Canetti: Team needs to make right decisions
Eleven years ago, the Dynamo debuted in Houston and immediately won two MLS Cup championships.
The worst season in club history ended Sunday. The Dynamo finished with their fewest wins, fewest points and fewest goals scored.
It led to the club’s lowest attendance (19,021) since BBVA Compass Stadium opened in 2012.
They started poorly, and even after a midseason coaching change, they never threatened to make the postseason in a league with the most forgiving playoff structure in American sports.
President Chris Canetti has been in Houston since day one. In the first nine seasons, the Dynamo missed the playoffs once. After this season, they have missed three years in a row.
On Monday afternoon, he said he is feeling the heat.
“The focus and energy on getting it right, right now is intense,” Canetti said. “There are lots of decisions to be made. They can’t be taken lightly. We need to be spot on.”
Finding impact players
In addition to finding a full-time head coach, one thing the Dynamo need to be the most spot on with is bringing in impact players.
The current roster is full of players who could do well in supporting roles, but that alone is not enough to win in a league where opposing teams have begun signing international stars who make seven-figure salaries.
Last year, the Dynamo re-signed forward Giles Barnes with the hope he could make an impact. Barnes never approached the type of production expected of a player making $700,000 per season and was traded.
In the offseason, they traded for central midfielder Cristian Maidana with the hope he would be a playmaker in the No. 10 role and replicate the 15 assists he had with the Philadelphia Union in 2015. This season, he had four.
Erick Torres has had such a rough go of it as a designated player since coming to the Dynamo that the club loaned him to Liga MX side Cruz Azul FC and awaits that club’s decision on whether it will buy him.
Seattle Sounders FC showed this season what adding even one impact player can do. They signed Uruguayan international Nicolas Lodeiro during the summer transfer window. Lodeiro instantly became one of the league’s top players and helped the team go from ninth place to the No. 4 playoff seed in the Western Conference.
“When you look around Major League Soccer, every team has three or four real impact players who can change a game,” Canetti said. “This offseason, that is a priority for us to acquire those types of players who can fit in around the role players we already have who do a good job.”
Canetti holds onto hope the Dynamo next season can become this year’s Colorado Rapids, who went from last place in the West to second place. That cannot happen unless one bigger picture change can occur.
Sticking with Barrett?
Ever since the Dynamo lost original coach Dominic Kinnear, they have been looking for definition. Owen Coyle, the coach hired in 2015 and let go in the middle of this season, never figured it out.
After a late-May loss at Chicago, Canetti said he finally realized there were bigger problems than he thought. The club needed a new direction. Less than a week later, Coyle and the club parted ways. Wade Barrett was named interim coach.
It remains to be seen whether Barrett will be given the reins heading into next season. No matter who is the coach, Canetti said, he will need to get the team back on track to a championship level.
“When we were winning championships, we had an identity as a club,” Canetti said. “We knew how we wanted to play. We played a set way every single game. We took the strategy to the other team and said, ‘Beat us at our game.’
“Unfortunately, the last couple of years, we have struggled to find that identity. That’s what we’re striving to rediscover.”