Written by Juan Pereira

Photos by Houston Dynamo FC

Reinforcements have arrived in Houston! The club have recently announced the signing of Lawrence Ennali as their largest u22 initiative signing in club history. This comes right after he was spotted next to Ezequiel Ponce in San Jose during the Dynamo’s 1-0 victory over the Earthquakes. The club wasn’t able to announce his signing sooner due to the fact that MLS hadn’t officially recognized the new rules which allowed the Dynamo to have three DPs and three u22 initiative players.

With two record-breaking players entering the fold, there’s bound to be some movement regarding who starts and who doesn’t. In fact, some players might not be happy to see some of their minutes being taken away. Ben Olsen alluded to this a couple of press conferences ago. Despite that, these signings were necessary in order to revamp an attack that was in dire need of a face lift.

One player who once again could be leaving the fold is Sebastian Ferreira. It just seems implausible to have two DPs in the same position. More often than not, you want to have all of your DPs on the field at the same time, and Ben Olsen has been staunch in his belief that Ponce and Ferreira won’t see the field together. I expect Ferreira to leave sooner rather than later, perhaps to another MLS team.

On the other hand, Ibrahim Aliyu is a player that might actually benefit from having more attacking pieces. Ennali is a player that will compete with Aliyu for that starting job, and having another winger that has the ability to start will help manage Aliyu’s load. The Nigerian attacker already has 10 goal contributions, but there have been moments in which you can see the fatigue start to set in.

Defensively, both of these signings are ideal in that they can cover ground. Ennali is known for his blazing speed, and Ponce was above-average in most defensive metrics for strikers. I’m sure Ben Olsen is excited by the fact that, on paper, his team isn’t losing any defensive ability by having both of his new players on the field.

The start of the 2024 season has had a lot of ups and downs for Houston, but it seems like the Dynamo are ready for liftoff.