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Dynamo acquire centerback Horst from Timbers

David Horst (12)

Photo by Patricia Giobetti/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

The Houston Dynamo may have just found someone capable of filling the void left behind by centerback Bobby Boswell.

Less than a week after allowing Boswell to leave the club via Stage 1 of the MLS Re-Entry Draft, the Dynamo announced they acquired the rights to central defender David Horst from the Portland Timbers via a trade on Tuesday. Houston gave up a natural fourth round pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft to land the 28-year-old Horst.

Horst, who is 6-foot-4 and was drafted by Real Salt Lake in the first round of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft, has played in 42 games in his six-year career. He was limited to just two appearances for the Timbers in 2013 due to injury.

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What do you think of this deal? Do you see Horst starting for the Dynamo in 2013? Hoping Houston makes a move for another centerback?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. A part of me sad to see him go. Probably would have started this year had he not gone down. We never would have signed Kah. For those talking about how he is reserve garbage, he is not. If he remains healthy, he will start.

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    • But he’s never healthy. That’s all I remember about him from his RSL days. Always talked him up but he was never healthy. Good luck with him Houston.

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  2. To me, given the limitations of the cap, this is a good pick up. The Dynamo defense was getting pretty shallow in 2013. They didn’t want Boswell at his salary but needed a CB for depth. Brunner/Taylor unless Horst can beat one out, or someone is injured/banned.

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  3. I’m getting a tad concerned at the sheer number of people Houston is risking its roster on with bad injury luck. In previous years it was players like Colin Clark, Ching at the end of his career. Now it’s Taylor, Horst, Carr, Cummings, etc. The personnel model worked better here when we simply acquired the best — internationals like DeRo — than this recent year stuff of trying to revive the career of injury castoffs. If you accumulate enough of those kind of players the team gets slow and the law of averages in terms of re-injuries is bound to catch up. Carr didn’t play a MLS minute, Cummings was only useful at the end of the season.

    Hopefully this is just a backup acquisition, but who knows. There won’t be CCL fixture congestion this year but last year showed that if we don’t sign enough good CBs attrition may find you out. Our roster needs to be churned and we need more athleticism in CB. This particular move doesn’t do much for me.

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    • Imperative voice, i always look forward to your commentary!

      Your correct, this is what the Dynamos does year after year, acquire injured players. Lets hope this one works out better that Cummings or Carr.

      The Dynamos are a cheap team, have no money.

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    • Imperative Voice,

      I’m usually a huge fan of your commentary, and don’t disagree with you completely, but I do need to point out a few inconsistencies with your argument.

      1. DeRo came with the team to Houston, so “acquiring” him doesn’t really serve as a good example of the Dynamo FO pursuing the best players around.
      2. Boniek has been an amazing signing, and Lopez was a very forward-thinking one.
      3. I personally also expect Carrasco will prove to be a very shrewd signing as well
      4. Horst is practically free, and by all accounts injuries (rather than lack of quality) have limited his PT for the most part.

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      • I’m thinking more in terms of SJ continuity. I tend to see the early Dynamo champions as the continuation of the Old Quakes dominating team of the early 2000s, minus Landon. That team did acquire DeRo from the minors. DeRo was already a Canada international then.

        Boniek is also about the only undeniable smart signing in recent years. Driver, hit and miss. Lopez, nothing doing yet. Carrasco? The position has historically been manned by people like Clark, Holden, and Cameron. It’s a comedown.

        I grant that Horst has been limited by injuries rather than quality but I don’t see how that makes much of a difference when we field a team. The Dynamo are a better team when everyone is healthy but that issue is so consistent it’s almost like, maybe the guys who can’t stay healthy aren’t much use. Bruin pulls a hammy is one thing….but Carr getting hurt over and over or Cummings struggling for fitness is just your own risk assessment blowing up in your face.

        Signing a serious CB is key to continued competitiveness, along with finding someone healthy and with some speed to pair Bruin. You don’t fix both the team does not improve.

      • We have some history of reviving careers, but I think the degree of risks has increased, and the team has become a lunchpail, deadball stereotype of itself. The team used to have a more fluid, fast attack that could score in the run of play without a cross, and needs to go more in the Boniek direction.

        I also think the quality of the league has improved where the Kinnear model of muddling through with one quality striker and a bunch of lunchpail types isn’t working anymore. The closest we’ve come to lifting silverware since was when Carr got on a streak, but then hurt his knee. The second striker issue has often been important here…..Dalglish for Cerritos and Ale. Ngwenya for Wondo and Ale. If it all goes through one striker we become predictable and low-percentage.

  4. Class guy and a great ball winner. Might have been a starter this year if not for truly horrendous injury luck. I wish him all the best and will always have fond memories of him as a Timber.

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  5. It was Horst in exchange for a superdraft 4th round pick, correct? Houston risks nothing here. And they’re gonna love him — he’s a great guy and really fun to watch.

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    • I believe he spent the better part of his first couple of years on loan. Spent some time as a regular before missing the better part of a couple of years with injury. It’s a low risk/high reward move. If he’s healthy they may have a first team quality CB, or at the least some veteran depth(which is hard to come by in the MLS cheaply, relatively speaking of course). At the worst they lose a 4th round pick.

      He’s younger and MUCH cheaper than Boswell (250K vs 70K). It may not work out, but this is exactly the type of value move that keeps the Dynamo competitive year after year….despite the misguided wish from some Dynamo fans to go get bigger names and spend more.

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    • First, he’s cheap. He’s about $150k less than Boswell.

      Second, he’s a big boy–6’4″. And that’s always nice to have in your CB mix.

      Third, he has a record of scoring in the air (two goals against Toluca in the Concacaf champions league for instance).

      Houston believes that they know domestic talent better than anyone else in the league. They’d rather trade for an MLS player than do a foreign signing or even a draft pick. So Horst qualifies in that regard. Me? Given Kinnear’s track record with MLS trades, I’d tend to assume that if Horst can stay healthy, he’ll be a good addition to Houston. Maybe not a starter. But quite possibly the first CB off the bench.

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