Herrera had a mixed run with Houston since joining MLS in 2022, so will the controversial exit from playoffs impact his future?
Hector Herrera's decision to spit in the direction of referee Armando Villarreal and subsequent red card generated a lot of headlines over the weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't what the Houston Dynamo had in mind when they finally signed a big-name Mexico international star.
Herrera was supposed to herald a new era for a team that needed buzz. The designated player was supposed to be a box office draw who could bring a winning mentality and ultimately, trophies.
Instead, the Dynamo slumped to a disappointing early exit this season, losing to the Seattle Sounders in the First Round of the MLS playoffs. It's a steep decline from last year when they lifted the U.S. Open Cup after beating Lionel Messi-less Inter Miami and were just a win away from reaching the MLS Cup final.
GOAL US takes a look at the controversial moment for the midfielder and what it could mean for his future.
Get the MLS Season Pass today!Stream games nowCostly end to a promising season
The Dynamo turned in a strong regular season campaign in 2024. Ben Olsen’s team was playing better soccer than any Dynamo club in recent memory. Olsen has said on many occasions that the Dynamo go as far as Herrera goes. He went off the field early in Sunday's deciding playoff match, and the Dynamo went out of the playoffs.
Herrera's red card exit meant the Dynamo had to try to topple the Seattle Sounders with just 10 men. After a 1-1 draw, Herrera wasn’t there in the penalty shootout to take a kick. Neither was Adalberto Carrasquilla, the Panama star who was sent off for losing his head in the previous contest.
The margins were tight and Seattle ultimately went through. It’s tough for Dynamo fans not to wonder if that would’ve been the case had the team’s biggest star stayed disciplined.
AdvertisementThe apology
Herrera took to social media Monday to apologize for the incident.
“It hurts to have fallen like that after a great season,” Herrera wrote Monday afternoon on Instagram. “Personally, I apologize to all the fans and my teammates for yesterday’s sending-off. I’m sure we’ll work to come back stronger in 2025. Let’s go Houston Dynamo.”
The Dynamo have a club option to keep Herrera in town one more year – an option he clearly feels the team will pick up. It remains to be seen if the club feels as much certainty about Herrera being in their plans for next year as he does.
Getty Images SportAssessing Herrera's time in Houston
The highest-paid player on the club, with $5.2 million in guaranteed compensation, Herrera’s time in Houston has been full of highs and lows. He arrived from Atletico Madrid months before the 2022 World Cup, a tournament played with a different winter schedule because of the heat in host nation Qatar. Herrera admitted he played scared for most of his first season, afraid of picking up an injury that would deny him another crack at the World Cup. It showed, and the signing looked like a bust early on as he had just one assist on the season and no goals scored.
He has picked things up since, becoming a key player in the 2023 squad that lifted a trophy and came a playoff series away from winning another. Herrera logged 17 assists and four goals in MLS play over 2,534 minutes that year. This season, however, he’s struggled to make the same impact, ending the season with a goal and three assists in 1,616 minutes. While still a key piece, Herrera’s influence was less important this season, and he wasn’t able to put together the same impactful stats he did in the successful 2023 campaign.
Although he is now 34, Herrera will have options if Houston decides to cut ties. Still, the idea of going to another MLS team or making a return to Liga MX, where he developed with Pachuca, doesn’t seem to be how he sees his playing days ending.
“I would be delighted to be able to finish here with Houston,” Herrera said earlier this year. “I am very happy with the city, with the team, with the people, the way they treat me here, and I think that is the most important thing, no?”
Getty Images SportFuture with Houston and Mexico?
Perhaps that treatment Herrera highlighted speaks to his desire to return. Herrera historically has been underrated as a Mexico national team player. He never had the goals of Chicharito, the success in the top European leagues of Andres Guardado, or the World Cup heroics of Guillermo Ochoa. Yet, there’s a reason we recently ranked him in the top 10 of the best Mexico players of the 21st century. Herrera was a key piece to Mexico’s best midfield in the modern era, able to shuttle the ball forward or help in recovery, teaming to great effect with Guardado and a midfield stopper.
As Mexico struggles through a generational change in which it continues to trot out the unpopular Charly Rodriguez as a No. 8 option, a return to El Tri shouldn’t be out of the question. Yet, Herrera now must wait a long four months to get back on the field and state his case. While he spoke in 2022 about potentially retiring from the national team, he’s yet to do so formally and started a September 2023 friendly under manager Jaime Lozano.
Instead, it seems, he's still waiting for one last opportunity to show he can live up to the hype. It may be a long wait, just like the one this offseason as he either counts down the days he can make up his indiscretion to the Dynamo fans or figures out what his next – and potentially last – step will be.
