Dynamo defender Erik McCue up to the challenge of cracking first team

HOUSTON – Of the ten Houston Dynamo Academy players that have signed a first-team contract with the Orange, only two have made a difference with the team. Erik McCue hopes to be the third.

The Dynamo signed McCue, a centerback, on December 2018 after being an integral member of the Dynamo Academy Under-17 and Under-19 teams. His play with the Academy garnered him the captain’s armband.

Dynamo head coach Wilmer Cabrera calls McCue a project with raw talent that the teams want to develop. Adding that McCue is a diamond the club needs to polish.

What impressed the club about McCue that made them want to sign him?

“He has good tools. He has good size. He has good speed. He has a good mentality,” Cabrera said. “Now we need to polish the technique with the ball. The quality of his game and maturity when he’s on the field to do the right things.

MLS Homegrown Game

More recently, the 18-year-old played in Major League Soccer’s 2019 Homegrown Game during MLS All-Star. McCue, along with 21 of MLS’s top Academy prospects played against Liga MX side Chivas de Guadalajara’s Under-20 team.

The MLS Homegrown’s prevailed in penalties and the experience was a memorable one for McCue, who logged 45 minutes in the match.

“I think it was really cool to play with a bunch of players who are in the same situation as me. They’re young in the league and trying to make a name for themselves as well,” McCue said.

“I think it was pretty cool to compare myself to them and see how it is. How they’re experiencing are at their own clubs and what they’re thinking of their football career so far.”

McCue played alongside the likes of the LA Galaxy’s Efrain Álvarez, Sporting KC’s Gianluca Busio, and New England Revolution’s Justin Rennicks.

And the experience of playing with those that have cracked their respective clubs, put things in perspective for McCue, who’s still trying to crack the Dynamo’s first team.

The 6’3 defender, who was born in Sweden and is eligible to play for the U.S. and Sweden, is waiting for the opportunity to show what he can do but he admits he still has work to do.

Cracking the first team

McCue knows the obstacle in front of him to crack the first team. He knows that only two previous homegrown players, Tyler Deric and Memo Rodriguez, have had any impact on the Houston Dynamo.

The centerback sees it as a challenge to play with the first team. One that he’s happy to take on. But Cabrera doesn’t want to rush McCue onto the pitch until he’s ready.

“We just want to be sure that we develop those tools here, so it’s a project. And hopefully next year he starts being more influential with the USL team [Rio Grande Valley FC],” Cabrera said.

“And hopefully in three years or two years, he sees minutes and he starts to begin showing that he’s able to be the player that we are expecting from him as a professional.”

Cracking the first team won’t be easy for McCue and it’s something the defender acknowledges. But he sounds ready to put in the work to repay the faith the Dynamo put in him by signing him to a first-team contract.

“It’s grinding and it’s trying to show the club that they didn’t make a mistake and I’m going to show them that I can play at this level,” McCue said. “And eventually, grind to the first team.