Former Impact Captain Assumes Houston Hotseat.

Davy Arnaud, the Impact’s first captain and goalscorer in MLS has just become the first former Impact MLS player to occupy a role as head coach in MLS.

He steps up on an interim basis to replace Wilmer Cabrera with whom the Houston Dynamo parted company, yesterday.

The former Colombian international was relieved of his duties after going 2-11-1 over Dynamo’s last 14 MLS matches. At the beginning of the season he had overseen the best start to a season in club history, when the Dynamo went 7-2-2. Cabrera’s fortunes represent a dramatic turnaround, but unfortunately not in the right way.

In another Houston link to IMFC, former goalkeeper, now Senior Vice-President and General manager at the Texan club, Matt Jordan said, “We’d like to thank Wilmer for all of his hard work and dedication over the course of the last two and a half seasons with the Houston Dynamo, including last year’s U.S. Open Cup title. We wish him all the best moving forward.
“At this time, we as a club believe the team will benefit from a fresh perspective as we enter the final third of our season and make a push to qualify for the playoffs.”

Arnaud had been Cabrera’s assistant since 2017, after performing a similar role for DC United, his last club as a player in 2016. A native of Nederland, Texas, Arnaud holds a USSF A coaching license and has worked under the likes of, Bob Gansler, Peter Vermes, Jesse Marsch and Ben Olsen.

Chuck Myers/MCT via Getty Images

In a distinguished 14-year playing career which brought 7 US international caps, Davy Arnaud captained Montreal Impact for its first two seasons in MLS. He also scored the club’s first goal in each of the 2012 and 2013 seasons. In all he played 62 times for the Impact (including 3 Canadian Championship matches and 2 in CONCACAF Champions League) scoring 5 goals and assisting 8. All goals and assists came in MLS games. He was yellow carded a total of 13 times, and was never sent off.

His last appearance for Montreal was in a 0-1 defeat to Toronto FC at BMO Field in October 2013, when he was replaced by Andrea Pisanu in the 57th minute. Arnaud was also on the bench for the next game, the ill-fated play-off, ironically against Houston Dynamo, in which Rivas, Romero and Di Vaio all saw red. Arnaud did not see action that evening. The following season, Montreal traded their erstwhile captain to DC United.