Dynamo moves to Reggae beat

• by Ridge Mahoney  @ridgemax, Feb 16, 2011

[MLS] For the past two seasons, Houston coach Dominic Kinnear has been trying to stabilize the middle of his back line, and on Wednesday the team announced an acquisition to shore up that position. Defender Jermaine Taylor has joined the Dynamo from Jamaican club St. George’s. He’s one of five Jamaicans who have been training with Houston during preseason and in the past five days he has appeared in scrimmages against FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City.

Taylor, 26, is a candidate to earn a starting spot alongside centerback Bobby Boswell. Other candidates are veterans Eddie Robinson and Andrew Hainault. Taylor will be officially added to the roster upon issuance of a P-1 visa and receipt of his international transfer certificate. The transfer fee and his salary details have  not been released.

“We saw Jermaine at the Digicel Cup and in a friendly against Costa Rica ,”  Kinnear said in a team press release announcing the transaction. “He’s a good  defender, he’s good on the ball, and he’s good in the air. I think he’s a player  who can be a good defender in this league.”

Taylor has played 37 times for Jamaica. At the 2010 Digicel Caribbean Cup, he played all 510 minutes (including overtime) as Jamaica conceded just three goals in five matches while winning the competition.

He is a teammate of Dynamo midfielder Lovel Palmer on the Jamaican team and a cousin of former MetroStar Fabian Taylor, who played 21 MLS games in 2004.

Four other Jamaicans -- Steven Morrissey and Francois Swaby, the top two scorers in Jamaica's Premier League, Richard Edwards and JeVaughn Watson -- have also been training with the Dynamo.

Houston is training in Arizona and scrimmages Columbus on Thursday.