Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
One of the brightest youngsters in Honduran soccer is coming to Major League Soccer.
On Wednesday, the Houston Dynamo confirmed the signing of midfielder Alexander Lopez from Olimpia in Honduras. Lopez has joined the club on a Young DP contract. Per league and team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 21-year-old midfielder came through the Olimpia ranks in 2010 and has been a mainstay for club and country since, debuting for the full national team that year and being a member of their 2013 Gold Cup squad.
The transfer is a worth a reported $1 million, showing that the Dynamo are serious about getting back into the Eastern Conference playoff race. Currently the club is in the final playoff spot but has struggled overall so far this season, going 9-6-6 and scoring just 26 goals.
Lopez joins Honduras national team teammate Oscar Boniek Garcia on the Dynamo roster. According to reports, Garcia highly recommended Lopez, who played at the same club Garcia came up with.
Last season, Lopez made 32 league appearances for Olimpia, scoring five times, though he was substituted on all but three occasions. At this summer’s Gold Cup, Lopez made five appearances, coming on as a substitute in Honduras’ opener against Haiti and starting the next four matches, including the semifinal defeat to the U.S. Men’s National Team. Lopez has won eight total caps.
What do you think of this news? Do you see Lopez contributing to the Dynamo attack? Feel this is a signing for the future?
Share your thoughts below.
I love it!
I see tremendous business opportunities for those of us in the pupusa-selling community of Houston!
PS. Please write to Canetti and tell him : “we want Hydro’s Pupusa Truck to be the Dynamo’s jersey sponsor!” http://i805.photobucket.com/albums/yy335/tempaddres/dynamo-2013.jpg
New premium starting lineup:
Formation: 4-3-3
Forwards: Calen Carr Will Bruin Omar Cummings
Midfield: Brad Davis Ricardo Clark Boniek Garcia
Defense: Corey Ashe Jermaine Taylor Bobby Boswll Kofie Sarkodie
Goal: Tally Hall
Subs: Andrew Driver Giles Barnes Alexander Lopez Warren Creavelle Brian Ching Eric Brunner Tyler Deric
**** Driver in for Davis, Barnes in for Bruin, Brunner in for Boswell, Lopez in for Clark, Creavelle in for anyone that gets hurt or gets fatigued (heard he can play goalie too. Haha!)
….. he only played 90 minutes 3 times? Am I reading that right? So, whats this kids deal then?
poor conditioning?
Probably took the lead and then subbed for a DM. Olimpia dominates in Honduras.
I changed my name. Had to.
How many seconds before someone whines that he should have tried to get to Europe because MLS is an inferior league ?
This is a horrible signing. He should have gone to the Dutch league instead to develop his skills. Dynamo will not teach him more technically. At least a transfer to a mid-table EPL team would have gotten him more playing time in a higher quality league. He will not get enough playing time. The pitch at Dynamo stadium is low quality. Even a move to Belgium or one of the Nordic leagues would have gotten him better time.
Oh wait, sorry, I cut and pasted this from my “reaction to USMNT player transfer” template.
Yea how do all those fans around the world whose teams are in their countries lower leagues deign to watch their team play in the likes of the 3bundesliga or the English League 1?
I’ll only watch and support soccer played at the highest level.
F*ck locally, think globally.
Any thoughts on what the line up will look like?
Does Barnes move up?
Interesting signing. I’m curious how this pans out for the midfield that is already pretty stacked. Barnes is so much better with people in front of him that I figured he would be the #10 once the forward situation pans out. But I guess Barnes is a forward now? so in a 442 Clark, Lopez, Boniek, Davis? Hmmm
Despite his 2-goal performance the other week, this probably pushes Moffat out of the starting lineup and slides Rico back to DM. Or, we go:
Davis – Bruin – Boniek
Lopez
Clark – Moffat
Back 4
And Barnes is the odd man out (but 1st off the bench).
Plus, it gives us quality depth.
Excited to see this as a Houstonian. And my Honduran neighbors will like it too. LGD!
Now if we can only swing Zelaya in the offseason so the Salvadorean neighbors will be happy too!
Zelaya to LA!
anywhere in the league would be great for the league though, even Houston 🙂
Kinnear could be training the next US-killer lol
Good point. MLS is undoubtably strengthening the confederation.
For sure.
Better Competition stimulates Improvement
agreed, but it’s a good thing for all, yes?
+1
Very true, just look at Panama NT team. Also like how the Bundesliga is helping the depth of the Nats.
The Dynamo have certainly helped out the Jamaican MNT already.
