Flashback 2010: Cruz energy on display in first career start, goal

I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to 2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky moments from my career in sports.
 
May 22, 2010
Danny Cruz always stands out for one thing: energy.

I'm just going to leave this here and let you enjoy Danny's first foray into the starting lineup.



A former hockey player who always brought that mentality to the soccer field, Danny is one of my favorite people to cover and work with, from his draft day in 2009 as a 19-year-old to his appearance on MTV's Made in 2011 (more on that here) to his years with the Philadelphia Union to the present day as an assistant coach with Louisville City. A relentlessly positive guy with an amazing attitude.

Having come to the sport a little later than most, Danny was never the most technical player at the professional level. But his speed, athleticism, and work ethic earned him a Generation adidas contract out of UNLV and led to him starting a good run of matches in both 2010 and 2011, including the Dynamo's run to the 2011 MLS Cup final.

We in the Dynamo communications office got some laughs over the years from times the wrong Danny Cruz would be listed on our team page on various sites. There was the time Soccerway listed him as Daniel Cruzeiro, a Brazilian goalkeeper, and, of course, the time the Dynamo invited a Colombian named Daniel Cruz for a trial.

I'm not going to lie: I was kind of glad that one didn't pan out. Although the two later shared the field for five minutes in a Houston-Dallas MLS game, to me there's only one Danny Cruz.