all by 1-0 shutouts.
• It didn't take long for United to jump into the lead. The Black-and-Red won a free kick some 30 yards straight out from goal, and Christian Gomez hammered a blast past the wall and into the upper left-hand corner past the dive of 'keeper Pat Onstad for a fourth-minute opener.
• Gomez then laid on the second for United in the 27th minute. With the ball at the top of the area, he slipped a pass to Ben Olsen coming on hard from the right, and the veteran midfielder ripped a low drive off Onstad and into the back of the net.
• In the 71st minute, Brian Ching sent a shot goalward, but it hit the arm of United defender Josh Gros -- and referee Jair Marrufo pointed to the spot. But United 'keeper Troy Perkins guessed correctly, diving to his right to palm away Dwayne De Rosario's effort.
• But the Canadian international made no mistake seconds later. He took a Craig Waibel square pass, cut back to avoid two over-committing defenders and fired home a low shot to give Dynamo new life, but they could get no closer.
• Dynamo boss Dominic Kinnear made no changes to his team for a third consecutive match.
• Here's Kinnear's team (4-3-1-2): Pat Onstad - Richard Mulrooney, Ryan Cochrane (Craig Waibel 46), Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett - Brian Mullan, Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis (Stuart Holden 84) - Dwayne De Rosario - Brian Ching, Joseph Ngwenya (Corey Ashe 70). Substitutes Not Used: Mike Chabala, Patrick Ianni, Zach Wells, Chris Wondolowski
• "We had a breakdown with the second goal. I thought we kept them at bay, but you're 2-0 down already. You know, you can say well for 60 minutes, the reason you play in their half of the field ... is you're 2-0 down. It was a horrible start by us. We tried our hardest to climb ourselves out of it, but it was too much for us," Kinnear said.
TEAM NEWS
• The loss was Dynamo's fifth in six games -- all by just one goal. After the game, Kinnear held a closed-door meeting for nearly an hour.
• "You can't be happy any time you lose. You can play great and lose, but you can't come off the field and say we played well, any time you lose. I just think you look at it and you know you lost five games of eight. We've lost more than half the games we participated in," Kinnear said. "Our competitive level is good, but I think, individually, quality-wise, we all need to get better and that goes from the coaching staff on down. We need to put in extra work now and extra responsibility on ourselves to make sure that the next time we step on the field, we're better."
• And once again, Dynamo's inability to find the back of the net continued. Save for a 13-minute burst against Colorado when they scored three goals, Dynamo have scored just two goals over the remainder of the season. A last indignity was suffered before the goal against United when Dwayne De Rosario saw his penalty saved.
• "It's a lack of execution in front of goal. There is a reason why guys who can score goals make a lot of money because those guys will win games. Right now we are getting ourselves in great positions and we are not punishing teams. And in the end we are punishing ourselves," Kinnear said.
• Said De Rosario: "I was extremely disappointed after [missing the penalty kick], but it was really important getting the goal right afterwards. It put us back in the game. But it was too late. Even in the later parts of the game, we were too worried about keeping possession rather than just trying to go forward."
• While Dynamo haven't been leaking goals in bunches, they still haven't recorded a clean sheet since not allowing a goal in either of their opening two games.
• "The thing was, we gave too much room, because every time we played the ball forward, we never stepped clear of our lines. Therefore, the gap between the front and the back was probably 60, 70 yards when, ideally, we'd like it to be 40 or 50. So the gap between forwards and midfield, midfield from the back was too much space," Kinnear said. "When we run the ball, we were content just playing it and holding our lines rather than closing space. In the second half, you saw we were winning balls on the halfway line, where in the first half we were winning balls on the top of the 18 and, when you give them that much room, you're asking for trouble."
• There was a positive taken from the trip, though, when Dynamo met with President George W. Bush and was honored in a visit to the White House on Tuesday.
• "It was probably better than we even expected," said defender Wade Barrett. "We got to have a little more face time with the President than I think we thought were going to get. It's just a special experience for us." Said goalkeeper Pat Onstad: "Hopefully, it's something that brings us together. Obviously the results aren't going as well on the field, so we need to find some way to turn things around pretty quickly."
