[MLS] A team that has taken pride in winning titles with few foreign players and no Designated Players has changed tack. A long-rumored move of Mexican forward Luis Angel Landin to Houston has been completed. The Dynamo announced Thursday Landin, 24, will join the team on loan from Cruz Azul. He will be contracted until the end of 2010, with Houston accorded an option to acquire his rights.

"I am looking forward to getting Luis involved with the team," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "He is a player who will fit nicely into our system. I think we improved our team with an exciting, young, attacking player. We'll get him training as soon as possible and get him ready to play in this physically demanding league."

Landin (6-foot-1, 160) scored seven goals for Cruz Azul in the Clausura season that concluded in May and has also played five times for Mexico at the senior level. He went to Cruz Azul on loan from Morelia, where he played in 2007 and 2008. He came through the youth system at Pachuca, one of the clubs admired by Kinnear for their skillful style of play, and played against Houston in the 2007 Concacaf Champions Cup.

He will fill the Dynamo's Designated Player slot, which the club retained despite numerous offers from other MLS clubs to acquire it over the past two seasons.

 

Landin will be eligible for MLS play as soon as his P1 work visa is issued, but because he was named on Cruz Azul's roster for the 2009-10 Concacaf Champions League is cup-tied for that competition. The club hopes he can travel to and from Mexico in time to have his P1 visa stamped in time for Sunday's home match against Seattle.

To make room for Landin on its 18-player senior roster, Houston waived forward Ade Akinbiyi, who had been acquired in March. Landin joins defender Ryan Cochrane, acquired in a trade with San Jose two weeks ago, as recent changes to the Dynamo squad.