Roster 2026

My impression is Pat & Asher are doing a bit of the Matt Jordan “talk big all offseason to buy another year at the helm”. Is the Czech league open for business? Maybe something in Latvia? Or perhaps Hungary?

Next year will be a slog with the World Cup to get attention. If Segal sells the Dash for the reported price, he won’t care about what happens with the Dynamo

 

That list of released players today. Where we go from here, let's see!

Houston’s updated roster can be found below listed alphabetically by position:

Goalkeepers (3): Jonathan Bond, Blake Gillingham, Jimmy Maurer

Defenders (4): Felipe Andrade, Antônio Carlos, Griffin Dorsey, Erik Sviatchenko

Midfielders (7): Artur, Duane Holmes, Ondřej Lingr, Jack McGlynn, Brooklyn Raines, Sebastian Rodriguez, Diadié Samassékou

Forwards (5): Exon Arzú, Lawrence Ennali, Toyosi Olusanya, Ezequiel Ponce, Nelson Quiñónes

 

It's almost like some of us can see a player and no they are no good (ie Kolache, Bartlow, Urso,) but the FO won't admit it until its way late.
Hoping Bassi and Ortiz are booted as well unless they take the league minimum and come in off the bench at minute 89.
Losing Escobar would be a negative. Hope they have a plan if he goes.

Does this list strike fear into any opponent??
Exon Arzú, Lawrence Ennali, Toyosi Olusanya, Ezequiel Ponce, Nelson Quiñónes

Are we gonna try to sell Raines or keep him?

There had better me a minimum of three impact players brought in BEFORE the season starts or we aren't serious. And one of them has to be some sort of wizard that can spin magic for Ponce to be an effective striker in this league cuz apparently he needs a world class midfielder behind him or he can't score.

 

Who would have put the ball in the net for all those assists?? You will understand that I think this counter factual is a bit fanciful. This reminds me of the "on pace baseball guy" pointing to a home run stat the first third of the year and saying "this guy is gonna hit over 60 this year!".

Ennali is clearly one of the best if not the best, player on the team but I'm not quite sure he instills fear in other teams. Especially since he can be doubled or boxed in or game planned to keep him on the lines knowing that there is no one who can convert one of his crosses or otherwise help free him. They have to respect his speed & ability to dribble at a guy but I don't think anyone is scared to game plan against him or thinks he is too superior to stop. Though I hope he adds to his skill set and becomes one of those players.

 

The same scorers that completed the assists that Ennali registered. Given your assessment of the team, would not Ennali's assists in the limited games he did play be impressive? I mean, in your own words, he had no one to pass to ....

Now your going to respond by dragging this into some debate about quality and Joe's not Xs and Os. Don't. I'm not engaging in that. That is not the point. The point is solely your logic. Quiz said that given his limited minutes Ennali's production was not bad. You asked if he played more games "Who would have put the ball in the net for all those [more] assists??" Do you not see the awkward logic?

Let me be clear on my view before you explode: No player on the Dynamo performed in 2025 at the level needed to compete in MLS. Further, it is my view that neither you nor I know why.

 

Watching MLS playoffs action tonight, plus World Series and plus MNF.
Just thinking about our roster moving forward...it's gonna be a long Winter Break for this Dynamo junkie.

 

I concerned it will be a longer still 2026 MLS season. I am currently bereft of hope that this ownership and management team is willing to compete for Top-4 finishes. I pray that I am wrong.

I wonder -- am I alone in that view or do you good folks share it?

 

I think they do.
However, the rot that occurred under Brener and that FO era cannot be understated. So to get back to our Dynamo having their brand as alive and shinning like it once did will take Herculean type effort. Are they aware of this task is my question?

 

You have stated it exactly the way I have been looking at it. I equate Herculean effort as something like $100-200M dollars over a 5-10 year period. Obviously, I don't have the capacity to be accurate on those guesstimates ...

 

That figure is a solid guess as any Don.
With the coverage the sport will get with the World Cup turning up in town next year I would like to think that the marketing of our club and crest will be visible with this spike in the sport. So if our club does invest that type of money then I would like to think it goes to purchase really good talent out on the market. Then the next step after bolstering our roster, more thoughts, focus and what money is not spent on purchasing better players, this remaining money needs to go towards reviewing how a Raines was cultivated. Then compare that with how Memito was onboarded a few years back and compare notes on how to ramp up our academy. Thus, keep focusing on growing our own youth to first team talents. Some GHA footballers so good they are on the U.S. or other National Team youth radars and if they show well by the age of 20-23 as first team Dynamo studs can thus be sold for a solid profit to Euroland. Which by league policy, said transfer sales funds can be totally reinvested back in our club. We must be a club in such a tremendous soccer market that when money is spent, the investment yields high returns.

 

Speaking about opening up the wallet to sign high class talent for our club! This would be getting a player that wants to be starting and getting clock ahead of the World Cup! Certainly a #10 role with skill and flair, can unlock an opponent's backline and a nose for goal as well.

James Rodríguez to MLS? Colombia Superstar May Eye Move Ahead of World Cup | FOX Sports

 

Good find, Escobar will be missed.

 

Huge respect and thanks to Escobar. That guy fought for his team. 100% all the time.

 

Juventus, City Football Group show interest in Houston’s Brooklyn Raines: Sources
Simon Fearn / Imagn Images

By Tom Bogert
Nov. 5, 2025
Juventus and City Football Group have contacted the Houston Dynamo about U.S. youth international midfielder Brooklyn Raines, sources have told The Athletic.

No offers have been submitted to Houston, but conversations have taken place. Clubs in MLS are interested as well, sources added. A move within MLS could be executed via a cash transfer for Raines, who is out of contract after the 2026 season.

Raines, 20, had a career-best 27 appearances for Houston across all competitions this year. He has accrued 61 first-team appearances altogether.

The technical, deep-lying midfielder fits well within Houston’s possession-based game model. Raines was a key starter for the United States at the recent U-20 World Cup in Chile. Marko Mitrovic’s side got to the quarterfinals – beating France in the group stage along the way – losing to eventual champion Morocco.


City Football Group owns numerous European clubs, led by Manchester City. CFG also controls Girona, Palermo, Troyes and Lommel, along with MLS’s New York City FC.

Juventus, meanwhile, is one of the most storied clubs in Italy and also features a second team competing in the Italian third flight.

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Someone on this forum predicted this ....

 

I love me some Brasilian talent on our roster but this man is already 30 and for a winger that is a man with a tremendous amount of mileage already logged on his bone bag. I trust he can play multiple positions as winger was the one place I thought we had our younger players in good form moving forward. Ennali, Quinones, Olusanya and Arzu. With McGlynn as well depending on how Coach Olsen is going to deploy him in the Starting XI.

 

This is an unserious football club. Absurd, Segal not going to spend what is necessary to truly compete today.

Will give him credit for HH but the bar has been raised and he's not elevating with it.

 

Some Houston fan posted yesterday about the rumor James Rodriguez is looking at staying in Liga MX or already been in communication with our club. Take from this what one will.

 

A DP??? What the hell? Yet another player in the witness protection program currently on a team that is 4 points from relegation.

They drug El Matadors corpse out for the kick off party, maybe they can sign him as well.

 

This from twitter.
Transfermkt says he is 31. D Mid. Argentine. Market value of 700k. Current club: Velez Sarsfield.

César Luis Merlo
@CLMerlo

Translated from Spanish
Agustín Bouzat is the new reinforcement for Houston Dynamo. There's a verbal agreement to buy out his transfer from Vélez and for the player to sign until June 2028. #TratoHecho



10:12 AM · Dec 12, 2025
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