Chandler Hoffman shares a joke with teammates Giles Barnes, Corey Ashe, and Will Bruin
Winning a championship of any kind is any sportsperson’s dream — just ask them.
Players don’t play “for the sake of playing,” they want to win. To win a championship at the professional level is about as good as it gets. New Houston Dynamo Chandler Hoffman is lucky enough to know what that feeling is like, he won a MLS Cup with the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2014.
Looking back at Hoffman’s career, you can’t help but see massive amounts of potential: First player from Alabama to ever be selected in the first round of the MLS Superdraft, a host of awards in college, and more importantly, getting to learn the game under tutelage of Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan.
The facts are these: Chandler Hoffman scores goals. When really given a run in a team, he scored 14 goals in 19 total appearances for LA Galaxy II in the USL Pro. Dynamo fans should know how competitive USL Pro teams are, they lost to two of them this offseason.
Hoffman says his eye for goal has been enhanced by watching and playing with LA Galaxy superstar Robbie Keane. “I’m not crazy fast or strong,” said Hoffman “neither is he [Keane]. But the way he checks his shoulder to see where the center backs are makes it so much easier for him.”
It’s easy to look through Hoffman’s career in Major League Soccer and see someone who simply “wasn’t good enough” for the LA Galaxy first team, but what Hoffman has that no other strikers who were “loaned out” is knowledge. Landon Donovan was recently voted the best Major League Soccer player of all time — they even named the MLS Most Valuable Player trophy after him —, and Robbie Keane is one of the most prolific goal-scorers in recent MLS history.
Both Donovan and Keane said to Hoffman “You will score goals at this level.”
When asked about what that brought to his game Hoffman replied “These guys were telling me you have what it takes to score at this level, so to get that from guys who have played at the highest level is huge for me. It’s a massive confidence boost for sure.”
Chandler Hoffman, for now, is a little way outside the first team in Houston. That’s ok though — he’s biding his time and impressing in training “All I want to do is contribute,” says Hoffman “my goal is to prove that I can score goals at this level and to get an extended run of minutes to show what I can do.”
The new Dynamo scored 2 goals in preseason and if given the minutes he feels like he could have scored more. After the 1-0 loss to the Austin Aztex he told Prost-Amerika “the main thing i’ve always had is being sharp in the box, there’s a couple chances today that I feel like if i’m in the game, I put them away.” In that game Hoffman also created the best chance the Dynamo had, but JJ Johnson could only find the post.
Think about this for a second; Chandler Hoffman got to train day-in-day-out with two of the most revered players in MLS history. They each have a wealth of international experience, and have a winning mentality, no, a Championship mentality.
It’s as if Hoffman was an NFL player shadowing Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Bill Belichik. Anybody who studies under them, watches them, or even breathes the same air as them is going to learn something and gain invaluable experience. They’re the best at what they do. That’s where Hoffman has an edge going forward.
All of that will help Hoffman in his development, there’s no doubt about that. But what the young Alabama native has to offer the Dynamo immediately is inside-knowledge. That might be a huge benefit to Houston going into this weekend’s game with the Galaxy in LA.
Hoffman knows the Galaxy better than most on the Dynamo and Owen Coyle should tap into that when preparing for the game Saturday. Perhaps he can provide some insight to Giles Barnes, Will Bruin and Boniek Garcia about the weaknesses in AJ De La Garza’s game? Perhaps he knows the best way to mark Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes.
Hoffman said when he came to Houston from LA there was a big transition, that the two teams’ attitudes were very different. “It’s a different mentality. Everyone is going all out in preseason but in LA they ease into it more, here it’s foot to the pedal. I want to take the championship mindset and apply it here where I can”
Winning mentalities are key in soccer. Just ask Owen Coyle, the man wants to win from minute one of every game. After the game versus Orlando City he remarked that the only reason the Dynamo didn’t win the game was because “they didn’t test the goalkeeper,” he would not concede that the Dynamo “lost” the game.
In truth he’s right the Dynamo didn’t lose the game, “soccer happened” as they like to say. Realistically the Dynamo deserved at least a tie from the game. Owen Coyle instills a belief, much like the Galaxy did with Hoffman, in his players that they can win every game every time they set foot onto the field.
Playing the LA Galaxy at StubHub Center is not going to be an easy task. The Galaxy dropped just 7 points all season at StubHub conceding only 14 goals in the process. The Dynamo, as we know, were woeful on the road last season scoring just 12 goals, losing 12 games.
The away record is something Owen Coyle and his coaches are looking to change with the “winning mentality” that he brings to the team, and this season they might just have a secret weapon up their sleeve…
