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Dynamo ride defense to another win

Jul 9, 2007 - 4:45 AM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- The Houston Dynamo need just a single goal to dispatch DC United, 1-0, on Sunday.

The Dynamo (9-2-5) have become a defensive juggernaut in recent weeks. With Sunday's shutout, Houston has not allowed a goal in 515 minutes.

Brian Ching knocked home the game's lone tally in the 33rd minute on a botched corner kick. Houston's corner try was knocked out of the box and collected 30 yards out by midfielder Richard Mulrooney, who sent it back into the box.

"It's a huge win for us against a good team I think," Ching said. "There one of the best teams in the league. To come in and avenge a loss that we got earlier in the season feels good. This win puts us back at the top of the table where we want to be."

Ching managed to get a piece of it, deflecting the ball to the left, up and over United goalkeeper Troy Perkins.

"Scoring with my feet is something I want to get better at, and hopefully I can continue to do better at it," Ching said.

"The ball was cleared out, and we didn't clear it out very well, so he gets a free shot from 18 out," Perkins said. "It's going in, and Ching gets a leg on it and gets a deflection to it."

DC United (7-2-5) entered the contest having lost just once in their past 10 games, but could not find a way to score against a defense led by Wade Barrett and anchored by goalkeeper Pat Onstad.

"When you don't give any goals up you always give yourself a chance to win," Barrett said. "We didn't score four goals tonight, but we did score one. When you keep the '0' at the back it's good enough for the win. It was obviously that we got the goal, but equally important that we kept the '0' at the back."

"When you say 'defense' everyone thinks defenders and goalkeeper," Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said. "I think you have to look at guys like Brian Ching and Joseph Ngwenya who come back and mark guys on set pieces. They're the first line of pressure, and then it's the next four. I think we're a difficult team to break down. We have guys like Brian Mullan who find energy out of no where at very important times."

The win runs the Dynamo's unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1), and they have outscored their opponents 12-3 during that span. The defending MLS champs are now tied atop the Western Conference with Dallas (9-2-6).

"(Houston)'s disciplined, they get back fast," DC United coach Tom Soehn said. "We had a couple of chances early over the top, and when you get a team like that out of their zone, you need to score on those chances. We didn't."

The loss prevents DC United from moving into first place in the Eastern Conference, as they fell to second place - one point behind the New York Red Bulls (7-3-5).