One of Jack McGlynn’s most striking qualities on the pitch is his vision, a facet of soccer IQ that guides an instinct for rhythm, tempo and distribution well beyond his 21 years of age. But the late-breaking circumstances of his arrival with Houston Dynamo FC at the start of February caught even him cold.
Acquired from the Philadelphia Union via the second-ever use of MLS’s new ‘cash-for-player’ trade mechanism, the homegrown central midfielder says he had no inkling a deal might be going down until he was abruptly informed of its completion.
Instead of touching down in Clearwater Beach, Florida with the rest of the Union for their second phase of preseason, or catching a flight across the Atlantic to make the transfer to a European club, he’d be heading further south down the Gulf Coast to the Dynamo’s base in St. Petersburg Beach.
“I found out and had to leave right away,” McGlynn told MLSsoccer.com at the team’s preseason hotel shortly before the trade went official. “So yeah, it's been a crazy week.
“The way it all went down was kind of sudden and not the most informed, I think. … Leaving came as a shock, the way it all went down.”
Marquee move
McGlynn's price: a guaranteed $2.1 million fee, a “significant” sell-on clause media reports place at 50 percent and performance-based bonuses that could garner an additional $1.3 million.
Understandably, Houston eased in their new star carefully, mindful he’d already had a busy winter thanks to his standout performances in the US men’s national team’s January camp, where he scored his first senior international goal and earned man of the match honors in a 3-1 friendly win over Venezuela.
Yet it only took about half an hour on the practice field for his new teammates to realize the talent that had donned their colors, starting with that “wand for a left foot,” in the words of former Philly head coach Jim Curtin.
“We had like 30 minutes of training with him, and then set pieces – four out of four, right on top of us running in, goal,” defender Erik Sviatchenko explained, making a bang sound effect as he mimicked a thumping header. “That's something I've missed, having that kind of [service].
“Héctor had it, but we just need that. In the modern game of football, set pieces is a huge thing,” added Houston’s Danish center back. “It's kind of, ‘Wow, OK, that level we are hoping for that can bring us to the competing positions.'”
McGlynn grinned when asked later about that moment from his first session.
“They seemed kind of shocked that I can do that,” he said. “So yeah, it'll be a fun year.”
Replacing Héctor & Coco
That’s certainly what La Naranja and their supporters are hoping. That ‘Héctor’ Sviatchenko mentioned would be Herrera, of course, the Mexican national team icon who was the face of the Dynamo and their biggest personality over the past two and a half years, a leading ingredient in Houston’s dramatic evolution into a ball-dominant, slick-passing possession side under coach Ben Olsen.
Paced by ‘HH,’ Panamanian international Coco Carrasquilla and other skillful members of the squad, Houston spent the past two seasons defying expectations about Olsen’s game model rooted in his pragmatic leadership of D.C. United from 2010-20. With flowing, skillful buildups week after week, a sort of Texas tiki-taka took root, reaching its zenith in the 2023 US Open Cup final, where La Naranja played Inter Miami CF off their own pitch to hoist one of the oldest trophies in world soccer.
Change, though, tends to lurk just around the corner in MLS.
Carrasquilla, Concacaf’s Men's Player of the Year for 2023-24, was sold to Pumas UNAM last month for a then-Dynamo-record fee reportedly around $3.5 million. Herrera joined Toluca over the winter after HDFC elected not to pick up his contract option for 2025, leaving a massive void – the sort that young homegrowns are rarely asked to fill, even as more than a decade’s worth of investment in player development bears significant fruit across MLS.
“Him and Héctor are very different players as far as age and experience. But really, when you do the research on Jack as a player and what he offers, his qualities and his profile, it's not far from what Héctor offered to us,” Olsen told MLSsoccer.com. “A guy that can progress the ball, good range of passing, set pieces, and help us build and play in the way that we want to go about it.
“This kind of a double pivot/[No.] 8 spot that we've been playing really suits him. I think it gets him more central into the field and allows him to pull the strings more.”
Lofty expectations
Those are no small expectations to place on a 21-year-old. The Dynamo brain trust don’t mind drawing that parallel, though.
That’s how highly they rate McGlynn, whose extensive MLS résumé – he was only 17 when made his Philly first-team debut – provided an ample data set for HDFC’s analytics-driven recruitment process. The fact that his age qualifies him for U22 Initiative status, thus making him a bargain when it comes to salary-budget regulations, is another key facet, even if he earns that European move sooner than later.
