Hello Dynamo fans,
I thought it would be a good time to reach out to you and express some thoughts on our club on behalf of myself and our ownership group.
Our first season of ownership has been a challenging one. As an ownership group, winning is our first priority, and we expect better. As passionate fans of the Dynamo, we know that you deserve better. And we are committed to delivering that to you.
After a transitional season last year (moving away from the Dominic Kinnear era), we expected this season to go differently.
Unfortunately, we have not met our expectations. We are not satisfied with our situation; the status quo is unacceptable, and we are taking action to improve things.
Our priorities are to restore the culture and identity of the club back to how it was during our winning years and reshape the roster.
We went through a coaching change a few months ago, which was a challenging situation to navigate through in the middle of the season. However, we believe it was the right move, and we came through for the better. We have seen measured progress under Wade Barrett, and he has done a good job. We have begun the process of restoring our culture and identity and have seen progress in that area.
Since Wade took over, the club’s overall record in all competitions is 4-4-7. While the record may not yet reflect the progress that has been made, we have been in every game with a chance to win them all. We have become a tough team to play against and defensively solid – like the old Dynamo.
We have a goal against average of 0.81 under Wade and have given up one goal or less in 14-of-15 games with five shutouts.
I was in San Jose Friday night to see the team achieve a road victory, and that game was a great example of the toughness and determination we are re-establishing. The team took advantage of its opportunities and fought together for the common goal.
We believe that we have the solid nucleus for a team, but are missing a few key difference-makers. The next step in reshaping the roster is to identify and sign those big-time playmakers in the attack to complement our defensive improvement, and we expect that to happen in the January transfer window.
We were active on the transfer market this summer window with seven transactions – four players in and three players out – and all of those moves were done with an eye toward setting us up to be aggressive again this winter.
The most notable move was the Barnes trade. While he is a talented and popular player, the move clears significant cap space and enables us to go out and get one or two key difference makers this offseason. By making this move in the summer, we have certainty ahead of the winter window that significant cap space will be available to us, and will seek impact players with these funds.
The move will also free up more playing time for young strikers Cubo Torres and Mauro Manotas. Both have been dangerous when given extended time on the field in games, and you can expect to see each of them playing quite a bit over the remainder of the season as we look to see what each is capable of with a run of games under his belt.
One area we are pleased with is our USL Club and affiliation with RGV FC. The team has performed well and been an important addition to our player development efforts. Signing Jose Escalante is an example of how RGV can benefit the first-team. We have also been able to send good young players, including those from our Academy, to RGV to gain valuable experience and have time to develop.
We don’t accept where we are, but we have a plan moving forward. We believe that we can finish strong this year, and we are optimistic that we will re-establish ourselves as the team we once were and expect ourselves to be.
We appreciate your support through these challenging times and look forward to sharing better days ahead.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Brener
