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Ching's two goals help Dynamo hold off United

Aug 2, 2009 - 5:23 AM By JEREMY RAKES STATS MLS Correspondent

HOUSTON (STATS) ??? The Houston Dynamo continued their dominance over D.C. United at Robertson Stadium, but not as easily as it appeared it might be.

Brian Ching scored twice in the first half and the Dynamo nearly blew a three-goal lead before beating United 4-3 on Saturday night.

Besides improving to 4-0-1 at home against D.C. in all competition, league-best Houston (10-5-5) increased its Western Conference lead to six points over second-place Seattle.

The game was scoreless before the Dynamo got three goals in a four-minute span of the first half - the fastest three goals in franchise history. Brad Davis netted one in the 35th minute before Ching scored in consecutive minutes.

Houston led 4-1 in the second half and held on to win after Luciano Emilio's second goal of the game pulled United (6-4-10) within one in the 87th minute.

"Very happy with the win, we played some very good attacking soccer," Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said. "It took us a little while to get going, first 20 minutes or so, but after that, we had some really, really nice stuff.

"Even in the second half, we were still attacking well, but maybe we were a little loose defensively. Therefore, they crept back in the game, and unfortunately it should not have happened that way."

It was Ching's first game with Houston after missing four due to U.S. national team duty in the Gold Cup. The Dynamo went 1-2-1 without him.

"The guys had a tough month," said Ching, who leads the team with seven goals. "I have been there before and I really felt for them. It is just so frustrating when you can't help out. It is just so good to be back and to be able to contribute."

Dominic Oduro set up Davis' goal and the first one scored by Ching, who made a run to the upper right box and fired a shot that hit just inside the upper right corner of the net.

Ching made it 3-0 in the 39th minute after getting a pass from Mike Chabala in the left box and hitting his shot from 10 yards out just inside the far post.

"We started to get exposed a bit and got impatient and pressed a little bit and by doing so we went away from our game plan," said defender Bryan Namoff, who assisted on Emilio's goal that got United on the board in the 48th minute.

"Second half was a different mentality. We start playing out wide and give credit to Emilio coming in and pressuring their back line."

The Dynamo upped the lead back to three on Stuart Holden's penalty kick in the 66th minute. Holden also missed Houston's last four games due to U.S. national team duty.

"It was great to be back home and in my own bed, and it is so frustrating to have to watch the team play," Holden said. "Brian and I get so emotional, so fired up when we watch because we want to be here; we want to be part of the team. We couldn't be happier to be back."

Fred scored in the 75th minute for United, who had a three-game unbeaten streak snapped and fell five points behind East-leading Columbus.

"We had a three-minute stretch in the first half where we got away from the things we were doing earlier," D.C. coach Tom Soehn said. "Closing service, even closing the one Brian Ching came through and they are good enough that they are going to punish you. That three-minute span cost us a lot."



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Story from: STATS LLC, http://www.stats.com.