Dynamo goalkeeper Xavier Valdez is next, and he’s more than ready
(image via Houston Dynamo FC)
In the Houston Dynamo’s 2-2 draw against Sporting Kansas City Saturday night, 19-year-old goalkeeper Xavier Valdez was on the bench as the backup goalkeeper. The youngster is quickly climbing the ranks at the club but just six years ago, this situation was probably not even in Valdez’s wildest dreams. Today we got a chance to sit down with Valdez and shine a spotlight on the Dynamo’s goalkeeper of the future.
Valdez grew up in New York and soccer wasn’t the sport he played first as a kid. “My first sport was baseball, and I was always playing soccer just because I was playing basketball, football, baseball, hockey,” Valdez said. “So, I was always doing something, but I didn't end up taking soccer seriously until I had to choose between swimming and soccer. I just ended up choosing soccer.” In eighth grade, which was only about six years ago for Valdez, he moved to a team where he was going to be playing left wing. When he showed up to preseason, Valdez was told he wasn’t going to be able to play if he wasn’t playing goalkeeper. “Since I played other sports, catching wasn't that hard to me. I love diving all over the place and hitting the floor and all that stuff is fun to me.”
Valdez moved to Minnesota after his sophomore year in high school. “It wasn't the best place for me in terms of school wise and just community and stuff like that. It was just hard to grow. And luckily, my best friend who played in New York with me the year before, he had moved out to Minnesota to the same school that I went called Shattuck St. Mary's, and he put me in contact with them and let me know that it's the perfect environment for me to grow as a person and as a player.” Unfortunately for Valdez, COVID hit just months after Valdez arrived in Minnesota. Before that, in December of 2019, Valdez played in a USDA showcase in Florida. Even though his team got “obliterated”, Valdez caught the eye of former Dynamo Academy goalkeeper coach Jason Grubb and previous Academy director Paul Holocher. Valdez joined the Dynamo Academy in 2020 and began training with the first team in May of 2021. In February of 2022, Valdez signed a Homegrown Player contract.
This season, Valdez has been getting time with Dynamo 2 under head coach Kenny Bundy and goalkeeper coach Ryan Thompson. “It's been fun. It's been challenging at some times as well, but they put a lot of pressure on me to do well, and they challenge me mentally. They ask more for me every game, and sometimes I put a lot of pressure on myself to give them the performances that the team needs, and every time, I'm growing and learning more.”
Things haven’t gone well for Dynamo 2 lately as they’ve lost their last four matches. In speaking with Valdez, you could hear how much turning the form around means to him. He’s fighting to be a first-team player but at the same time, he’s giving everything to Dynamo 2. It’s the mentality Valdez has. He wants to be the best he can at whatever he is doing. It’s not just about him, or even his teammates, but he feels like he owes his coaches that much. “Every game that I play, I want to be the best that I can for the team and for the coaches as well, because I think they deserve kind of the best from us as players as well, not just kind of their best coaching. They give us their all, and I just want to kind of give back in terms of just with my performances. And recently, we haven't gotten the results that we need, and I'm trying to figure out what I can do as a leader and as a goalkeeper and as a person as well to help get the team back on track.”
The Dynamo have two veteran goalkeepers on the senior team, in Steve Clark and Andrew Tarbell, who are a big plus for a young goalkeeper like Valdez. “Just to be able to be around those guys and to hear their thought process and to ask questions about what I think I would have done in that moment and ask them what they would have done differently and see where that goes, where that conversation goes.” Valdez is very much a student of the game. He understands that goalkeeping isn’t just about shot-stopping. One thing Clark does well, that Valdez has taken notice of, is his passing. “One thing I like about Steve's game is that he's very patient on the ball and he's always trying to put the ball into just drop it into a midfielder who's between the space. He does that really well, in my opinion, the best in the league.” Valdez also mentioned wanting to have distribution like Manchester City’s Ederson and the shot-stopping of Thibaut Courtois of Real Madrid, his favorite two goalkeepers to watch currently.
