The record shows Tab Ramos had to wait until Week 7 of the 2020 regular season to earn his first MLS victory as Houston Dynamo coach.
That win, an emphatic 5-2 triumph over host Sporting Kansas City came Tuesday night. But Ramos said the seeds were sown long before his team arrived at Children’s Mercy Park.
“It feels really good, I’m happy the team once again made a great effort,” Ramos said in his post-match comments “But I have to say, this one was coming, this one didn’t happen today. Unfortunately, we had not been getting the results, but I know its been coming.”
Ramos points to a pair of performances at the MLS is Back Tournament — scoring three goals in the first half of a 3-3 draw against LAFC and especially the 2-1 defeat to eventual tournament champion Portland that followed, the “first complete game” — as examples his team was right there.
“I was confident in the team, but I wasn’t in a place where I could talk about it. I can only say so many times ‘hey, I really like what we’re doing, I like the team, we’re going in the right direction,’” Ramos said. “I can truly say it now, but we should have won the last three games we’ve played. Unfortunately for one reason or another, a call or whatever, we didn’t get the win. That’s why I say today’s victory didn’t happen today, it’s been brewing.”
And it percolated Tuesday night in Kansas City to the tune of five goals, an offensive explosion that the first-year coach said he couldn’t have predicted.
“No, I didn’t think we’d score five goals tonight, but i thought we could score,” Ramos said. “We actually could have scored more tonight. We hit the post, we had one called back, a couple other chances.”
Ramos said he also feels he finally has true competition for spots, lauding the performances of Darwin Ceren, Christian Ramirez and Niko Hansen who have filled in for injured starters. He also praised the play of Darwin Quintero, whose sacrifice for his team was rewarded with a second-half brace.
“Darwin has been working really hard. He plays a position that is difficult where he has to make the difference in the games and today he made the difference,” Ramos said. “That’s what it’s about. Unfortunately sometimes even playing in those positions you have to sacrifice for the team and today he did that quite a bit. I’m really happy with his effort and obviously on top of that with his goals.”
Where do the Dynamo go from here? Ramos said it’s now time to prove this wasn’t a one-off and that starts next Wednesday (8 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, on DAZN in Canada) against Minnesota United back at BBVA Stadium.
“Now we’ve got to prove we can win every week,” Ramos said. “We have to react well to this one and we have to try to keep this going. That’s the most important part moving forward now.”
