HOUSTON DYNAMO

'Houston Dynamo' is a professional soccer team based in Houston, Texas that plays in Major League Soccer and are the current MLS Cup Champions, by virtue of their victory against the New England Revolution in MLS Cup 2006.
Houston Dynamo play their home matches at Robertson Stadium—a 32,000-seat sports stadium located on the University of Houston campus in southeast Houston. A three-year lease was signed to play at the stadium while plans for a soccer-specific stadium are finalized.
The team's supporters groups are the ''Texian Army'' and ''El Batallón''.

Contents

History

Choosing a Name

First Season (2006)

2007 season

Logo

Mascot

Stadium

Sponsorship

Fan Support

Average attendance

Rivalries

Television and radio

Honors

Domestic

Invitational

Current roster

Notable players

Head coaches

Team records

Home stadium

General managers

Year-by-year

International Competition

All-Time Record vs. Opponents

See also

References

External links

History

The team was created on December 15, 2005 when the San Jose Earthquakes were relocated, due to owner AEG's failure to secure a soccer-specific stadium. Even though all of San Jose's players and coaches moved to Houston, the team's name, logo, history and statistics were not transferred and remained inactive in San Jose until the Earthquakes were reactivated in 2007. The Dynamo were thus a new team, similar to the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL.

Choosing a Name

On January 25, 2006, ''Houston 1836'' was first announced as the team name. This followed an online survey for the fans to provide unofficial suggestions for the new team name, with given options of: Apollos, Bulls, Eagles, Gatos, Lonestars, Stallions, Toros, Americans, Buffaloes, Generals, Houston 1836, Mustangs, and Stars. According to MLS & AEG, who chose the name, the 1836 name referred to the year that the city of Houston was founded by brothers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, though it had perceived ambiguity, as it is also the year of Texan independence from Mexico. Houston 1836's logo featured a silhouette of General Sam Houston, perhaps the city's, and state's, most famous historical figure.
The choice of Houston 1836, however, soon became a political issue. While their stated intent was to link to the founding year of the city, the team name was changed to Houston Dynamo after the Houston 1836 name raised a furor among some locals of Mexican descent—a target audience—who related 1836 with the war for Texas independence. Sylvia Garcia, Harris County's first Hispanic commissioner in more than a century, rallied for a boycott of the team name. Due to the controversy undergone through the boycotts of the name 'Houston 1836', Major League Soccer announced that they would no longer conduct online surveys to decide names for new expansion teams. MLS later decided on a name for the team: The 'Houston Dynamo'.
The name "Dynamo" refers to Houston's industrial economy, as well as two previous Houston soccer teams, the Houston Dynamos of the Lone Star Soccer Alliance in 1987-1991, and the Houston Dynamos of the United Soccer League in 1984. The official reason for the name is that "Dynamo is a word to describe someone who never fatigues, never gives up. The new name is symbolic of Houston as an energetic, hard-working, risk-taking kind of town." The team colors are orange, white, and "Space City" blue, meant as a symbol of yet another team in Houston's sports history: the Houston Oilers of the NFL.
Ironically, the name Dynamo is not without some controversy itself, as the Eastern European Dynamo sports society was historically sponsored by the Soviet police. The choice of that name also drew some criticism for lack of originality since it has been used by so many other teams, including the USL PDL Carolina Dynamo and numerous youth clubs in the U.S. Since the "1836" debacle, MLS has announced that they will no longer do online surveys for future expansion teams; they had also taken a poll to name Real Salt Lake, which itself was an unpopular choice.

First Season (2006)

The Dynamo played their first game on April 2, 2006. Amidst a crowd of 25,462 people in Robertson Stadium, the Dynamo beat the Colorado Rapids 5–2. Brian Ching led the charge for the Dynamo with four goals, all of which were set up with assists from teammate Dwayne De Rosario. The Dynamo went on later in the season by pulling upsets on prestigious MLS clubs such as D.C. United, Los Angeles Galaxy, New England Revolution, Chicago Fire and eventually their interstate rivals FC Dallas.
The Dynamo finished their first season in Houston with an 11-8-13 record, good for second place in the Western Conference. Houston defeated another team in their first playoffs, Chivas USA, in the Conference Semifinals. On November 5, 2006, the Dynamo defeated the Colorado Rapids 3-1 in the Western Conference final to earn a spot in its first MLS Cup.

