HOUSTON -- The Houston Dynamo opened training camp this week, and for the first time since the team moved to the Bayou City before the 2006 season, the environment around them was, for lack of a better word, normal.
Their first training camp here was hectic and brand new for soccer fans in Houston. After all, the team just moved from northern California after playing in San Jose as the Earthquakes.
In 2007 and 2008, the team started the season as defending champions, so naturally expectations were high and members of the team were asked over and over what it was going to take to repeat as champions.
Before the regular season started last year Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear was asked if he thought about becoming the first coach every to lead an MLS team to three consecutive titles. Kinnear wanted no part of that question and explained how hard it was just to win one based on how competitive and balanced MLS has become.
The Orange did not win a third title and were ousted in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs by New York last November.
Now, for the first time, the Dynamo are not the new kid on the block, and they did not make their first appearance of the year as defending champs.
In fact, they are not even done building their team for the 2009 season. The Dynamo still have two senior spots open and one for a developmental player, and they are not hiding the fact they would like to add a forward.
"Our quest for that forward is ongoing," said Dynamo chief operating officer Chris Canetti. "We have also been transparent with our fan base in letting them know that it may or may not happen quickly. We have the desire to make the right move instead of the knee-jerk quick move.
"If you look at what we've done historically in adding the Nate Jaquas and the Joseph Ngwenyas and the Kei Kamaras during the season, those ended up being the right move. Even though they did not happen during the preseason, they ended up helping us be successful. We have the time, we have the money and we have the slots to really be smart about it."
Kinnear echoed that, and said the recent signing of Felix Garcia, an 18-year-old striker from Laredo, Texas, does not change the fact that the Dynamo are looking for a veteran to fill the void with the loss of Jaqua.
"That is something we are not going to be sneaky about," Kinnear said. "Yeah, we are looking for someone right now. But that has nothing to do with the signing of Felix at all. That has something to do with us trying to win a championship that we don't have any more. We are always trying to improve our team."
And that is something that Kinnear has been trying to do since they were defeated in the Western Conference Semifinals by the New York Red Bulls. It has been a busy time, especially recently for he and Canetti.
First, two-time MLS Cup MVP and fan favorite Dwayne De Rosario was traded to Toronto FC for rookie defender Julius James in mid December. Then there was the MLS draft, where the team picked up Daniel Cruz and Marcus Tracy.
Next, to cap off a busy month, the Orange signed Tally Hall on Jan. 23, to replace the departed Tony Caig; signed defender Bobby Boswell to a multi-year deal and traded Pat Ianni to the Seattle Sounders on Jan. 26. Three days later, the team announced the signing of Garcia, who Kinnear said, has no other pressure on him right now than to show up to practice every day and train hard.
So has it been a busy offseason? Yes, Kinnear said, but not anything out of the ordinary when there are spots to fill.
"It's definitely an ongoing thing to put these teams together," Kinnear said. "Sometimes it takes six months and sometimes it just takes a week. I will say, though, that the process has been about three months, and then everything has just kind of come together in the last week.
"But we have been busy the whole time and I think we are just now seeing the reward of the hard work that we have put in."
The Dynamo will play a home-and-home preseason series against their intrastate rivals, FC Dallas, beginning this week. The week might be filled with introductions and getting to know each other both on the field and off. There has not been a lot of turnover this offseason, but several players, including midfielder Stuart Holden and forward Corey Ashe, will have bigger roles with the departure of De Rosario and the need to add a veteran striker.
This is the first time in a while the Dynamo will not be regarded as defending champions. But their roster is coming together, and they are hungry to get back on the pitch with mindset to prove that last year's early playoff exit, after winning their first-ever regular season Western Conference title, was nothing more than the result of one bad day.
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