Roster 2026

He sure looks like an old 31. Like an old Olive Garden waiter I saw last month.

Check, saw that!
Our club was able to bring our old club Captain and USA legend DaMarcus Beasley out to the event, and I would love to have a man like him take the field for us again Seven!!!

 

this year

9 matches
0 goals
0 assists
2 yellow cards



and according to this site
https://www.soccerway.com/player/bouzat-agustin/6X0Fi3k6/

Total career-
216 games
12 goals
14 assists
48 yellow cards
1 red card


We already have one of these playing forward. we don't need another one.

 

As stated above -- he is a defensive midfielder.

 

https://www.houstondynamofc.com/new...-superdraft-signs-two-dynamo-academy-products

Dynamo draft picks:

11th pick (trade with San Jose) Joe Highfield -forward- University of Portland
39th pick Calem Tommy - defender - North Carolina State
69th pick Agustin Resch - defender - Seton Hall
78th pick Austin Brummett - forward - University of Connecticut
88th pick (trade with San Diego) Gilberto Rivera - midfielder - San Jose State

Houston also signed two Homegrown players:

Logan Erb - goalkeeper - Humble, TX
Reese Miller - defender - Missouri City, TX

 

But then there is the chance of free breadsticks.

 

if you think about it, we basically had to buy our way (at GAM cost for a team forever in a rebuild) back into the draft first round, roughly same spot, after the dumb halliday trade. they gave up that first for a guy who couldn't see the field for the first team.

 

a DM move -- or even pursuing one a little -- suggests raines is shop windowed.

 

my long term critique on this is we're cheap, and then pat is a lousy GM who can't overcome that. every few years he is allowed to spend. sometimes when given that splurge, he trips over someone and makes it briefly playoff competitive.

raines speaks to a basic issue with the team. like what is our plan? not system. i mean like what is the concept how we run personnel. the 2017 team was fairly young up front but old in the back. the defense cratered before the youth could do much. almost no window.

HH's team was fairly veteran. broke in a year or two. no sustained success.

we aren't winning grab-bagging. we find some good kid and within like 3-4 years they get sold. so they don't become foundational. and we're not successful enough to keep them here like boniek.

or, we sign multiple older players. they maybe have That One Season left. or maybe not even. they break down. you are carrying their salary and trying to figure out how to patch the hole, with the team already being cheap.

the championship teams were veteran driven -- but not so old it's a bunch of O-30s -- with a splash of well selected youth talent. if there was a hole, they went out and got a veteran. and they didn't sell.

they need to decide is this a veteran team of short timers, or are we a youth team that sells then calls up more kids. or what is the concept. because in competitive terms they just got raines playing and are now going to sell him. we didn't have elis and manotas that long. you wanna do that, the academy needs to work, or you need a conveyor belt of young prospects. where you can sell someone and there is another kid in line, not a hole.

nah it just kind of looks like they grab some people of varying ages and compose a team, and because we're cheap it's not very good, and because there is no plan, literally no one seems foundational, so it's trying to pull your way out of quicksand.

they should have cut a lot more people for an uncompetitive team. we always keep too many.

last, they rarely seem to pick to the system well. we should be looking for types to fill a lineup and a bench. we just seem to sign people and throw them out there. some of the signings every year don't seem fit for purpose. like you need a forward who does x, and the guy can't actually do that.

on a budget being that misfit -- and in pat's case, just not good at identifying quality -- is bad. this cheap it needs to be close to optimized, good system, hardworking players, and the right people signed within the budget.

last last, if nothing else, the defense needs to be good. we're not even trying to keep up with miami on offense but the way to keep this in the playoffs every year and where any given sunday we can beat teams, is keep the GA in the 30s or low 40s. that also helps negate the spending discrepancy. your expensive people can't score on me, and all i need is a goal. you ship 2 goals 2 out of every 3 nights (on average), and you're demanding a lot from a cheap offense premised on high effort team goals.

 

Yikes, I guess the Europe interest on Raines did not pan out. I would have hoped Raines would want to stay here until he gets that Europe shot. That he thinks he needs to move in MLS to advance is disturbing.

It is weird, I actually agree with some of JuvieChelsey's post. The evidence suggests to me, as JC says, the team has just returned to the cheap ways of the Brener/Jordan era. Everything is about minimizing costs. All meaningful investment is into the stadium because that gets added into team valuation by the consultants.

On the quality of front office work, and I'm just guessing here, but my guess is they just don't invest much in scouting. They have put all their eggs in the cheaper data-analytics basket. Moneyball! The way to compete on the cheap!! Except it doesn't work in Football for a number of reasons.

My mind is open though, and I remain hopeful. Hopeful that that meaningful team upgrades will come this window and we will see a significantly better team come late February. I'm just not going to hold my breath.

 

Welcome home boys!

 

I like those picture montages of the kids growing up. Nice touch.

 

Raines was a top performer at a recent Youth World Cup on a team that could have won the whole thing. They were good enough that they should have beat eventual champions Morocco. I don't view $2m for that level of prospect as over-paying at all.

Chat-GPT, for whatever you can trust it, suggests $2m is under-value:

 

Right Don!!!
Those images are so well put together!

 

Two updates from Twitter reports:

Pablo Ortiz not being bought off his loan. He will return to Slovakia, DAC Dunajska Streda..

Dynamo buying Brazilian CB Lucas Halter from Botofogo for $1.75m, 70% ownership. 25yo. Has been playing for Vitorio. Current season played 4 of 6 games.

 

More off twitter:

 

Translated from Portuguese
2 minutes of Guilherme missing goals for Santos: https://x.com/PeixaoMilGrau//PeixaoMilGrau/status/1958649975895707796


And here is someone defending him:


Paulo Guedes
@cozinhasanti

Translated from Portuguese
Guilherme no Santos: - 76 Games - 26 Goals - 15 Assists 41 goal contributions in 76 games. Average of 0.53 G/J Against Série A teams he has 16 contributions in 27 games (10 G and 6 Assists) He's limited, but we have some 126 worse problems The persecution is STUPIDITY and DISHONEST!
[/QUOTE]

I'm just the messenger here. To associate any of the negative or positive to me .... I know nothing of this guy.

 

Brasilienos are the most positive thinking, easy going folks I have ever gotten to know. I mean I knew two Brasilian Marine drug interdiction warriors back in the day, good shooters and good soccer players. Just real as real can be! So, if they go long on a footballer of their own club being off or not as skilled as his wage demands be at, take from that what one will.

 

Here https://500wp90.substack.com/i/182053803/houston-dynamo-c

a guy on substack rates the Houston Dynamo draft. I nothing about this guy, and I know nothing about our draft picks.

 

This one is for slot machine: Pumas is in for Ponce.

 

Back with LAFC my thought on him was that he could really play. A real competitor. Plays hard.