HOUSTON – Luis Garrido may not be a game changer in the traditional sense.
Goalscoring isn’t in his repertoire. He may be a little rough around the edges when it comes to passing and in the attack. But the 5-foot-7 Houston Dynamo midfielder is a handful defensively, the epitome of a bulldog on the field, making him as tough an opponent as teams will face – a true destroyer in every sense of the word.
“I’ve purposely given him the toughest assignment because of the belief we’ve got in him,” Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle said. “There’s no doubt that he takes that on board and he’s a player we can trust to do that. I think he’s really relished the opportunity to stand toe-to-toe with some great players.”
The Honduran international’s recent assignments have been some of the toughest attackers in the league.
Portland Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri, Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco, and, for a short spell the LA Galaxy’s Robbie Keane, have all been in Garrido’s crosshairs. In each game, the 24-year-old helped neutralize what those players bring to the game. And that will likely be the case again when the Dynamo travel to face New York City FC and Spanish star David Villa on Saturday (7 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
“I think you can just ask Diego Valeri what he thinks of Luis Garrido because from the first minute of that game to the time he left that game Luis hounded him and was constantly on his tail and made the game hard for Diego,” center back David Horst said. “He knows that’s what he gets paid for, he knows that’s his job. You’re not going to mistake Luis for a playmaker.
“Luis is a game changer. I love having him in front of us. It really makes mine and [center back Jermaine Taylor’s] job easier when he’s in front of us.”
Garrido as a game changer is a unique idea. Normally that term is reserved for the types of players he marks. But his menacing defensive role allows players around him freedom to be better.
Although he is quiet, Garrido carries a sense of confidence that’s obvious right off the bat.
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“The first weeks for me it was a little bit of, ‘This guy is out of his mind,’” defender Raul Rodriguez recalled about his first impressions of Garrido. “Luis is a very interesting player to know outside the field.
“He’s very expressive and impulsive and probably when we play we project our image inside the field and our personalities on the field. He’s very impulsive and very honest with you. He doesn’t have the mask inside the field or outside the field.”
That mentality in training is one of the things Coyle relishes in his young midfielder, but he also has to rein him in at times and held him out of the starting lineup against Sporting Kansas City on April 25 and FC Dallas on May 1.
Coyle said it was about keeping him fresh, but without Garrido, Houston gave up eight goals in those games.
“I didn’t really see much of a change,” Horst said. “He was still Luis. He works hard every day in practice, he was kicking people and he was still doing the things he does best. Luis is a simple guy, he knows what he needs to do and does it.”
In the four games since Garrido’s return, Houston’s defense has rounded back into form with three goals allowed. But Coyle, who relished working with burgeoning talents, knows there’s still work to be done.
“I do believe there are little bits that he’ll feel and I think we can improve,” Coyle said. “Given his age there’s scope for improvement. He’s a young man with huge scope for development. I think he’s certainly going in the right direction.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
