With the score deadlocked at a goal apiece just 10 minutes from full time, Houston Dynamo star striker Brian Ching took a ball deep inside the Chivas penalty area, spun around a defender and had a point-blank look at goal.
Instead of tucking the ball home to give Dynamo the go-ahead goal though, Ching sent his shot right into the chest of Chivas goalkeeper Preston Burpo, making the stalemate stand.
The play was indicative of Ching's tough time in his second game back since returning to Dynamo from World Cup duty with the U.S. national team.
"Those are ones that I was putting away at the beginning of the year and right now I'm not," said Ching, who also had a close-range header attempt saved by Burpo midway through the second half. "It's just mental right now. Going to the World Cup there are a lot of emotions and even though I didn't play, it takes a lot out of you."
In the three World Cup matches for the USA, Ching didn't see any action but has felt the emotional and physical fatigue catch up to him after playing all but two minutes in his first two games back from Germany, including Saturday's scoreless draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
"Things have kind of caught up to me after coming back from the World Cup and jumping in and playing two games right away," he added. "There's a little bit of fatigue and I'm looking forward to some time off here in the next couple of days."
Despite missing more than a month because of national team duty, Ching remains Dynamo's leading scorer with seven goals in just eight matches.
Dwayne De Rosario, who scored Dynamo's lone goal in the 55th minute, is confident that Ching will regain his scoring touch.
"He had a couple of unfortunate chances here and there," he said. "He's holding the ball well for us and it's just a matter of time before he gets a goal and we're confident that when that goal comes he'll go on his run again."
And now is the time that Dynamo hope that he can find the offensive spark that powered them early in the season.
"I was very disappointed because I thought we were well in hand of the game," said Dynamo boss Dominic Kinnear. "We were a little bit unlucky with our chances but I still felt we should have come out with three points."
The draw extended Dynamo's unbeaten streak to six matches and pulled them to within four points of Western Conference pacesetters FC Dallas, whom they won't face head-to-head until the middle of August.
"These are games that when you come in with the right attitude, you should be winning," Kinnear added.
The right attitude is what Ching hopes to come back with in the six days before Dynamo's next match at home against the Columbus Crew.
"Our seasons are so long and there are ups and downs and right now on a mental note I'm on a little bit of a down and I need to do the things that I need to do to get back in the right mindset," Ching said. "I'm looking forward to getting away from soccer in the next couple of days here and spending time with my family and hopefully I can get rejuvenated again."
Danny Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