On November 12, 2006, the Dynamo defeated the New England Revolution 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie to win the 2006 MLS Cup held at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas. The game was scoreless until the second session of extra time, when New England's Taylor Twellman scored. Only one minute and six seconds later, Brian Ching headed in the tying goal for Houston, and the championship was, for the first time in MLS history, decided by a shootout. Substitutes Kelly Gray and Stuart Holden made Houston's first two penalty kicks, and standouts Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Ching made the last two. Ching's gave Houston a 4-3 lead, and goalkeeper Pat Onstad stopped New England's Jay Heaps on the final attempt to secure the win.
With the win, the Dynamo advanced to the 2007 CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

2007 season

The Dynamo began 2007 season early as they were part of the 2007 CONCACAF Champions Cup tournament, having qualified by winning the 2006 MLS Cup. After eliminating Puntarenas FC of Costa Rica in a dramatic quarterfinal win, the Dynamo lost the 2007 CONCACAF Champions' Cup semifinal to CF Pachuca 5-4 on aggregate after extra time.
Immediately after, Houston began its 2007 league season with consecutive shutouts against Los Angeles and Chivas USA. Thereafter, the Houston franchise began to struggle in the regular season losing shutouts against New York, Chicago, Toronto, and New England. Despite their continuous losing streak, the Dynamo were invited to spend the day at the White House on May 29, 2007 and meet with President George W. Bush because of their success in winning the MLS Cup. Only one other team -- DC United in 1997 -- has visited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The Dynamo also made some significant trades during the 2007 season. Houston traded Kevin Goldthwaite and a first round pick in the 2008 SuperDraft to Toronto FC for Richard Mulrooney. Houston also traded Alejandro Moreno to the Columbus Crew in exchange for Joseph Ngwenya. The most recent trade was Houston sending Kelly Gray to the Los Angeles Galaxy for Nate Jaqua. After regrouping and pulling off a win against their inter-state rivals, FC Dallas, the Dynamo began an unbeaten streak of 11 games and a shutout streak of 695 minutes, a new MLS record.
The Dynamo were invited to compete in the inaugural SuperLiga were they dominated the group state before falling in the semifinals to an old rival, CF Pachuca.

Logo

The star on the soccer ball in the Dynamo crest was originally an ''ad hoc'' adoption, likely a nod to the original 1836 logo. With Dynamo's 2006 MLS Cup win, the star will become a sanctioned award in 2008, as they will wear the ''scudetto'' for the 2007 season.

Mascot

In 2007, the Houston Dynamo started the search for a mascot by asking members of the Art Institute of Houston to submit drawings from which several finalists were selected and an official mascot would be decided through an online poll, both for the mascot design and name.^[1]
The winning design, created by Eric Hulsey and Leslie Lopez, was of an orange haired fox known as "Dynamo Diesel". The fox was an instant hit to the public when he was unveiled at the Houston Zoo in April 2007.^[1] Immediately, Diesel began to work alongside the Houston Dynamo marketing and community outreach programs. He is not only present at games, cheering on the team, but also joins the Dynamo Girls to help promote the organization to the city.

Stadium

Houston Dynamo plays its home matches in Robertson Stadium on the campus of the University of Houston. City of Houston Mayor Bill White granted the MLS team the stadium temporarily as the Dynamo make plans to construct a permanent soccer-specific stadium for the franchise.
Club owner, Anschutz Entertainment Group (or AEG), is hoping to finalize an agreement to construct a 20,000 to 22,000-seat soccer specific stadium at the site of the Houston Astros season ticket parking lot. It is located just east of Minute Maid Park, across from US Highway 59. The stadium will be similar in design to many German football stadiums. This will be the third stadium for Downtown Houston. [1]. The conceptual Houston Dynamo stadium in Downtown Houston is projected to open up in time for the 2009 or 2010 MLS Soccer Season. [2]
Former sites in talks of the new Houston Dynamo stadium were the site at Delmar in the Houston Independent School District, a site in the suburb of Pearland, Texas, the former Six Flags Astroworld site, and one in Sugar Land, Texas.

Sponsorship

The Dynamo reached a four-year sponsorship agreement with Amigo Energy, making the Houston-based retail electricity provider the largest sponsor in team history.^[1] As part of the commitment, Amigo Energy becomes the official jersey sponsor of the Dynamo. The Houston franchise are the fifth league team to sign jersey sponsors, along with Los Angeles, Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC.
The Amigo Energy logo will appear on all team jerseys, along with other on-field gear, effective Sunday, August 19. Amigo Energy also becomes the official home and business retail energy provider of the Dynamo. As part of the deal, Amigo Energy will establish a focused marketing strategy that uses the Dynamo in co-branded advertising, customer retention, and new customer acquisition programs.^[1]
The new replica Dynamo jersey with the Amigo Energy logo is being produced by Adidas. These jerseys are expected to be available at retail establishments in January 2008.

