Houston Dynamo: Wilmer Cabrera sacking must only be the start

The Houston Dynamo have parted ways with head coach Wílmer Cabrera. However, if genuine change is to come, his firing must only be the start.

This week, the Houston Dynamo announced that they have parted ways with head coach Wílmer Cabrera.

Cabrera, who was appointed as head coach in October 2016, guided the team to the playoffs during his first season, before winning the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. He finishes with a record of 32-39-22 in Major League Soccer play.

Davy Arnaud will lead the team on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. After a 14-year playing career (2002-15) in which he made seven appearances for the U.S. Men’s National Team, Nederland, Texas native Arnaud became an assistant coach for D.C. United in 2016. He has served as an assistant coach for the Dynamo since joining the club in 2017.

After opening with the best start in club history, going 7-2-2, the Dynamo have gone 2-11-1 over their last 14 league matches. They currently sit ninth in the MLS Western Conference table, six points below the playoff line. In the official press release announcing the move, Dynamo Senior Vice President and General Manager Matt Jordan said:

"“We’d like to thank Wilmer for all of his hard work and dedication over the course of the last two and a half seasons with the Houston Dynamo, including last year’s U.S. Open Cup title. We wish him all the best moving forward. At this time, we as a club believe the team will benefit from a fresh perspective as we enter the final third of our season and make a push to qualify for the playoffs.”"

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Many Dynamo fans continued to voice their frustration with the ownership group when news of the decision broke. One fan on the official Dynamo subreddit called Cabrera a ‘sacrificial lamb,’ while another said that the change was merely ‘cosmetic’.

Nonetheless, I do believe that a change needed to be made. While the Dynamo were capable of playing some of the most exciting soccer in the league and most fans are grateful for Cabrera achieved, he was guilty of making head-scratching personnel decisions and the conceding of late goals plagued the team under his leadership.

With that being said, I doubt that Gabriel Brener, Oscar de la Hoya, Ben Guill, James Harden, and Jake Silverstein will acquire an upgrade. Houston’s low payroll has been discussed ad nauseam, but the reality is that, without investment, the Dynamo will continue to be mediocre. Cabrera may not have been the solution to the problem in Houston, but he also was not the only issue with this latest regime.

Big changes are coming for the Houston Dynamo. Whether those changes can turnaround a faltering franchise remains to be seen. It starts with Cabrera, but it cannot end with the head coach.