A little about me: As we have a little break, let me take some time to introduce myself.
So, I realized that I've been writing this for some time now and have yet to introduce myself. I know many of you out there are thinking "Who the F*&$ does this guy think he is?" so I thought I'd write just a bit to let you guys know a little about me. So who am I? Nobody. I'm just a regular guy who decided to write this blog as a distraction from a divorce I was going through. I've been blog writing for years, I've written about my experiences as a small college basketball player, I have a blog about Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, I've written for The Bundesliga Fanatic, and I've written about U.S. Soccer and things I think could make soccer better in America. Looking around, there wasn't a ton of Dynamo content out there. There's blurbs in the Houston Chronicle, you can sometimes find things about us on MLS.com, and ESPN almost never has anything to say about us. You hardly ever hear about the Dynamo or Soccer on Sports Talk Radio around here, and so I thought I'd create some Dynamo specific content.
"Allow me re-intro-duce myself my name is" ........Brian. Pronounced with an A-N. I'm an average 44-year-old Biology teacher, and I also coach the freshman basketball team at my school. I love teaching, I love coaching, and yes I'm weird enough to love teaching and coaching freshmen because they're nuts and make everyday fun. I was once upon a lifetime ago a college basketball player at a tiny little NAIA school in Nebraska. I wasn't any good, but I managed to be a 4-year scholarship player. I grew up in between Ft. Worth and Dallas in North Richland Hills,Tx. but in the time I grew up it was a much different place. There was a lot more grass and a lot less concrete. I started playing soccer in 1st grade and played until middle school when soccer wasn't offered and football, basketball, track and cross country were.
I never stopped going to soccer games. I went to as many guys and girls soccer games as I could in high school, as it wasn't until spring of my Senior year in 1996 when MLS started. I watched the first FC Dallas game on a fuzzy old television I had in my bedroom, on a UHF channel with rabbit ears (How many of us remember what UHF was?). I went to a tiny college in the middle of a tiny town in Nebraska (York College), and it was the perfect situation to watch soccer. (1) There wasn't much to do (2) We didn't have football the fall, we had futball. We didn't even have a football team. Homecoming was during a soccer game, our games and stadium (it served as the High School Football Stadium, and our baseball stadium too) were smack dab in the middle of our campus, and it was about a 200-yard walk from the dorm. We went to games in the beautiful fall weather, in the freezing Nebraska cold, and we traveled all over Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa watching our guys and girls play. York was a really tight nit community, and we showed up to support our friends. It wasn't uncommon to have a pretty decent crowd at Soccer, Basketball, and Baseball games alike.
How I became a Dynamo Fan:
I was late to the game. I didn't move to Houston until 2009 and didn't really follow MLS at all at the time. To be honest, I tried to get into it the first couple of years when it was in it's inception, and thought it was.....well......kinda boring. FC Dallas didn't have any players I knew, and I just couldn't get into it. In 2013 I got married, she had two kids, and her brother was a youth soccer coach in Germany. I started following Eintracht and International Soccer so we would have something to talk about, and just really fell in love with it. Looking for a way to connect with my stepson, we started going to Dynamo games soon after. At first it was 4-5 games a year, then it became 10-15, but I've been going to almost every home game for the last three years. I don't have season tickets, but my best friend does, and we go to every game this year together.
Demarcus Beasley won me over, but Alberth Elis sucked me in. He was just different. You could see on the field he was just on a different plane athletically than anyone that matched up with him. It's hard for me to follow a team if there's no players I care about on it, and Beasley and Elis made me care about this team. I missed the championships, I never attended a game at Robertson Stadium. I never saw the great teams of the early 2000's, and I've never really known what it was like for the Dynamo to be good. I was around in 2017 for the run that we made. That was awesome. I hear all talk downplaying it, but I could care less. It was the only time since I've been following the Dynamo that they made the playoffs and it was pretty special.
What would I like to see from the Dynamo.
I don't want to be the (current) LA Galaxy. Now, before you cast me off as an idiot, hear me out. I have a high level of appreciation for what the Galaxy bring to the MLS table. If it weren't for them, some of the biggest stars in MLS history would have never set foot in America. However, I don't want to be a team soo poorly constructed that you can have one of the greatest players of our generation (Zlatan), and not make the playoffs. I don't want to be soo poorly put together that the second he leaves, you're one of the worst teams in the league. Who would I want to be? Seattle. A team that is always good, with a front office that is one of the smartest in the league (if not the smartest), and a team that gets players from literally every tool available in MLS. They have homegrowns, they draft well, they make really smart trades, they sign key free agents, and they drop a good amount of money on the right guys. If you're giving me the choice of making a 1 off playoff run with a huge name player or being the class of the league for almost a decade, I'll take the latter. I want an organization that makes this city proud, year in year out.
Why are you so high on Tab Ramos?
Because honestly, I think given enough time and enough resources, Tab can help us become that Seattle type of organization. Because of this belief, I'm a little more patient than most people. I don't want to be a flash in the pan, I want to build an empre. I want a Seattle Sounders, New England Patriot type of team here. I'd love being more Astros, or Tampa Bay Rays, and less Pittsburg Pirates. Why do I think Tab can do it? I honestly don't know, it's mostly just an ideal. I'm just not ready to give up this plan yet, because I feel like it's barely started. Hire a GM first, keep putting this roster together, let Tab help hire talent evaluators, skill development coaches, and scouts, and then make a decision on Tab. Give Tab a functional academy and some draft picks, upgrade the facilities, and then figure out if Tab can get us to where we want to go. When last year ended I felt like it would be three years before we could compete again, and I stand by that. Does Tab do things that drive me crazy? Absolutely? Am I ever standing in PNC screaming "TAB! MAKE A SUB ALREADY!" without a doubt. Don Nelson did that too with the Mavs. I hated his system, I didn't like the players he was bringing in, and he turned out not to be the guy. I've seen Jimmy Johnson take one of the worst teams I've ever seen to a 3 time Super Bowl winner through simply being smarter than everyone else. I literally have no idea where Tab lies on that Spectrum, but I'm willing to give him more of a chance.
OK, but I don't agree with most of your opinions.
Great. Full disclosure, sometimes I don't know if I believe them. I often write stuff to present another point of view, and sometimes just to make people think. I welcome anyone who disagrees with me, I love hearing all points of view, that's how I evolve. I think we all agree that the biggest problem with the organization over the last decade has been a completely negligent ownership group. Glenn Davis says that on his show all the time, in not so direct words. It's why I'm not as harsh on Matt Jordan as other people, even though I think he completely failed in multiple areas. I don't claim to be an expert, my thoughts are my own. I am extremely grateful to everyone for reading this. I honestly think it's crazy anyone reads anything I write, and hope you guys enjoy it.
See you all on Saturday, and thanks again for reading.
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