Fan Support

The Dynamo enjoyed good fan support, by MLS standards, in its first year of existence. 25,462 fans attended their first ever match against the Colorado Rapids on April 2, 2006. Attendance gradually declined throughout the remainder of the spring and bottomed out during the summer months. During July and August, the Dynamo played five matches at Robertson Stadium, and the average attendance for those matches was 10,348.
The team's attendance figures received a boost in August when the Dynamo played a game against the L.A. Galaxy in Houston's Reliant Stadium as part of a double-header (the other game being an exhibition match between FC Barcelona and Mexican side Club América) on August 9. 70,550 were in attendance for that event. Ultimately, home attendance began to rise again as the weather cooled and the playoffs approached.
In the end, the Dynamo averaged 18,935 in attendance over their 16 regular season home games. Attendance remained high during their playoff run, where home attendance was 17,440 and 23,107 in home games against Chivas USA and the Colorado Rapids. Dynamo fans contributed greatly to the sell-out crowd of 22,427 in the 2006 MLS Cup as well, which was played in Frisco, Texas (about 275 miles, or 450 km, from Houston).
The Dynamo are supported by two support groups, the Texian Army and El Batallón. Both support groups are known to work together when supporting the Dynamo, as well as when going to support at away games.

Average attendance

''regular season/playoffs''

★ 2006: 18,935/20,274

Rivalries

''Main Article, Texas Derby''
Since relocating from San Jose in 2006, Dynamo's main geographic rival has been FC Dallas. Each season they compete in the Texas Derby, or El Capitán Clasico, in which the victor wins an 18th-century cannon named ''El Capitán''. Houston Dynamo clinched the 2006 series with a win on August 12, 2006 and clinched the 2007 series with a win on August 19, 2007.

Season	Played	Dynamo Win	Draw	FCD Win	Dynamo Goals	FCD Goals	+/-	Texas Derby Winner
2006	4	2	1	1	6	5	+1	Houston Dynamo
2007	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	Houston Dynamo
Total	7	4	2	1	9	6	+3	Houston Dynamo (2), FC Dallas (0)

''Current as of August 19, 2007''

Television and radio

Dynamo's local English telecasts are carried by KTBU channel 55 when not carried by national MLS broadcast partners such as ESPN and FOX Soccer Channel. Charlie Palillo calls the play-by-play and Glenn Davis calls the color-commentary. Spanish telecasts were on KHLM-LP "TV Informa", channel 43.
English radio broadcasts (18 matches only) are carried by KBME (AM) 790 AM. Spanish radio broadcasts are carried by KEYH-AM and KXGJ-FM "Concierto".
"The Soccer Hour" or "Houston Dynamo Power Hour," which it is called during the season, is a local Houston radio broadcast on KBME (AM), which is hosted by Glenn Davis. It regularly features Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear and, amongst others, many of the Dynamo's players.

Honors

Domestic

Major League Soccer

★ 'MLS Cup (1):' 2006

Invitational

★ 'Carolina Challenge Cup (pre-season) (2):' 2006, 2007

Current roster

''As of July 5, 2007''

★ Players in 'bold' have senior international caps for their respective national teams.
'
:''Source: http://web.mlsnet.com/players/roster.jsp?club=t200''

Notable players

★ Wade Barrett (2006—)

★ Brian Ching (2006—)

★ Ricardo Clark (2006—)

★ Dwayne De Rosario (2006—)

★ Brian Mullan (2006—)

★ Pat Onstad (2006—)

★ Eddie Robinson (2006—)

★ Craig Waibel (2006—)

★ Paul Dalglish (2006—)

★ Stuart Holden (2006—)

★ Joseph Ngwenya (2007—)

★ Nate Jaqua (2007—)

Head coaches

★ Dominic Kinnear (2006—)

