The 2017 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs are on hiatus until Nov. 21, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to talk about in the interim. Today, contributor Sam Stejskal examines one of the best stories of the 2017 season – the Houston Dynamo’s turnaround – and wonders how the club will manage a tricky offseason whenever their magical playoff ride comes to a close.
Apart from Columbus Crew SC working their way into the Eastern Conference Championship amidst all their Austin turmoil, the Houston Dynamo have been the story of the Audi 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs.
The worst team in the West in 2016, Houston have had a remarkable turnaround this year, finishing the regular season in fourth in the conference and dispatching Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers in the postseason to advance to the West final against Seattle later this month.
They’ve done it with plenty of new parts. First-year head coach Wilmer Cabrera and GM Matt Jordan overhauled their roster this winter in a distinctly Latin American fashion (something I wish Houston would’ve done years ago), adding Panamanian defender Adolfo Machado, Colombian midfielder Juan David Cabezas, Honduran forwards Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto and MLS vets AJ DeLaGarza, Leonardo and Dylan Remick in the offseason. Argentine Designated Player Tomas Martinez followed in the summer, while forward Cubo Torres returned from a loan to Mexico (and his own personal wilderness) for his first full season in Texas.
All played a critical role in 2017, with Machado, DeLaGarza and Leonardo ranking first, second and third on the team in minutes played and Torres, Elis and Quioto placing first, second and fourth in goals.
Cabrera turned Houston into an exciting, lightning-fast counterattacking team that steadily improved on the defensive end, finishing the regular season with the sixth-fewest goals allowed in the league. They were lethal at home and got much better as the year progressed on the road, finishing the season an entirely respectable 1-2-5 in their final eight away trips. They were Atlanta-lite, at about a quarter of the cost.
It hasn’t always been pretty and they got a big assist from the litany of injuries that hit Portland in the playoffs, but the Dynamo (who, it should be noted, had plenty of injuries of their own against the Timbers) have persisted, and now find themselves on the brink of an unlikely appearance in MLS Cup.
There’s still the matter of Seattle to deal with, but I’ve thought a bit over the past few days if the Dynamo can sustain their success in 2018. There’s too much talent and too good of a coach on hand to be looking at a Colorado Rapids worst-to-first-to-worst redux, but there’s real danger that Houston will regress next season.
For one thing, the West should be much better in 2018. The Galaxy can’t be any worse than they were this year, LAFC will splash the cash, Minnesota should improve, FC Dallas have plenty of talent and RSL look more than ready to make the leap. Above the playoff line, Seattle will continue to build on their recent success, Portland will keep pushing and SKC will more than likely keep their postseason streak alive. Credit the Dynamo for taking advantage of a down year in the conference in 2017, but they’ll have to be even better next year if they want to return to the postseason.
It’ll take a serious effort from Cabrera and Jordan just to ensure the Dynamo don’t lose talent this winter. Both Elis and Cabezas are on loans that will expire following the season. The club have purchase options on both players, but that’s no guarantee they’ll be back. Elis certainly won’t be cheap. His purchase option from Monterrey has been described to me as “massive.” That’s not a word we typically throw around when talking about the Dynamo, one of the lightest-spending teams in the league this year.
Elsewhere, Cubo Torres has likely drawn interest from Liga MX, where he’s gone on loan twice while with Houston, though his MLS contract runs through 2019. DaMarcus Beasley’s deal is up, as is Eric Alexander’s. The club has options on captain Ricardo Clark, Leonardo and DeLaGarza, but they’ll all be on the wrong side of 30 by the start of next season, all are on sizable numbers and DeLaGarza is staring down a lengthy rehab from a torn ACL suffered on Decision Day. It’s conceivable that most of those players won’t be back in Houston in 2018. At minimum, the Dynamo have some tough decisions to make.
Can they continue their progression next season? Of course. But, much like their fellow 2017 rebounders Chicago, things aren’t as straightforward as they might seem in Houston. They very well might make MLS Cup, but it’ll take some solid management from Cabrera and Jordan, some spending from ownership and, more than likely, a few more hits in the transfer market this winter for the Dynamo to continue their upward trajectory in 2018.
