Not a single game day passes by that I don’t ask myself a simple question, “where’s Alex Lopez?” I know for a fact that I’m not the only one wondering, because Orange in the Oven has received numerous tweets asking our opinion on him. The truth is, I do not know what to make of the situation.

There’s a thought that crossed my mind recently, what if we didn’t quite scout Lopez well enough? The chance could exist that those YouTube highlight videos don’t tell the complete story. Let’s be honest, it’s easy to make any player seem like Cristiano Ronaldo if you choose the right clips.

The idea is to play me for two years and then sell me to a team in Europe.

That’s when I went on a journey through the internet looking for answers. Alex Lopez was with Olimpia for 4 years, in that time the public must have formed an opinion about him. If you enter “Oscar Boniek Garcia” or “Kofi Sarkodie” into a search engine multiple results pop up, and a few of those include opinion articles or posts on forums about the perceived talent of each player.

This is exactly what I did with Alex Lopez. Obviously, the expectations for articles in English weren’t that high because he hasn’t really gotten that many minutes with the Dynamo. However, my fluency in Spanish would widen my scope to any article from Honduras.

After going through a few articles, my research led to me a single conclusion. As a fan base, we are correct in our bewilderment on the lack of playing time that Alex Lopez has seen. No article in Spanish led me to believe that he’s a lazy individual when it comes to training or that others have doubted his talent.

In fact, Alex Lopez realizes that he must train every day of the week. In an interview conducted by Diario Deportivo Mas, Lopez states the following, “it is a requirement to go out for runs every single day even when there is no training, if you want to be in good form on game days”.

This is a clear indication that he is knowledgeable of the fact that there are truly no “days-off” when it comes to being a professional athlete. In that same article, he indicates how his desire is to eventually go to Europe. He also goes on to compare the Houston Dynamo’s training regiment to that of European teams.

Judging from his comments, Lopez seems to be the type of player that knows he has to earn a spot on the team by showing his worth on the training field. If he is truly working as hard as he indicates, then why hasn’t he be given more minutes on the field?

We don’t have to go very far to find his thoughts on the situation. Alexander Lopez is asked whether he sees his time with the Houston Dynamo as “good or acceptable”. In his answer we get a glimpse of a talk he had with Dominic Kinnear during the off-season.

“Dominic Kinnear considers me a player for the future. He has indicated that he has 100% confidence in me, and that’s why he decided to purchase my rights. I’m signed to a three and a half year contract, and [Kinnear] has assured me that I will not [stay on the bench] for long. The idea is to play me for two years and then sell me to a team in Europe.”

This quote has led me to believe one of two things. Alexander Lopez is either making all of this up in order to justify to people why he’s been on the bench, or Dominic Kinnear has not completely pulled the trigger on a two year long plan.

When this season comes to an end, we will be at around the one and a half year mark. Unless Alex Lopez gets major minutes from the final 8 games, his 2014 season has been relatively quiet. The Houston Dynamo were not in the CONCACAF Champions League this season, so he had less opportunities to start games that weren’t during the regular season. The clock still kept on ticking and the “future” that Alex Lopez spoke about is quickly becoming a present that has left much to be desired.

If Alex Lopez is truly as dedicated to his training as he states, we cannot fault him for his lack of playing. Sadly, the fault can only lie on a single individual, Dominic Kinnear. If Kinnear truly sold Alex Lopez on the Houston Dynamo by promising him minutes and helping him develop as a player with a future in Europe, then he has not fulfilled his end of the deal.

Alexander Lopez states in the article that it’s sad that Oscar Boniek Garcia wasn’t let go from Olimpia sooner. He truly believes that if Boniek had gotten released before, he would have gotten a shot at Europe. The irony in this statement is that Alex Lopez may soon be facing the same fate here in Houston but with an even worse result. Not only will Alex Lopez be missing a chance at going overseas, but his development will be slowed down drastically due to his lack of playing time.

Therein lies the tragedy of Alexander Lopez’s time as a Houston Dynamo. Nobody doubts the fact that he’s talented, and at only 22 years of age he has his whole future ahead of him. However, his future has faced itself with a road block of unknown origin. Do we have a case of a coach that regrets a signing? Is Alex Lopez not working hard enough during training? Or is it a simple case of an impatient fan base?