For their fourth annual Charities Cup, the Houston Dynamo are stepping way up in class. They always invite a foreign team over for the match, which serves as a fundraiser for the team’s preferred charities. (This year they are Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas and Houston Food Bank.)

The first two years the Dynamo competed against Mexican teams — Club America and Monterrey. Last year, they had their first head-to-head against a European team, the EPL’s Bolton Wanderers. (You have to love some of those English club names; the Wanderers, Hotspur, the Rovers, the Toffees, and the Cottagers, for crying out loud.)

Bolton brings up the rear in the EPL — though that didn’t stop them from kicking the Dynamo’s rear from one end of Robertson Stadium to the other. But this year’s opponent for the Thursday night match, Valencia CF, is at least minor Spanish, and even European royalty.

This is clearly the third best team in Spain, behind Barcelona and Real Madrid. Valencia tied Real Madrid, in Madrid, last April when Madrid was making its successful push to dethrone Barcelona as La Liga champions.

A little history: In both 2000 and 2001, Valencia played in the Champions League finals, losing the latter only on penalty kicks. It reached the Champions League quarterfinals as recently as 2010. So, no, the Dynamo have never played anyone of this pedigree before.

No doubt team president Chris Canetti spoke the truth when he said at a Tuesday press conference, “I don’t think we could have attracted a Valencia if we didn’t have BBVA Stadium.”

And it doesn't hurt that BBVA also sponsors La Liga in Spain — the league is actually branded La Liga BBVA.

Defender David Albelda, a long time Valencia stalwart and former Spanish national team member, attended the press conference, along with assistant coach Juan Carlos Carcedo. Both men were guarded in their pronouncements.

Albelda said, “We should have the superior team, but you never know.” (He said this in Spanish — I’d say 75 percent of the conference was in castellano.)

They hadn’t even set foot inside Houston's new pride-and-joy stadium yet, so they couldn’t praise it like we were hoping. But they had heard (like everyone else in the North American soccer world after Saturday’s win over the LA Galaxy and a bothered David Beckham) that it was a very hot place to play.

“You have to be concerned about the heat,” Albelda said.

In response to a question, Canetti said that the 1:30 p.m. start for the Galaxy game had been Major League Soccer's call, based on an NBC “window of availability.” “So don’t get mad at me,” he continued, a little defensively. He also said that he thought the league had “gotten the message” that night time is the right time for Houston soccer.

I don’t blame Albelda for worrying. When Valencia conducted its first workout at the Dynamo’s rather isolated training facility, they must have wondered if they were in a city at all, and they certainly got a taste of our mid-day heat. They’ve also visited the Spanish consulate, where they met Spanish astronaut, Miguel López Alegría, a NASA veteran. In the linked video, López Alegría welcomes the team to town, though he allows that Houston is “not one of the first cities” of the United States.

I guess at NASA you have to think that, since we didn’t rate a space shuttle.

Banking On Quality

I wanted to ask how the Spanish banking crisis was affecting heavily indebted Spanish soccer teams, but let the moment pass. The Texas heat is enough to worry about. But after the press conference, when I read that bailout-begging Bankia is supposed to be funding Valencia’s proposed new stadium, I realized I had shirked my journalistic duty.

Both Ches (as the team members are known) made the expected respectful noises about the “surprising” quality of MLS play, and of the quality of the fandom in Portland, where Valencia beat the Timbers 1-0. (The Spanish players also took in a Vancouver-Seattle match.)

Otherwise, little ground was broken, though a local Hispanic television journalistic tried to break some when he pressed Canetti on when, exactly, the Dynamo were going to sign a Mexican player.

I made a similar call the other day, so I sympathize. Canetti seemed a little frustrated when the journalist repeated the question after Canetti told him that they were trying, “but it’s complicated.”

Anyway, I’m psyched to see Valencia play. The Dynamo will be playing short-footed: Geoff Cameron and Andre Hainault are off with their national teams (the United States and Canada, respectively), as is Jamaican international Je-Vaughn Watson. But we likely won’t see Valencia’s full fire power either: Striker Roberto Soldado will probably be with the Spanish national team, preparing for Euro Cup 2012 (the world’s best soccer tournament for sheer top-to-bottom quality).

I just hope the Spaniards go home talking about something besides the heat.