Houston Dynamo Archive

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Lenhart edges out Maicon Santos for POTW award

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/30/2012

Steven Lenhart

It’s not unprecedented, but it is rare when a Player of the Week winner gets the nod for less than a half’s worth of work.

But that’s the case this week, as San Jose Earthquake Steven Lenhart edged out D.C. United’s Maicon Santos for the Player of the Week Award. How close was it? Lenhart got just two more first-place votes from the members of the North American Soccer reporters than Maicon Santos.

Lenhart came in with 30 minutes left in the match, with San Jose tied 0-0 with Philadelphia. Lenhart scored the opener and, then, in injury time, scored the dramatic winner as San Jose kept atop the Western Conference with a 2-1 win.
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Hainault’s heroics propel Houston to victory

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/12/2012

Andrew Hainault

On the weekend that Quebec’s team made its MLS debut, another Quebecer made a major, ahem, impact.

Andrew Hainault’s goal two minutes into stoppage gave the Houston Dynamo a 1-0 win over Chivas USA Sunday, as the Dynamo completed on the first of seven road dates to open the season as it waits for its new BBVA Compass Stadium to be ready later this season.

Hainault scored some big goals for the Dynamo last year — including a late-season marker against the Portland Timbers in a game that had huge playoff implications and a playoff tally against the Philadelphia Union. Both of those goals came off his head.

But, on Sunday, Hainault scored with his left foot.
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The 11′s super-duper MLS 2012 season preview

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/07/2012

The 11’s Steven Sandor, Mark Polishuk and Aman Dhanoa held a virtual round table, discussing how they foresaw the 2012 MLS season.

Will the Galaxy repeat? Will any of the three Canadian teams make the playoffs? Who will be the MVP?

We tallied up our votes, and came up with our list of how the teams will finish, who will win MLS Cup and who will be the league’s MVP. No need to play the season, now. We have it all figured out.
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Bernier scores in Impact’s final Disney Classic match

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/01/2012

The Impact's Matteo Ferrari leaps over the Dynamo's Brian Ching. PHOTO: MONTREAL IMPACT

The Montreal Impact got a goal from hometown signing Patrice Bernier, but that was about the last positive result the team got out of its abbreviated stay at the preseason Walt Disney World Classic.

The Impact drew the Houston Dynamo 1-1, in a game which saw Montreal’s Collen Warner get sent off in the 88th minute. With the draw, the Impact knows it will not advance out of the group stage of the preseason tournament.

Bernier scored a great free-kick goal in the 56th minute, just six minutes after Dynamo second-year player Will Bruin had opened the scoring with a headed effort.
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Long Tan won’t allow himself to be the Whitecaps’ forgotten striker

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/26/2012

Long Tan

Chinese striker Long Tan has enjoyed an impressive run for the Whitecaps in the Walt Disney World Classic.

That is, if you don’t count his penalty kick attempt. “Attempt” is the key word there.

Tan drew two penalty kicks, the first one which was converted by Sebastien Le Toux, as the Whitecaps beat the Houston Dynamo 1-0 Sunday.

The second one, which Tan chose to take himself, wasn’t good. Let’s just chalk it up to it being a preseason match. It was a feeble attempt to chip Dynamo back-up keeper Tyler Deric. Tan sent a chip up the middle, but Deric held his ground and caught the lob with ease.
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Impact round-up: Ching back to Houston, Valentin off to U.S. U-23 camp

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/16/2012

Brian Ching

In the end, the Montreal Impact got a conditional 2013 draft pick with its first pick in the MLS Expansion Draft.

On Thursday, the Impact announced it had finalized a trade with the Houston Dynamo, sending veteran striker Brian Ching back to Texas. The Impact gets the conditional pick in return.

The Impact selected Ching, the Dynamo’s all-time leading top scorer with 63 goals, with its first Expansion Draft pick, even though the big Hawaiian had stated that he would retire if he was selected by Montreal. The Impact, strangely, bore the brunt of the scorn from MLS fans, while the Dynamo, which chose to leave its all-time top scorer unprotected, didn’t receive nearly as much criticism.

But, Ching soon relented, and said he would report to Montreal, and had been at camp with the team until earlier this week.
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Saputo’s cryptic tweets tantalize Montreal soccer fans

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/13/2012

Joey Saputo

Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo is using Twitter to tease his club’s fans about a new, ahem, impact player that could come into the fold.

Saputo was clearly having some fun on social media Monday, telling his followers about his European travels and his quest to find his club some veteran help.

“Nice to be back, good trip, found another piece that could help, will join the team in L.A.,” tweeted Saputo. “Played for national team and high level in Europe.”

And then, later, “Just to clarify that the player headed to L.A. is not the DP we met with. Just an added surprise.”

So, in fact, Saputo hinted that he has found a player who will go to L.A. to join the team, and has had talks with another player, who is a potential DP.
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Impact loses preseason match to Dynamo; striker Braun leaves game

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/08/2012

Justin Braun

The Montreal Impact has already lost one player to an injury suffered in a preseason match. Impact fans are hoping that the number doesn’t rise to two.

The lowlight of the Montreal Impact’s 2-0 preseason loss to the Houston Dynamo Wednesday wasn’t either of the goals surrendered or the fact the Impact fluffed its lines in front of the opposition goal.

The big worry is striker Justin Braun had to be helped off the field after being brought down by a tackle from Dynamo trialist Oscar Resio. Since the match was only covered through Twitter, it’s hard to judge how mean-spirited the challenge was.

Colombian defender Nelson Rivas, who was one of the Impact’s high-profile signings of the off-season, hasn’t played since coming up lame in the first half of the Jan. 26 friendly in Mexico against Club Atlas. He’s out with an injured thigh.
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Ching relents, will report to Montreal

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/06/2012

Brian Ching

He has yet to manage his club through an MLS game, but Montreal Impact coach Jesse Marsch earned his first major “W” on Thursday.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle (CLICK), striker Brian Ching said he will back down on his retirement threat and report to the Montreal Impact’s training camp. This will either give the Impact the flexibility to use Ching… or trade him.

Ching was taken by the Impact with the club’s first overall pick in the expansion draft, even though Ching had warned Marsch that he would rather retire than report to Montreal. The Impact, strangely, was criticized on many fronts for taking Ching, when all the club did was select a veteran player who was left unprotected.
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Sturgis trade ensures TFC gets a poor return for a first-round pick

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/30/2011

Nathan Sturgis

In early 2011, Toronto FC traded the eighth overall pick in the MLS SuperDraft to the Vancouver Whitecaps for defender/holding midfielder Nathan Sturgis. The Whitecaps had selected Sturgis in the expansion draft from the Seattle Sounders, and flipped the player to TFC.

On Thursday, TFC sent Sturgis to the Houston Dynamo for a conditional draft pick… in 2014.

The Whitecaps used the draft pick to take Michael Nanchoff. At that time, C.J. Sapong, who would go on to become the league’s rookie of the year, was still on the board. Will Bruin, another forward who had some impressive spurts in 2011, was also still there for the taking.
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