Team records

★ Games: Wade Barrett, 56

★ Goals: Brian Ching , 18

★ Assists: Brad Davis, 14

★ Points: Dwayne De Rosario, 24

★

★ Shots: Dwayne De Rosario, 108

★ Shots-on-Goal: Dwayne De Rosario, 46

★ Game-Winning Goals: Brian Ching , 7

★

★ Shutouts: Pat Onstad, 13

★ Saves: Pat Onstad, 156

★ Wins: Pat Onstad, 21
''MLS regular season only, through 9/8/07''

Home stadium

★ Robertson Stadium (2006—)

General managers

★ Oliver Luck (2006—)

Year-by-year

Season	Div	Pos	League Record									Top Scorer			Top Goalkeeper					Notes
			'P'	'W'	'L'	'D'	'F'	'A'	'+/-'	'Pts'	'PPG'	Player	GP	G	Player	GP	GA	GAA	SHO
2006	West	2nd	32	11	8	13	44	40	+ 4	46	1.438	Brian Ching	21	11	Pat Onstad	32	40	1.25	5	Inaugural Season, MLS Cup Champion
2007	West	1st	25	12	7	6	35	20	+15	42	1.680	Brian Ching	17	7	Pat Onstad	22	19	0.87	8
'Totals'			57	23	15	19	79	60	+ 19	84	1.527	'Brian Ching'	38	18	'Pat Onstad'	54	59	1.093	13	1 MLS Cup

''Statistics current as of September 09, 2007''

International Competition

★ '2007 CONCACAF Champions' Cup'

★
★ Quarterfinals v Puntarenas F.C. -- 0:1, 2:0 (Dynamo advances 2:1 on aggregate)

★
★ Semifinals v CF Pachuca -- 2:0, 2:5 (Pachuca advances 5:4 on aggregate after added extra time)

★ '2007 SuperLiga'

★
★ Group Stage v Club América -- 1:0

★
★ Group Stage v Monarcas Morelia -- 1:1

★
★ Group Stage v DC United -- 1:0

★
★ Semifinals v CF Pachuca -- 2:2 (Pachuca advanced to the final, winning the penalty shootout 4-3 after extra time)

All-Time Record vs. Opponents

Opponent	First Meeting	Last Meeting	GP	W	L	T	PPG	F	A	+/-
CA Monarcas Morelia	2007	Superliga, July 2007	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	0
Carolina Dynamo	2006	U.S. Open Cup, August 2006	1	1	0	0	3	4	2	+ 2
CD Chivas USA	2006	MLS, June 2007	8	4	2	2	1.75	14	7	+ 7
CF Pachuca	2007	Superliga, August 2007	3	1	1	1	1.333	6	7	- 1
Charleston Battery	2007	U.S. Open Cup, July 2007	3	1	1	1	1.333	2	2	0
Chicago Fire	2006	MLS, July 2007	4	1	2	1	1	6	4	+ 2
Club America	2007	Superliga, July 2007	1	1	0	0	3	1	0	+ 1
Colorado Rapids	2006	MLS, August 2007	8	5	2	1	2	17	10	+ 7
Columbus Crew	2006	MLS, August 2007	4	1	0	3	1.5	5	4	+ 1
22x20px D.C. United	2006	Superliga, August 2007	6	3	2	1	1.666	5	5	0
FC Dallas	2006	MLS, August 2007	8	5	1	2	2.125	12	6	+ 6
Kansas City Wizards	2006	MLS, June 2007	4	2	1	1	1.75	5	5	0
Los Angeles Galaxy	2006	MLS, April 2007	5	2	1	2	1.6	4	3	1
New England Revolution	2006	MLS, July 2007	5	0	1	4	0.8	6	7	- 1
Puntarenas FC SAD	2007	CONCACAF Champions Cup, March 2007	2	1	1	0	1.5	2	1	+ 1
Real Salt Lake	2006	MLS, August 2007	6	3	2	1	1.667	10	10	0
Red Bull New York	2006	MLS, July 2007	6	3	1	2	1.833	11	4	+ 7
Toronto FC	2007	MLS, July 2007	3	1	1	1	1.333	2	1	+ 1
			78	35	19	24	1.603	113	79	+34

Includes all in-season MLS, Domestic and International Club Competitions, plus pre-season Carolina Champions Cup as of September 09, 2007. Games decided by penalty shootout are counted as ties.

See also

★ Dynamo (disambiguation)

References

1.
2.
3.
4.

External links

★ Houston Dynamo Official Website

★ Texian Army — Houston Dynamo Supporters

★ El Batallon — Houston Dynamo Supporters

★ Official Houston Dynamo board, courtesy of BigSoccer