(image via Houston Dynamo FC)
Outside of his time with Houston, Valdez is also growing his game on the international level. The teenager took part in this year’s U-20 World Cup for Dominican Republic and recently earned his first senior cap for his country. “Just to be able to play at that level, it's different. You're playing against players who are currently playing for some of the best teams in the world and have played for the best teams in the world.” His international experience and having Clark to lean on has opened up even more areas of the game that Valdez is learning to analyze. “Steve and I had this conversation today and just talking about the goals this week. We agreed that in this game, sometimes you're going to have goals that you can't save, but the goal starts a couple of seconds before that when the play can be managed in a different way by, most of the time, it's a goalkeeper, but an authoritative figure in the team. But I conceded a couple of goals in my appearance versus Chile with the national team that I had no chance of saving. But at the same time, what could have been my actions or my communication before that to help prevent chances like that? A lot of people will just see a goal and say, ‘Oh, wow. Keeper had no chance.’ But at the same time, what can the keeper do to prevent that from happening a couple of minutes or a couple of seconds earlier?”
Clark isn’t the only veteran player that Valdez has leaned on for knowledge this season. “He's probably the best player that I've ever played with on my team, Hector Herrera, just his presence in the locker room and off the field and on the field as well on the training pitch. He's applying himself 200 % of the time. So, to see what a player who played at the highest level in the world and played in the World Cup played in the Olympics, played overseas, played in the Champions League, has played at all these high levels. It's great to watch and see how he leads and his communication and how much he works with different players and stuff. That's the type of player that I want to be in the future.”
Valdez is learning to be a leader and he has a great set of teammates helping him. Leadership isn’t just about what happens on the field. “Sadly, I've seen a lot of younger players come into first team training. One thing that I was always told is you don't leave the field to let's fully cleaned up. A lot of younger guys sometimes forget, and they may be tired and stuff like that. But it really shows what type of person you are when you're fatigued and you're tired and you're frustrated. But that's what separates a lot of young athletes from young professionals. Seeing how Hector and Artur and Steve and the top figures in the team like Eric and a couple of other guys that aren't the top of my mind right now. But these guys are great to be around and just to see how they think and ask them questions and just to see how they help players get back in the zone when they don't make the right pass or something like that. They've played at some of the best levels and just being around that is a blessing.”
At just 19 years old, the future is bright for Valdez. Right now, even being on the bench is a learning experience. “If I'm learning, I'm happy. Just being on the bench, a lot of people may see it as, oh, they want to play, they want to play. But at the same time, when it's time to play, it's time to play. But I feel like at the end of the day, my job is to help out Steve and Andrew and to make sure that they're good.” Valdez knows he has long term goals, but he wants to be in the moment now and work on what he can right now. At just 19 years old, he had some very wise remarks on what that entails. “Just making sure that I'm not getting complacent because it's easy to be complacent as a young player. You have all this hype around you, but at the same time, that shit doesn't matter. It's all about the work that you're doing and making sure you're pushing yourself every day and you're ready for that opportunity because it's easy to believe that you need to be here. You need to be on this field. You should be playing. But at the same time, when you have that mindset, it's only going to damage you and it's going to not going to help you prepare for the games that you have ahead. You need to come into these games with a clear mind and make sure you're ready to go 200 % if necessary.”
Valdez knows his time is coming and when it does, he is going to make the most of it. “I want to keep making the most of every opportunity that I've been given with the national team as well and just keep performing with the first team and then training and keep correcting the little things that I need to fix in the goal in terms of positioning and just patience as well…That's something that I pride myself on. I put the off the field stuff to the side and I give my all and I just want to give more and more and more and more until I can’t. Once I do that and once I play on the best team in the world, then I'll be happy. That's once I win everything, that's when it's time to take it easy a little bit.”
Valdez will add another honor to his resume next week as he participates in the Goalie Wars during All Star Week. His story is already one that Dynamo fans can rally behind, and as he continues to add accolades and first team minutes, he’s sure to become a player to keep an eye on for many years to come.
