Dallas Texans Alumni:
Omar Gonzalez
Omar Gonzalez was born October 11, 1988 in Dallas, Texas. He played for coaches Marcio Leite, Hassan Nazari and David Hudgell on the '89 and '88 Dallas Texans teams. The '88 Dallas Texans were arguably the greatest American youth soccer team of all time, winning back-to-back-to-back USYSA National Championships (U17, U18, U19), as well as a Dallas Cup Super Group Victory - a feat that no other American team has accomplished in the last 25 years. Gonzalez was a USYSA All-American in 2005. Along with Gonzalez, other '88 Texan members Stephen McCarthy, Andre Akpan and Anthony Ampaipitakwong have all moved on to play in the MLS.
Omar joined the U.S. Soccer Residency Program in January of 2005, and went on to earn eight caps with the U-17 National team, playing in the CONCACAF Qualifying Tournament, and the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Peru. In 2007, Gonzalez was recalled to the National squad and played for the U.S. Under-20’s at the Pan-American Games.
Gonzalez moved on to play college soccer at the University of Maryland, where he was voted to the Soccer America All-Freshman second team and ACC All- Freshman Team. With Maryland he won the 2008 College Cup championship, was named to the NSCAA/adidas All-American First Team and First Team All-ACC, and was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2007.
Gonzalez was drafted in the first round (3rd overall) of the 2009 MLS SuperDraft by Los Angeles Galaxy. He made his professional debut on March 22, 2009, in Galaxy's first game of the 2009 MLS season against D.C. United, and scored his first professional goal on April 4, 2009 against the Colorado Rapids. Gonzalez was awarded the MLS Rookie of the Year Award for his performances in the 2009 season. Gonzalez was the only Galaxy player to start all 30 of the club’s regular season games. He led the Galaxy in minutes played (2,672) while also setting new club rookie records for games started and minutes played and tying the record for games played by a rookie. He helped the Galaxy allow an MLS record 31 fewer goals than the season before and set a club record 12 clean sheets. In the postseason, Gonzalez started all four of the Galaxy’s games.
In 2010 Gonzalez was a finalist for the Defender of the Year award, and
was named to the 2010 MLS All-Star Team and the MLS Best XI. Gonzalez started 28 of the club’s regular season games, as well as all three postseason games, leading the club in regular season games played and minutes played amongst all field players.
On December 22, 2009, Gonzalez received his first call-up to train with the senior US national team. On August 10, 2010, he made his international debut in a friendly, starting against Brazil. Gonzalez has collected two caps with the U.S. National Team. He earned his second cap in January, starting and playing the opening 45 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Chile at The Home Depot Center. This was the second straight year that Gonzalez was called into the National Team’s January camp. He was also part of a training camp with the U.S. in early February of that year.
