By Brian Jennings

Brian Ching scored big early Saturday night in riding over the Rapids like his days surfing back home in Hawaii.  Two goals and an assist in the first 19 minutes were all it took to finish off Colorado on what looked to be another shootout involving the Rapids.

“I think we attack well and we’re playing well like we have the last couple weeks,” said Ching when explaining how Houston was able to jump out early against Colorado.  “We have a good core group of guys that buy into the system.  You get the most out of players.  We just have a good positive and hard-working mentality.  Everybody buys into that and it’s a true team thing.”

Ching struck before fans had even warmed up their seats as he pounced on a loose ball in front of the Colorado goal.  The “Haleiwa Hammer” beat two defenders to the ball and chipped over a stranded Preston Burpo for the 1-0 lead.

Houston Head Coach Dominic Kinnear was rightfully pleased with the quick start by his side as the Dyanamo attacked with numbers to start the match.  “We were moving the ball well and our movement off the ball was excellent,” said Kinnear.  “The combination play off the forwards was really impressive.  I think when we do that we’re a good team and we’re very effective.”

However, just like their previous match in New York, Colorado answered right back as Conor Casey grabbed a loose ball from a Terry Cooke corner kick and blasted his shot past Pat Onstad to knot the score in the 7th minute.

Just two minutes later, Ching again latched onto a fortuitous ball off a Houston free kick.  The header bounced off the crossbar directly into the US National Team forward’s path where the easy putback pushed the scoreline to 2-1 Dynamo.  That gave Ching the Dynamo record for most goals in a season at 12.

Ching then turned provider in the 19th minute as he fed Ricardo Clark at the top of the penalty area.  Clark whistled a ball past Burpo’s left for the 3-1 lead. 

“When you go up like that on the road, you don’t want to take your foot off because you invite pressure,” insisted Houston defender Wade Barrett.  “Right after we scored the third goal I think everyone kind of refocused and we said let’s remain tight these next few minutes.  You always look for a reason and say to the guys, ‘let’s stay tight for these next 5-10 minutes’ and you do that throughout the game. “

“We came in at halftime and talked about keeping our shape defensively, not getting too stretched.  We don’t want to take our foot off the gas because if we have an opportunity to put the next goal in we feel like that will really kill the game off.”

That they did early in the second half.  Ching wasn’t necessarily perfect on the evening, though.  In the 50th minute, Colorado defender Mike Petke was called for bringing down Brad Davis in the box.  Ching stepped to the penalty spot, but was stuffed on a nice dive by Burpo.

“We had the opportunity on the PK but the goalie made a nice save,” said Barrett.  “The game got a little crazy from there on-they still had a lot of energy.”

Four minutes later, Colorado was hurt by Casey’s second yellow card issued for high elbows going up for a 50/50 ball.  Omar Cummings almost pulled one back for the Rapids after taking a nice feed from Jordan Harvey.  Cummings dribbled just short of the endline and unleashed a scorcher off Onstad’s hands, but also off the post away from harm. 

Kinnear was very active on his sideline oftentimes standing to strongly encourage his squad verbally.   When asked what his instructions were being up 3-1 and a man, Kinnear said, “I was just telling them to keep the ball.  I think we were being a little bit careless coming down to guys being just a little bit tired was the key. The field is so wide that if we would have held the ball a little bit better it would’ve been easier for everybody.”

Houston could be excused for being a little bit weary having just come off a 4-game road trip in four different countries, finishing with a 4-4 draw against Pumas UNAM at altitude in Mexico City.  “With what happened in Mexico City, to come here and do what we did in the first half was very impressive.

“To be honest we took our foot off the gas,” admitted Ching.  “We’ve had a lot of games and mentally we took a break.  We were fortunate enough that it didn’t bite us in the butt tonight.  You could see that in the way they were moving the ball around with 10 men and we weren’t holding onto it at all.” 

Colorado looked to have a consolation goal in second half stoppage time as Cummings juggled the ball in the box off a Houston defender’s arm for a penalty kick.  However, as the night had been going for Colorado, Cooke’s attempt sailed wide as the final whistle came thereafter.

“We really learned a valuable lesson in MLS cup 2006 with them scoring and us coming right back,” Kinnear told soccer365.com.  “The guys understand that anything could happen at any moment of the game so just being focused is very important.  We needed to hold onto the ball (tonight),” the Coach admitted.  “At times I think we did, but at times we were a bit careless, but I think that comes down to tired minds and tired legs.”

“We held our line deep enough, I’ll give Colorado credit they kept banging away, to have some close calls.  If our possession is a bit better, it would’ve made the game easier for ourselves.  But, with all the travel we’ve gone through to come through unbeaten, and to finish off with a win in a very tough place to play is very impressive.”