HOUSTON – It has been a busy first month on the job for Houston Dynamo general manager Matt Jordan, having already been to Spain and South America on scouting trips.
The fruits of his labor are showing, as the club has identified two targets, a forward and a center back, as potential international signings.
“We’ve identified targets that we feel can be positive contributors to the team and we’re working through the process on each of those situations,” Jordan confirmed to MLSsoccer.com on Thursday.
Club brass declined to provide the names of the targets.
According to the club there are multiple international spots available as only Luis Garrido and Alexander Lopez occupy those spots, giving the Dynamo flexibility in trying to exploit the foreign-player market.
Jordan and Dynamo president Chris Canetti have been busy at work this offseason as the club evaluates its roster in the midst of searching for its next head coach. That has not stopped them from seeking out players they feel can help the club.
“Our focus has been working through the coaching search process,” Jordan said. “We’ve put a lot of time into that process and have been very thorough. I’ve also been traveling quite a bit to Spain and South America, and those trips have been very productive.”
The Dynamo say they have completed the first step of identifying head-coaching targets.
“The coach is an element to all of this, and that’s where our focus is right now,” Jordan said. “We have [player] options targeted, but [the head coach search] obviously goes hand in hand. The focus for us is to find players that are the right fit for the Houston Dynamo.”
Coming into the offseason, forward and center back were positions of need for the Dynamo, with injuries and inconsistency plaguing both positions on the way to a disappointing eighth-place finish in the Eastern Conference. According to Canetti, the club has improved the quality and depth of its scouting as exemplified by Jordan’s recent trips.
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“As an organization one of the things we’ve talked about is that we need to be more aggressive in our scouting efforts, and with Matt being here the last four weeks we’ve already substantially improved the quality of our scouting,” Canetti told MLSsoccer.com. “It’s exciting for me to see the number of options that Matt’s brought to the table for our club to review.
“It’s important as a club that we have multiple options at every position to sign. It’s great we’ve identified multiple targets, but at the same time things can go so many different ways in these situations.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