“Ultimately, he's replacing Héctor, which, those are big shoes to fill. I mean, Héctor probably plays it much differently than Jack will,” said Houston president of soccer Pat Onstad, who ranks McGlynn among only “a handful of guys in our league” capable of that role. “Héctor was one of a kind. I think he really knew how to create tempo in the game, whether to slow it down, speed it up; he could recognize space extraordinarily well for that position. But that's something we think Jack can do eventually as well.
“It should be a fun time for Jack, I think, to be able to keep growing, and he should feel confident in the way that we play, that we're going to showcase his skills.”
So far, so good. McGlynn completed 96% of his game-high 79 passes in Houston's season-opening match vs. FC Dallas, ably ‘quarterbacking’ his new team with two chances created, 5/7 long balls completed, and 4/5 duels and 3/4 tackles won in addition to six recoveries. He began the sequence leading up to Amine Bassi’s goal with a searching switch of play to Griffin Dorsey, and also clanged a shot off the woodwork.
Sunday Night Soccer awaits
Up next: A huge test under the bright global spotlight that follows Leo Messi and Inter Miami, as the Herons visit Shell Energy Stadium for a Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire clash this weekend (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).
Betting big on a young domestic player at the heart of the lineup has drawn plaudits from another member of the organization: Tim Howard, the MLS and USMNT legend who joined La Naranja’s ownership group last summer.
“Bringing Jack McGlynn in was tremendous for the Dynamo,” the National Soccer Hall of Famer, who also works as an analyst on NBC’s English Premier League broadcasts, said in a recent media availability. “It speaks to what I believe should and will happen in this country, and that is paying value for young US players. Young US players get overlooked, they do.
“People want to go out and find talent everywhere else in the world when some of the best talent is already here, and then they scoff at paying a certain fee for that player. A player has a market value, and US players have been undervalued globally since the beginning of time, and we still see that. Our most talented US players go for far less than young players in other countries. So I think Jack will have success in our organization, in our team, and I think that will start a trend.”
McGlynn had never even visited the Bayou City before the trade that made it his new home; he’s a New York City native and had been part of the Union setup since 2019. Yet it was immediately apparent that the Dynamo are a markedly better spot for his skill set than Philly, where the devotion to intense pressing and direct play always made him an awkward fit.
That stylistic contrast may end up being a useful step in the process, preparing him for the task that now faces him in South Texas.
“Looking back on it now,” McGlynn said of his Union tenure, “I learned a lot. Obviously had to adjust the way I play, because I'm more of a, I'd say, technical player who wants to run the game on the ball, and the way they play, it doesn't suit me.
“But it helped me a lot, adjusting to the way they play. I think it made me develop physically, and a lot more on the other side of the game.”
All that said, no one will be surprised to hear he’s got Philadelphia’s July 19 visit to H-town circled on his calendar.
“I know who we play in the summer this year,” said McGlynn. “I'm looking forward to it.”
Foundational piece
Olsen himself was once a babyfaced phenom, leaving the University of Virginia early to join D.C. United in 1997 as part of Project-40, the precursor to the league's Generation adidas program. He also lived the European experience on a loan stint with Nottingham Forest and crafted a solid international career with 37 USMNT caps and a 2006 World Cup appearance.
He’d love to have McGlynn as a foundational piece in H-town for years to come. Yet he’s also ready to help him reach Europe in the best possible situation.
“I still have a lot of respect for the American player. Look at our roster,” said Olsen. “It's a lot on a young kid like that, but in my short time knowing him and calling around, and some people that have been with him a long time, they say he's ready for that challenge and ready for that burden of pulling the strings on the team.
“I know he has goals to be with the national team,” added the coach. “I know he has goals of Europe. Great. Let's go. Let's get you there.”
All that makes the Dynamo’s 2025 campaign that much more interesting to follow. They’re still in the market for a No. 10 to fill the Designated Player spot vacated by HH, recently signing veteran playmaker Nico Lodeiro as a stopgap option, and await the return of lively wingers Nelson Quinones and Lawrence Ennali from long-term knee injuries.
Can McGlynn lead La Naranja to a level that’s not merely comparable to their previous version, but even better? Perhaps even an MLS Cup contender?
“I know what I'm capable of,” said McGlynn. “I know I'm capable of doing it. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
“My expectations for myself are always high: to be the best wherever I am,” he added. “That's the way you have to go into it, or there's no point, I think. I trust in my training that I’ve done from a kid to now to go on the field and step out there with confidence.”
