HOUSTON – There’ve been plenty of zeros and ones in the Houston Dynamo’s scorelines so far this season.
Problem is, as the Dynamo defense has jumped out of the gate – putting to rest any lingering worries that the struggles from 2014 would carry over – the attack has lagged behind. Way behind.
The Dynamo have scored just twice and been shut out three times in five games, while the defense has allowed just three goals.
But new head coach Owen Coyle isn’t hitting the panic button just yet, as the veteran manager knows it takes time to mold a new club. Still, the Dynamo boss didn’t shy away when asked Tuesday about the potential for adding reinforcements.
“What we do with what we’ve got right now is we make the best of the resources we have,” Coyle said. “Obviously, we have [Erick] ‘Cubo’ [Torres] coming in the summer. I would suggest, certainly in my mind, he’s not the only one that’s coming because we want to be inventive and freshen up.
“When all’s said and done as coach I want to get my own flavor. I inherited this group of players, and they’re a great group of players, and I love to work with them. But as a coach, I know what I want to bring to the dynamic of the team and how to improve the team. That takes time and that takes patience.”
Torres, who scored 15 goals with Chivas USA last year while on loan from Chivas Guadalajara, is set to join the Dynamo in June after signing a Designated Player contract with Houston over the offseason. Part of that deal was a six-month loan back to Guadalajara, though there are clauses in place that could bring Torres to Houston earlier.
But there is also the sticky situation of this summer's Gold Cup. If Torres – who has started accruing regular national team appearances in the last eight months – makes the El Tri roster, that could push his Houston arrival date all the way back to August 1.
Either way, that leaves the rest of this transfer window, which closes in May, for the Dynamo to explore possible additions.
Still, Coyle has expressed confidence in the talent on hand. Giles Barnes, Brad Davis, Boniek Garcia and Will Bruin have shown the past three seasons they can pose a threat, with Barnes and Bruin both hitting double-digit goals last year.
It just hasn’t come early in 2015.
“Brad can score those, Giles can score those, and Will – Will and Giles have done it year in and year out,” left back DaMarcus Beasley said. “Yeah those guys are going to score goals, it’s just waiting for that game that day for it to happen. Once it does, the floodgates are going to open.”
That sentiment is also shared by the man who makes the decisions of who comes and who goes.
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“We do feel we have the firepower within this group right now that has the quality to put goals up on the board,” general manager Matt Jordan said, while applauding the team’s play in a 1-1 draw with the LA Galaxy on March 28 and 1-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders over the weekend. “Of course we’re always looking to improve, but we feel we have some very good attacking pieces. It’s now getting the most out of those attacking pieces.”
And Coyle cautioned on passing judgment on the group before it has time to take shape while promoting the long view despite some early season ups and downs.
“We’ve already shown that the team we’ve got just now is capable of winning games in MLS against top quality opposition” Coyle said. “That’s why I know moving forward I’m really excited about it because when I know I get those moving parts and bits of jigsaw that I want to secure to the Houston Dynamo, I know, as I’ve said before, we’ll stand toe-to-toe with anybody.”
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com.
