Not exactly a splash of a signing, but anything will do at this point. At the worst, he's got to be better than Wondolowski and he adds a little depth for when Kamara is back.
Terrible terrible decision imho. The team don't need another big Centre forward. What they need is a guy who can make the necessary runs into space for balls from Ching as well as provide a speedy threat to complement Chingy. Also as important is someone who can actually score goals and you can depend on to score the goals. Dont get me wrong, I've always liked Akinbiyi(Nigerian-English connection) but he's not dependable for the goals. I say this and I know he doesnt have the worst goal scoring record, you can find many big forwards with worse records-Emile Heskey, but he is not going to solve anything for the Dynamo. There is no need for the team to rush into a signing since they either passed up or were denied the strikers available. What they need to do is see how it goes with Wondo and if necessary push Mullan up top while playing Cameron at RW and then go out in the Summer window and sign a suitable striker. I love the Dynamo but when it comes to scouting foreign players they are one of the poorest in the league and it shows when you look at the squad. Dom has a squad of mainly North American players/those with playing experience in N.A. and I have no problem with that since it shows Dom has confidence in those guys but at the same time it also shows the weakness of the coach and F.O.
I also can't help but feel that this is a knee jerk reaction to needing another forward. There's no doubt that we do need one, but I'd rather wait for the right one to come along. Hopefully Akinbiyi turns out to be the right one. They also have a Swedish forward named John Pelu on trial, just judging by youtube videos he seems to have decent speed. The team only has room to sign on of them unless they cut a player.
He's Nigerian and this signing could bring a new fanbase because there is a large Nigerian population in Houston.
He's more English than Nigerian and the Nigerian population in Htown that follow footy know that Akinbiyi's Nigerian cap is an insult to some of the better strikers that have worn the green and white. If the Dynamo wanted to bring on the Nigerian fanbase, they would have taken a look at a right back based in England that plays in Coca-Cola League one who was literally begging the Dynamo to give him a trial. The guy got a trial with FCD but FCD were set with Drew Moor and Bobby Rhine at RB so it wouldn't work, but the Dynamo had aging Waibel and Mulrooney in his secondary position as a backup and wouldnt even give the guy a trial. I should mention the guy knew a bit about MLS and wasn't expecting anything over $150k, he knew as a defender the pay wouldn't be special. Also the guy wanted the trial with the Dynamo because he has family that live in the Houston area and is always in Htown on holiday. (There's a number of players on the Nigerian national team that pop into Houston in the summer as some have family based in Htown). Also, the RB I mention is a player on the Nigerian national team, and after the Dynamo passed on him, he went on to sign with the team in England. The Dynamo can and need to do a better job scouting and evaluating foreign players. I love the team and the coaching by Dom is second to none in my opinion. Canetti will be a beast of a GM very soon but they need to do a better job with foreign players.
We have no need for a RB right now so it would have been stupid to take him on trial. We have already signed Hainult to be our young RB/CB I believe. I'm pretty sure that most of the scouting of foreign players is done through the league office and not the individual teams. I could be wrong on that front but I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that MLS does a lot of the scouting as a league.
The league does some scouting, but I'm not sure how good it is. I know for South America they have one guy in Beunos Aires and they record all of the Latin American games and have them available to the teams. Put simply, that's nowhere near good enough, at a minimum they should have at least one guy in each South American country. I'm not sure if they have any scouting at all outside of the Americas. The teams themselves really should handle some scouting on their own though. It's kind of understandable that they don't since most of them are losing money already and MLS makes bringing in players more difficult than it should be due to their parity rules.
Nah bruh. This was two years ago not this season. I'm sure the league have their own scouts but from my experience with FCD, the team have some scouts and with their partnership with CAP they have extra sets of eyes to give them word on potential players in Brazil. Plus, I know most MLS teams send their coaches and assistant coaches to the various countries to run rule over the players. I believe the Dynamo are no different to an extent but then you look at teams like the Revs that take it a step further and get a solid, dependable agent like Pat McCabe and have him give them the word on promising young players in Africa and then you see the outcome is the Revs bringing in some good yet cheap young players to help them. I wish the Dynamo would just do a better job with their foreign scouting and evaluating and perhaps go a little stronger in that department. It's all good, the Dynamo will still come through. I put my trust in Dom and Chris.
Whats the word with Julius James? I know TFC fans weren't too dissapointed to send him to Houston but I thought he'd find his place with us. I was kinda dissapointed to see Dom play Geoff Cameron in place of Julius at CB. (Not dissapointed in Geoff, the guy is the kind of stud every team needs. Excellent utility player that you can plug in almost anywhere and he performs well). Hopefully Julius gets right and finds his place and form with us.
There's a chance that Cameron will move into the midfield in tonight's game and James will get the start. I thought James did an alright job for us during the preseason, especially for a new player and little consistency in who he was playing with. But Dom is a coach that likes to stick with what he knows, and he knows Cameron.
True, that sounds right on about Dom. I didn't pay much attention to the pre-season but it's good to hear James did alright.
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20090330&content_id=232988&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&team=t200 Akinbiyi has officially signed, he's in England getting his paperwork situated now and could be with the team this weekend.
