Nederland native Davy Arnaud to take over Dynamo in interim
Published 8:39 pm Tuesday, August 13, 2019
NEDERLAND — Nederland native Davy Arnaud has been named interim head coach of Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo.
The franchise on Tuesday announced the firing of Wilmer Cabrera after 2½ seasons. The Dynamo went off to their best record in club history at 7-2-2, but have gone 2-11-1 since in MLS play and sit in ninth place in the Western Conference. Houston has also posted a 1-1-1 mark in non-league matches since the quick start.
The top seven teams at the end of the regular season advance to the new single-elimination MLS playoffs, which begin Oct. 19. Houston reached the Western Conference finals in 2017, but lost to the eventual champion Seattle Sounders.
“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,” Dynamo general manager Matt Jordan said in a statement. “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.”
Arnaud did not comment in the statement. He played under Jorge Lopez at Nederland and graduated in 1999, when the boys soccer team finished 4A state runner-up to Granbury.
Arnaud then went on to West Texas A&M, where he was named a Division II All-American.
Selected 50th overall in the 2002 MLS draft, Arnaud played in the league from 2002-15 and made seven appearances for the U.S. national team. He helped Kansas City win the 2004 U.S. Open Cup and reach the MLS Cup final and led D.C. United to the best Eastern Conference record a decade later. He ranks 13th all-time in MLS minutes played with 28,462 minutes.
Arnaud assisted D.C. United in 2016 before joining Cabrera’s staff in Houston.
Cabrera went 32-39-22 in MLS play with Houston. He was the team’s third full-time head coach.
The Dynamo have nine matches remaining and next host the Colorado Rapids at 8 p.m. Saturday at BBVA Stadium. The Dynamo are six points behind FC Dallas for seventh place.
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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