. If they wanted to renew my contract or give me another one, or whatever, then I’m sure I would have heard from them by now.”
What he is sure of, though, is that his drive and love for the game are still there.
“Until that’s done, until mentally I’m drained, until the legs can’t go no more, and mentally I’m out of it, then I’ll stop,” Beasley said. “But I’m definitely gonna play. Whether that’s in Houston or that’s somewhere else I don’t know.”
Mathematically, the Dynamo have a one percent chance of making the playoffs but the reality is four games separate Beasley from free agency. He’s certainly made a case for the Dynamo or any other interested suitors.
Despite being sidelined two months with a knee injury, Beasley’s return to the Dynamo starting lineup in early September stabilized the Men in Orange. Houston are 2-1-1 in their last four games, all starts by Beasley, and have scored seven goals in the process, two fewer than the Dynamo scored while Beasley was out injured.
The former US international’s impact in the last four games is evident on the team. But even when Beasley was healthy earlier in the season, the team still wasn’t moving up in the standings, which explains their now-miniscule chances of making the playoffs.
Beasley, a well-travelled player who spent a decade playing in Europe with the likes of Manchester City, PSV, and Rangers, said there isn’t one specific thing that went wrong this season in Houston.
“When you have a losing season everything comes to light,” Beasley said. “Whether we can strengthen the back, forwards not scoring, giving up too many goals, soft goals. There’s a lot of things.”
Out of all the things that came to light, Beasley singled out the mentality as a missing aspect of this team.
“The mentality of it let us down,” Beasley said. “How many times were we up a goal? Up two goals? And we end up losing or tying. That’s not mistakes, that’s mentally. It’s all mental.”
Beasley acknowledged that in the end, soccer is a business and part of that business is about to get under when free agency period starts.
“Obviously we didn’t do enough to make the playoffs, so we need to strengthen,” Beasley said on whether the team is a couple of players away from being a winning side.
“You can’t have the same team we had this year going into next year. We need to strengthen all areas. And I mean from the back all the way to the front.”
