In this week’s episode of the City of Soccer Podcast, Garret Heinrich sat down with Houston Dynamo FC General Manager Pat Onstad and Technical Director Asher Mendelsohn for a wide-ranging conversation about the work that they have done with the Club since coming on in January.
When Onstad was brought on to lead the Club, the goal was to build a team that could compete at the highest levels in the sport. Last week, he took a major step in accomplishing that goal, when the Club announced the signing of Atletico Madrid and Mexico National Team midfielder Héctor Herrera. For Onstad, a player of Herrera’s caliber fit his vision for what the Dynamo can be.
“We had a lot of discussions behind closed doors in terms of what we wanted to do as a group, as a club, and I think when Hector was presented to us, he fit kind of everything we were looking for in a player and in a profile that we think will be excellent for our club,” Onstad said.
Signing a player of Herrera’s stature wasn’t as simple as writing a big check, however. He had multiple offers in several countries, so it was up to Onstad and Mendelsohn to sell him on why he should choose Houston.
“He had opportunities to go and play for other Champions League teams and he had opportunities to go other places and make more money, but what drew him to Houston was that he saw the opportunity to build something,” Mendelsohn said. “He had a chance to talk to all of the key players who are in the process of building that, led by Pat and myself and Paulo, but also he got a chance to speak to our owner and he got to hear directly from Ted about what his vision for the club is. And I think that more than anything convinced him that this was something worth pursuing.”
Herrera is just the latest in a growing line of players who have chosen Houston and the Dynamo over other offers since Onstad and Mendelsohn came on board. Early in the offseason, they secured the services of goalkeeper Steve Clark despite other offers within MLS. Then in recent weeks, they have made substantial progress in building out the youth ranks of the organization with the signings of midfielder Brooklyn Raines and goalkeeper Xavier Valdez to homegrown contracts. For Mendelsohn, signings such as these are important in pushing the first team to be the best that it can be.
“In the case of Brooklyn and Xavier, those are two players who aren't from our market who we brought in here because we believe in the direction the club is going and they see the pathway that's been laid out with the Academy and the second team and the first team and the integration between those teams,” Mendelsohn said. “We went and brought Paulo in because he understands the pathway and he values the pathway. All of that is constructed purposefully."
While these signings are a great sign of where the club is heading, Mendelsohn also emphasized the importance of developing players from the city of Houston.
“We also want to have more players from Houston moving through that pathway as well. We have some quality players from the area who are in our pipeline and they're working their way through,” he said. “Our strategy is twofold in terms of youth development: one is finding those players and helping develop those players here in Houston and the second is if there are other talented youth players around the country, that we want Houston to be a destination of choice for them as well.”
Herrera is set to join the club in July, at the conclusion of the La Liga season in Spain. While Dynamo fans will have to wait to see Herrera on the PNC Stadium pitch, Onstad is confident that his signing has already had a substantial impact on the team.
"The bigger piece now is, how does that affect our guys here? And what I think it's done already within not just the players, but with the staff here at HSP, is now people are starting to hold each other accountable,” Onstad said. “They're realizing, listen, we have a player of a top top level that's coming in, that wants to be here, that's excited to come to Houston, that's excited to represent this city, represent this club, is excited about what Paulo is trying to do on the field, excited about what Ted wants to do with the Club, excited what myself, Asher, Nick Kowba, Paul Caffery are trying to do with the Club. So for us here right now, he's not even here, but his presence is felt, and it's very rare that you can have that type of signing."
That presence is already being felt not only within the technical staff, but across all aspects of the Club. Both men agreed that having that type of healthy pressure is good for everyone, regardless of their specific role in the organization.
"At the end of the day, everyone, no matter if your role is as assistant equipment manager, with the academy, or a ticket salesperson or an usher at the stadium, the lens of every decision is, ‘Is the decision that I'm making right now helping the team make the playoffs?’" Mendelsohn said. “And if people don't believe that they can make an impact, that's what our job is, to start telling people, ‘This is how you can help the team win on the field.’”
All of these changes, whether it be new player acquisitions or cultural shifts, are made with that goal of the playoffs in mind. That was the goal that Onstad set out when he first joined the Club, and it certainly hasn’t changed in the months since then.
"We want to try to get this turned around as quick as possible. That's our goal. We put a marker in the sand and we're shooting for the playoffs,” Onstad said. “Everything we do every day is geared towards how do we be [more] successful and how do we make the playoffs. The players know that, the staff knows that, here and down in the front office, so that's what we're striving for. A lot of work to do, but as Asher said, it's a really exciting time to be a part of this team."
