Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno from Bolivia, John Harkes, Jeff Agoos and Eddie Pope from the United States -- among others.
Dynamo are a different type of team, with not as many so-called big names, but with plenty of impact players -- Dwayne DeRosario and Pat Onstad from the Canadian national team, and midfielders Brad Davis, Brian Mullan and Richard Mulrooney.
Their supporting cast is solid and the crew that comes off the bench can hold its own as well.
And remember, Houston won this title without two key starters -- striker Brian Ching, who did not even dress while nursing a hamstring injury and defensive midfielder Ricardo Clark, serving a nine-game suspension for kicking Dallas forward Carlos Ruiz in a late-season match.
If you're an ardent MLS fan you already know that one of the key's to Dynamo's success has been stability. There is little turnover of the players, most importantly, the impact ones.
"You look at the two teams on the field that has great success," Canetti said. "The one thing that has been consistent amongst both teams is there's no turnover. You have a core of guys who have been on both teams for these great runs for both organizations."
Dynamo have been in Houston for less than two years and it has captured the hearts of the southern Texas soccer fans -- on and off the field. The club drew more than 30,000 for each of its home playoff games.
"We've built something very good in Houston over a very short period of time," Canetti said. "There's the right ingredients there, the right mix of everything. And we've fostered that and taken advantage of it and you've seen the results. It's incredible.
"Relevant is the term we've used a lot in the office. We're not the Texans. We're not the Astros. We're not the Rockets. But we mean something to the community. And we're major league in that community in every sense of the world.
And, south Texas has captured the hearts of Dynamo's players.
"Not one player have come up to us and says 'I want to go back to San Jose.' They love where they're at. They realize what they have here with this organization," Canetti said.
The next year promises to be a busy 2008 for Dynamo. Houston will participate in at least five competitions -- the Pan-Pacific competition in Hawaii, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup, SuperLiga, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and of course, MLS.
Next season, they will have an opportunity to continue this fabulous run and accomplish something no other MLS team has -- winning three in a row.
"This group of guys are up for the challenge," Onstad said. "To be down one nothing and come back to win shows the heart of the team, and how much winning means to the guys. We are definitely up for the challenge of a three-peat."
On Sunday, no one was about to argue about Dynamo's chances of pulling it off.
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
