Prospects look bright with fresh leadership
One of the all-time worst Dynamo seasons on the field ended with a whimper, but what happened off the field felt like a major victory for fans around the city.
On the field, the Dynamo finished last in the Western Conference for the second year in a row and missed the playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons. Their 30 points (6-16-12 record) were the fewest in a regular season that had at least 30 games. The Dynamo even finished below expansion club Austin FC.
If that’s not enough to illustrate how bad the 2021 season was, there is one more lowlight to hammer home the point. The Dynamo went a club-record 16 games in a row without a win.
The lack of winning cost general manager Matt Jordan his job in August. It also led to the nonrenewal of head coach Tab Ramos’ contract, which expired at the end of the season.
There was plenty to blame for the on-field struggles.
Injuries to important players halted momentum throughout the year. Forward Tyler Pasher, who was the team’s best attacking threat in the early going, sustained an injury in the third game. He was injured two more times throughout the season.
New acquisitions forward Corey Baird and midfielder Adalberto Carrasquilla were injured shortly after arriving in Houston midseason.
One of the biggest absences, however, was midfielder Darwin Quintero — the team’s only Designated Player whose pay doesn’t count against the team’s salary cap. After leading the team in goals scored during the 2020 season, Quintero began the season out of favor with Ramos due to a perceived lack of work ethic. By the time Quintero got into the starting lineup in the second half of the season, the Dynamo were well off the pace within the Western Conference.
Despite the lack of results, there were some bright spots on the field. Forward Fafa Picault led the team and all Americanborn MLS players with 11 goals. Young winger Griffin Dorsey had two goals and three assists in 20 games — his first solid run of MLS games.
Two midseason acquisitions — Carrasquilla and central defender Teenage Hadebe — showed potential to be key starters for years to come.
The biggest acquisition of sorts, however, came off the field.
In June, the Dynamo announced Ted Segal was the club’s new majority owner. Segal bought controlling rights from Gabriel Brener, who had been the majority owner since December 2015.
Brenner’s tenure will go down as a black eye in the franchise’s history in the eyes of fans.
As the rest of the league increased spending on international players, Brenner mostly stayed pat. The outlier was the 2017 season when coach Wilmer Cabrera guided a team with new attacking players Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto to the Western Conference finals.
Other than that, Brenner’s time as Dynamo owner did more damage than good.
Segal arrived with a promise to pour more assets, including player acquisition fees, into the first team. In fact, during his introductory press conference, he announced Hadebe as the club’s newest Designated Player.
When the season ended, Segal announced he would not bring back Ramos as coach. Shortly after that, he announce the hire of club legend Pat Onstad as the Dynamo’s new general manager, breathing new life into a fanbase that had come to expect poor results and indifference from ownership.