Mexican international Hector Herrera will likely be remembered as a transformational player for the Houston Dynamo, having led them to the playoffs and an Open Cup title after nearly a decade of irrelevance.
He will also certainly be remembered for the way he departed the club. Herrera’s last act in an orange shirt was spitting at the feet of a referee in a decisive playoff match, a shocking lack of judgement that earned him a red card and put the Dynamo in a compromising position. Houston lost that match, against the Seattle Sounders, and were eliminated from the playoffs.
Just days after the incident, the Dynamo declined to pick up his option, and Herrera’s stay in Houston drew to an unceremonious close. On Thursday, Dynamo general manager Pat Onstad addressed Herrera’s departure, saying that Herrera’s actions against Seattle did indeed factor into the club’s decision to move on from him, though he suggested it was not “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“It’d be tough to say that doesn’t factor into it,” said Onstad. “There are a lot of factors that go into any decision you make within a roster. For us, Hector has probably been the greatest signing — certainly one of the greatest signings in the club’s history. He helped turn a franchise around that continually had problems making the playoffs and sustaining success. His 2023 performance was probably the best performance by a Dynamo player in a single season in the history of the club.”
Herrera was sent-off in his final appearance for Dynamo (Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Herrera earned some $5.2million in 2024, making him the eighth-highest player in MLS. He could’ve triggered the option year in his contract by meeting certain performance goals, Onstad said, namely matches played. Herrera did not debut for the Dynamo until mid-April after sustaining an injury in preseason and appeared just 22 times for Houston this year, which was not above the threshold, Onstad said.
Conversations with Herrera’s agent made it clear, Onstad said, that the Mexican would not consider coming back on a significantly lower salary number.
“I have a good relationship with his agent and a good relationship with Hector,” said Onstad, “We’ve had lots of conversations as the season has gone on. And I think for us, evaluating how the post-season would go was a big part of it as well. The one thing I’ll give him is that he wanted to be here. He wanted to be here in Houston and I think he’s upset that we decided to part ways and move on.”
Herrera was initially unhappy when he arrived in Houston in 2022 but was swayed, eventually, in part because of a fundamental belief in Onstad’s methods and in Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen, who helped extract a career year out of the midfielder in 2023. To some, he was an outside candidate for MLS’ MVP award and he landed on the league’s year-end best XI. The Open Cup title — snatched on the road and from the hands of league powerhouse Inter Miami — was Houston’s first trophy since 2018.
“I’d love to finish my career in Houston,” Herrera told The Athletic prior to the 2024 season, “because I’m happy these days and at peace … (I have become very attached) to the Dynamo shirt. I don’t think I’ve ever given everything for a club the way I do for Houston. Even on my days off, I walk around in Dynamo gear like they’re my favorite team or something. I think sometimes I live more for the Houston Dynamo than for my everyday life, I’m happy here and I love the new life I have here.”
2024, though, was by all accounts a trying year for Herrera, and his production suffered greatly. While still an important piece for the Dynamo, a single goal and three assists is not what any club wants out of a designated player, let alone the most expensive player in club history.
“Designated players do get judged in a different way than a rostered player,” said Onstad. “Ownership is paying a lot of money for these guys and the reality was unfortunately this year he was only available for 50% of our minutes. And even part of (those minutes) was him trying to get fit. He had an opportunity in his contract to be able to show that the could stay fit, stay on the field and make the playoffs. We held up on our end of the bargain, making the playoffs, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to stay fit enough.”
It remains to be seen where Herrera lands, though it’s unlikely that any MLS team would take him at his current salary number. A move to LigaMX seems more likely. Whatever the case, Herrera’s spitting incident will remain a dark mark on an otherwise outstanding MLS career, one many Dynamo fans will likely still remember fondly.
“It is a play that shouldn’t happen in our sport,” said Onstad. “I think everyone in this room would agree with that. It’s disappointing — in the end it probably cost us an opportunity to force a game three … It would’ve been nice to be preparing this week and not having this press conference. (We could be) boarding a plane tomorrow and getting ready, the next day, to go play Seattle. That part of it was pretty disappointing. I don’t think there’s any part of the sport that spitting should be involved in.”
(Top image: Roy Miller/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
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