Houston Dynamo part-owner, Gabriel Brener, speaks to MLSSoccer.com

Many of you have wondered why the Houston Dynamo ownership haven't been visible to the public, and for one of the first times in recent memory Gabriel Brener, part owner of the team, gave an interview with Darrell Lovell of MLSSoccer.com.

While most of his comments were focused on either signing DaMarcus Beasley or the team connecting with the Hispanic community, I can't help but think this question and answer may garner the most criticism (or applause):

MLSsoccer.com: The club has come in for criticism this year, some of it directed at ownership. How do you respond to that?

Brener: When you have a winning team, everybody's happy, and when you don't have a winning team, everybody gets criticized, and we're in the process of being criticized. I think the proof is in the pudding. We've been in Houston for eight years and had two championships, four finals and been in the playoffs every single year but one, so I don't see that we've done that bad of a job.

I don't know about you, but when I read that comment I get a bit tweaked. It reads to me like, "They're going to complain because we haven't been good this year. We've been good in the past, though, and that's what matters."

I'm sure Brener didn't intend it to come out that way, and I'm positive they don't really feel that way. But when I read it I can't help get a slight air of arrogance and/or confidence. Not that I can fault anyone involved with the club for feeling one or two seasons of minus soccer don't outweigh the six or seven seasons of plus soccer.

It just comes down to a differing viewpoint from the ownership down to the fan. Fans aren't content to have bad seasons, at least not usually. Some fans have been okay with this being a down season knowing there is plenty of room to maneuver in the offseason to offset it. Others, though, have been critical and I can't help but think the comment from Brener won't exactly make those criticizers any less so.

Case in point, Bryan Hernandez in a comment reply to the interview linked below had this to say.

I know they are satisfied with making it to the playoffs and going to 4 finals(only winning 2), but as a fan I want the Dynamo to stop being a mid-lower table team. If this league was a single table team with relegation Houston would constantly battle for not going to a lower division. Sure that was not the case between for the first 2-4 seasons but with the league evolving rapidly they will be way behind in 2-4 years.

Something tells me he's not the only one who feels that way.

You should definitely give the article a full read as the interview is a great one, and a quick shot-out to Alex Gumm (@gummale) for bringing this interview to our attention.