The Houston Dynamo did not play their best game Saturday night. Couple that with a Real Salt Lake opponent that mastered a game plan filled with frustration, and it just didn't look like the Orange were going to extend their season-high unbeaten streak to 11 games.
But in the closing minutes and just before stoppage time, Brian Ching, Houston's star forward who had missed the last three matches with a hamstring injury -- and the freshest player on the field with the ability to change the game with one chance -- did just that.
Ching had the ball about 30 yards out and fed a pass ahead to Brian Mullan. On a dead sprint, Ching slipped through two defenders and waited as Mullan set him up with a perfect cross from the right flank.
At that point, it was not a matter of if the game was going to be tied. With the way the Dynamo with an advantage thanks to a red card ejection to Real defender Jamison Olave despite a poor opening 45 minutes, it really looked like Houston might be able to steal another two points away from the visitors.
Ching didn't miss, put an snap header by Nick Rimando after he jumped what looked to be 10 feet into the air, and the Dynamo sent their head coach, Dominic Kinnear, to his first-ever MLS All-Star Game.
Kinnear will coach the MLS side against Everton FC in Sandy, Utah on July 29.
"It feels good not so much to score, but to help the team and to help the team get a point," said Ching, who entered as a substitute after halftime. "We deserved points tonight, and I thought we were the better team, espeically when they went down a man. We kept our heads in the game and we finished off a good fight and a good comeback."
As for jumping several yards into the air, Ching laughed and said it did feel that way.
"I was excited, I feel young again," added Ching, who scored his fifth goal of the season to help the Dynamo take sole possession of first place in the Western Conference standings and the MLS overall table.
But for while, espeically in the first half, it did not look like that was going to happen.
First, there was a water break in the 25th minute that the most of the Dynamo didn't know was going to take place. Then, Salt Lake scored a goal three minutes after that when Fabian Espindola banked a shot off the leg of Bobby Boswell.
Dynamo captain Richard Mulrooney said referee Jair Marrufo told him before the game that there would be a water break, but Mulrooney dismissed it as a joke and nothing more.
"I didn't think that was regulated or even part of the game of soccer," said Mulrooney. "And I joked back with him and said, 'Hey, why don't we have two of them.' I said that thinking that was the end of it."
After Olave's ejection, the Dynamo pressed and still had a hard time getting through Real, who effectively clogged up the midfield just as Chivas USA did at Robertson just 10 days ago.
But finally, Ching made a superior play to send the crowd home happy on a night where the Orange were unusually out of sync at home.
"(Ching) sprays the ball out to Brian Mullan and then he was the only one running into the box," said Kinnear. "So his desire to get onto the ball was excellent. He goes through unmarked and he was the only one at that time that had the energy to make that first move to goal. It was a good ball in, and Brian, seeing the space, attacks the space, and gets a good goal out of it."
As for the trip to Utah to coach the All-Stars, Kinnear just shrugged off the compliment and said the nod is just a product of coaching the best team in the MLS at midseason.
But he did compliment his team for helping him add another milestone to an already decorated resume.
"They are a good group of guys, and I think I have a good relationship with the whole group," said Kinnear. "I enjoy their success probably as much as they do. I really enjoy watching them play, I love coaching them and I feel very fortunate to be around these guys and I think I have the best job in the MLS."
Andrew J. Ferraro is a contributor to MLSnet.com
