Best Dynamo: Mauro Manotas
In a crowded Houston sports landscape, the Dynamos continue to fight and build a product that has great international appeal, with some youthful upside sprinkled in, and no Dynamo player embodied that building effort over the last year more than Mauro Manotas, the energetic, skillful Colombian forward acquired back in 2015. While the Dynamo’s 2018 MLS season didn’t progress as the franchise had hoped, Manotas was an unquestioned bright spot. In his fourth season with the team, he led the Dynamo with a franchise-record 19 goals in MLS play, good for fourth place in the league in goals scored.
While Manotas’ MLS season was stellar individually, where he really shone was in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Tournament which decides the best team in the United States at all levels each year. In that tournament, Manotas scored six goals, taking home the Golden Boot award, as the Dynamo won their first ever U.S. Open Cup championship. Manotas’ six goals in the tournament tied the modern era (1996-present) record for most goals in a single U.S. Open Cup tournament.
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Readers’ Choice: Boniek García
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2019.
