HOUSTON – In their first game of the 2020 Major League Soccer season, the Houston Dynamo found themselves testing the depth of their squad.
Houston entered the match against the Los Angeles Galaxy without starters Albert “La Panterita” Elis, offseason acquisition Darwin Quintero, and Jose Bizama, who broke the news on his Instagram page.
Despite those key losses, the Dynamo mostly outplayed the Galaxy in a 1-1 draw in front of a sell-out crowd at BBVA Stadium. And while Quintero didn’t have a chance to impress Dynamo fans, another offseason acquisition, Zarek Valentin, did.
Valentin was acquired, along with $75k in 2021 Targeted Allocation Money, via trade with new MLS Club Nashville SC after they selected him in the Expansion Draft. The Dynamo sent Joe Willis in return.
A versatile player that can play across the entire backline, the 28-year-old was pressed into the starting line up at right-back and it paid dividends.
Down 1-0 in the second half, Valentin received the ball facing the goal. He saw Mauro Manotas getting behind the defense and slipped him a pass to put him one-v-one with the ‘keeper. The Colombian striker took a dribble to set himself up, then shot the ball past Galaxy ‘keeper David Bingham to level the game.
After the game, Valentin said he and Manotas have developed a good connection despite their short time playing together.
That connection was evident in Saturday’s matchup and Valentin’s overall play in the game stood out to Dynamo head coach Tab Ramos.
“I thought he was great. He might have been one of our best player’s today. He did a great job. He stepped in. He has that kind of character already,” Ramos said.
“It was one of the reasons we went after him right away because the thing about Zarek that’s a little bit special is he came in to play right-back but had we put him in at centerback or left-back he probably would have had the same effort. He’s always ready to play and he certainly showed it today.”
Despite his strong play in his first game with the Orange, and his coaches’ praise, Valentin is grounded.
“Personally, I need to go out there and prove it every day in training and stuff like that because if a team gives up an asset, like Joe [Willis], their starting goalkeeper, or whatever it might be, to bring you in, you have to repay that,” Valentin said.
“I owe that to the staff, the organization, the fans, and to my family to do that every single day. Today was ok, I thought. There were a few moments I thought I could have been a little bit sharper, but listen if I go out there and have a stinker next week, who is going to talk about this? Seriously!”
The sample size is small, but one game in, Valentin has shown what he’s capable of providing on the field. With Bizama sidelined for the foreseeable future, Valentin should slot in at right-back. But if the need calls for him to play somewhere else on the line, as he did in the preseason, Valentin is more than capable.
Now on his fourth MLS team, how does he think his experience can help the Dynamo?
“Ultimately, I am a loud guy on and off the field, which is why my voice is already a little hoarse from trying to talk and organize,” Valentin said.
“I think it is just about having good quality conversations, because there are good players here, so it is sometimes just challenging players in their beliefs and in terms of the way that they view the system. Ultimately, when you work together in tough moments, I think that good thing will come of that.”
Jesus Acevedo Jr. is the Editor-in-Chief of The Bayoucitian. He’s an award-winning bilingual journalist from Houston, TX. A graduate of the University of Houston, he has written for the Houston Chronicle, La Voz de Houston, MLSsoccer.com, and ProSoccerUSA.
Before becoming a journalist, Jesus spent his early 20s drumming his way across Houston with two bands — Shortcomings and InsertNameHere. The memories that Jesus made as a musician were the seeds that started the idea for the comedy, Houmans: The Series.