Yeah, the inclusion of MLS teams in Canada has really helped the Canadian National team 🙂
Alex Loez isn’t quite a main stay for the full national Honduran team, but he definitely was for Olimpia. He also played a very solid Olympics. I can’t wait to see what Kinnear does with him! He made Garcia a way more complete player than what he was when he played here in Honduras. I believe he will do the same with Lopez!
What’s a young dp contract?
Designated Players 21–23 years old count as $200,000 against the club’s salary budget.
Designated Players 20 years old or younger count as $150,000 against the club’s salary budget.
How about we get rid of this Young/Old DP etc. and let teams up to five DP’s of any age up to the 1 Mil cap hit.
“What’s a young dp contract?”
Oh, you know…MLS and their typical convoluted terms and policies.
Unlike some things, young DP rules were clearly established before the 2012 season.
All leagues have convoluted terms and policies. Get over it. Does MLS probably need some tinkering now that is has grown massively? Yes, but fans are not generally going to be able to grasp all of the contract signing minutia for any sport.
Wow three comments in and no one has asked if MLS paid the transfer fee for this DP?
“The Dynamo don’t release contract figures, but a person involved in the negotiations said the Dynamo is paying Honduras club Olimpia over $1 million for the transfer fee.”
This had better not be true. MLS either needs to pay all transfer fees or none of them.
It’s so hard to know what actually happens because MLS is single-entity and does not release information about transfer fees or who paid them.
MLS even refuted the claim they paid Dempsey’s fee…
I don’t know. I think MLS can draw a reasonably clear line: they will help out when necessary to make transfers happen that involve players who will clearly and significantly enhance the overall rep of the league; they will leave individual clubs to sort out the transfers on all other deals. They’re bound to be some borderline cases, but most of the time, most people can agree which players fall into the first category.
“…players who will clearly and significantly enhance the overall rep…”
There is no way to illustrate “clearly and significantly” enhancing “overall rep” short of exit polling every fan who sees a match that Dempsey plays in.
The fact is, the league shouldn’t have paid Dempsey’s fee, unless Seattle didn’t have the means to and it meant losing Dempsey. Seattle could have afforded the extra ~$2.5m per year w/o MLS’s help.
“There is no way to illustrate “clearly and significantly” enhancing “overall rep” short of exit polling every fan who sees a match that Dempsey plays in.”
Yeah, that’s clueless. If you can’t recognize that he raises the bar, that’s on you, not the league. Business ain’t wikipedia–they have *some* objective information, and then they have “vision.” Sometimes “vision” carries the day.
My statement’s far from clueless. There’s no way to accurately get data on how many ticket sales are directly related to Dempsey without asking every person purchasing a ticket what motivated them to come to the game. That’s not to say you couldn’t make predictions.
My point still stands. Seattle didn’t need MLS to pay the huge transfer fee (if that was actually the case). They could have afforded it. It sets a bad precedent, however much people (including myself) are happy Deuce is in the league.
BTW… you seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the word “objective.” Wikipedia requires citations and is pretty thoroughly curated, you know. It’s not 2004 any more.
No, my understanding of “objective” is pretty solid… on the other hand, my pronoun antecedent use was poor “they” in that sentence was “MLS.”
Also you don’t need to do an exhaustive survey–but be assured that surveys are used in sports marketing, even MLS.
You could argue that if it’s true it sets a “good precedent.”
I’m pretty sure the league feels that way.
not sure a winger/outside playmaker is exactly what we’re missing right. Boniek, Driver, and Davis are all being fairly effective. what we really are missing is a playmaker in the middle.
Alex is a #10.
He’s even wearing #10 in the picture.
lol
+1
This could be a very good signing for the Dynamo. A technical player that is still developing. I think that Kinnear has the ability to put strong motors in these type of players.
Very interesting. Dom has a great eye for talent. He rarely misses with these types of signings.
Landin, Akinbiyi, Caraccio, Camargo, and Koke. He misses, but makes up for it with getting alot from MLS castaways and late draft picks.
Camargo shouldn’t be on that list.
He was injured in a car crash before last season, missed preseason, lost his starting spot, and never recovered the form he had the previous season.
Different case.
Not a Dynamo fan so excuse my ignorance, but none of those were big signings like this, we’re they?
Landin and Koke were DPs, big boy DPs.
Luis Landin doesn’t count as he was forced on the team by one of the owners in an attempt to get some of the Latin fan base money, no one really saw Akinbiyi+Caraccio+Koke play other than from previous highlight reels, and Camargo was injured in a car crash, missed preseason, got married and had a kid, and had to move from another country so he had a lot going on personally at a young age (early 20’s).
Kinnear had been stalking Boniek for 2 years before they finally signed him. They’ve been monitoring this Lopez kid for about a year or so.