FC DALLAS
FC Dallas lost for the first time in four matches in their last outing, a 2-0 loss to Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center last Saturday evening. The Hoops still pace the Western Conference with 16 points from 10 matches, a point ahead of the Colorado Rapids and a point behind the New England Revolution and New York Red Bulls in the race for the league's best overall record.
LAST MATCH
• Chivas USA hadn't won in four games -- though they had played to draws in their last two -- while FC Dallas were riding a three-game winning streak -- all by 2-1 scorelines.
• The home side sealed the victory with a pair of goals in the second half, both coming through their strike pair, and both coming from long range.
• In the 51st minute, Maykel Galindo dispossessed FC Dallas midfielder Juan Toja in the FCD half, and leapt to his feet toward the Hoops goal. Some 30 yards from goal he ripped a wicked right-footed drive that sailed past goalkeeper Dario Sala and inside the left-hand post.
• Ante Razov finished off the scoring in stoppage time with a bizarre goal. Sala was at the halfway stripe, trying to keep the ball forward as FCD chased the equalizer, and Chivas cleared the ball back out. Razov was quickest to it and knocked into the goal from inside the center circle past Sala, finally rolling slowly across the line for what was essentially an empty-net goal.
• FCD head coach Steve Morrow made two changes to the team that defeated Real Salt Lake 2-1 at home the previous Sunday, returning to the strike force that defeated the Chicago Fire 2-1 on the road four days before that. Back in came Kenny Cooper, Abe Thompson and Ramon Nuñez; out went Arturo Alvarez, Dominic Oduro and Carlos Ruiz, though Ruiz was suspended for yellow card accumulation.
• Here's Morrow's team (4-3-1-2): Dario Sala - Drew Moor, Clarence Goodson, Alex Yi, Chris Gbandi - Juan Toja, Pablo Ricchetti, Dax McCarty (Arturo Alvarez 71) - Ramon Nunez - Abe Thompson (Dominic Oduro 57), Kenny Cooper. Substitutes Not Used: Shaka Hislop, Aaron Pitchkolan, Bobby Rhine, Marcelo Saragosa, Blake Wagner
• "We had a lot of the ball, a lot of possession and what was missing was our play in the last third of the field," said Morrow. "We didn't get enough from our forwards today and it's disappointing."
TEAM NEWS
• The first time FC Dallas faced two games in four days, Morrow essentially kept his team the same - and the Hoops lost to New York in the back end of the two-game set. The next time, against Chicago on Thursday and Real Salt Lake on Sunday, he completely changed the strike force, returning to attacking players he used against the Fire for the game against Chivas. But this time, they couldn't return to the previous form.
• "We didn't do good enough offensively as a team," Kenny Cooper said. "I had some good chances but didn't put them away tonight, I wasn't good enough." Said Abe Thompson: "You can't fault our effort but we just didn't move the ball and possess it as well as would've liked and as well as we normally do so it's disappointing.
• The one difference was the absence of Carlos Ruiz to yellow card accumulation. He will now miss a number of games in June while with the Guatemalan national team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
• "We've won our last three games and played well and created a lot of chances and two of those games were without Carlos. I don't really think (his absence) was a factor today," said Morrow. " ... We didn't look enough to the front and the front players did not show for the ball enough."
• Along with Ruiz, FC Dallas will be without Chris Gbandi, who has been called in by Liberia for its African Nations' Cup qualifier against Cameroon and Anthony Wallace, called into the U.S. under-20 national team. Dominic Oduro was supposed to join Ghana's under-23s for an Olympic qualifier, but he never received the necessary paperwork and so will remain with FCD for the Houston match.
• "We've got a lot of strength in depth and we have other players who can come in and cover those positions," said Morrow.
• FC Dallas has now used nine different starting lineups in 10 games this season. "We had a lot of injuries and suspensions early on in the season and we haven't had a game yet where we've had everybody available, which has been unlucky for us," said Morrow. "Still, we're in a very good position, we're top of our conference and we had a great chance tonight to put ourselves top of the whole standings but we didn't quite give enough."
