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Chivas USA 0, Dynamo 1

Jun 11, 2009 - 3:51 AM By JEREMY RAKES STATS MLS Correspondent

HOUSTON (STATS) - The Houston Dynamo continue to climb the ladder in the Western Conference and not even the best team in the league and Western Conference leader, Chivas USA, can stop them.

Stuart Holden scored in first-half stoppage time, and the Houston Dynamo extended their winning streak to four games with a 1-0 victory over Chivas USA on Wednesday night.

After starting the season 0-1-2, the Dynamo (7-2-3) have run off a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2) to move within three points of Chivas (8-3-3) for the Western Conference lead.

"It was a hard game tonight, but it was important for us to score first," said Houston coach Dominic Kinnear. "The goal helped us pick up the pace. We got the three points on a difficult night, and that's the most important thing.

"We had a lot of long balls in the first half, but I think that was the first time that the runner and the ball met. It was a great job by Stuart to get through and finish."

Holden scored off a forward pass from newly acquired Cam Weaver. Holden took control just outside the penalty area, got past Chivas' Carey Talley, then faked right against goalkeeper Zach Thornton before going left.

"To come out with three points against the first place team, is a psychological boost for us," Holden said. "To get the goal at the end of the half and go into the half, 1-0, that was a bit of a relief, and we knew we could come out in the second half and playing without the monkeys on our back, per se."

Chivas' lone shot on goal came in the 83rd minute when Maykel Galindo got off a shot from about 20 yards on the right. Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad made a diving save to his right to preserve the shutout.

"When you get behind, it's a tough place to play, small stadium, small field, and they did a good job defending us," Chivas coach Preki said. "We had way too many guys tonight with a sub performance, especially after the 30th minute.

"We can not make such a dumb mistake like we did. That's something that we work on all the time and we opened up the middle of the field. We did that and we got punished no matter whose on the field."

Houston outshot Chivas 11-3, with a 6-1 advantage in shots on goal. It was Houston's seventh shutout, and the Dynamo haven't allowed a goal in 307 minutes dating back to a 3-1 win over San Jose May 23.

"Our defense played a great game tonight," Onstad said. "I got that big save at the end of the game. This streak is helping our confidence go higher. We are finding ways to win in big matches, and that's what we did tonight."

Thornton made five saves for Chivas, which has dropped two of its last three matches. Chivas, which opened the season 8-1-1, is just 2-2-2 on the road and dropped to 1-4-5 all-time against the Dynamo, with an 0-4-2 record at Robertson Stadium.

"It's disappointing because it was a good opportunity to increase our points lead," Galindo said. "They did their job, they had their goal scoring opportunity. They possessed the ball, and we tried to tighten it up to get an equalizer, and we couldn't do it."