Houston Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear tried to explain that Nick Garcia's negative public comments earlier this week about Kei Kamara had nothing to do with his team's fiery 3-1 win against the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday night at Robertson Stadium.
Even Kamara, who scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the 12th minute to cap off the Dynamo's best start to any game this season, took the proverbial high road.
But Brad Davis and Brian Ching, both of whom had big hands in helping the Orange extend their unbeaten streak to seven games (5-0-2), had plenty to say about Garcia and his comment to the San Jose Mercury News where he called Kamara a "mental midget."
Kinnear said the Garcia comments were not mentioned the days leading up to the game, but Ching and Davis both said it provided plenty of motivation for a team already looking to erase the bad memory of an earlier season 3-2 loss to the Quakes at Buck Shaw Stadium.
"Talk about a mental midget? I mean, who says that anyway," said Davis, who had two assists and extended his team record for assists (six) in five straight games.
Ching went a step further saying the comment provided the motivation for the team to "blow them out."
"It's always chippy; we hate those guys," said Ching, who scored his fourth goal of the season just four minutes into the game. "... All he did was give us the motivation to score goals against them."
Kamara, who also scored the game winning goal against Dallas on May 9, said he did not know what Garcia said and did not want to get caught up in what San Jose would do to try to provoke him.
"There was definitely some talk out there, but everyone knew I was just out there to play," Kamara said. "They knew I wanted to play well and that I was not out there to start anything. They knew what I wanted, and the knew where my focus was."
Tackles were flying from the get-go, words were exchanged, but Kamara didn't waver from his stance of just focusing on the team's goal of getting three points.
"Tonight, I wanted to go out there and make my mark on this game," said Kamara. "Some of them were out there kicking, throwing elbows, doing whatever they have to do.
"They have to stop good players, and that is what they were trying to do. They were trying to stop me, but they couldn't do it."
By the time Craig Waibel score early in the second half to make it 3-0, the Dynamo were well on their way to staying unbeaten at home.
Kinnear was pleased with Kamara's behavior, and liked his performance on the field even more. Kinnear publicly chastised Kamara earlier this season when his forward was suspended for his actions during a preseason game at San Jose.
And based on what Garcia said this week, Kinnear knew cooler heads -- should they prevail this weekend -- would be rewarded.
"Yesterday, I told him to concentrate on the game, try to help us win and get a score," Kinnear said. "I thought he played really well for the 90 minutes, and I don't think he got caught up on anything.
"As you saw, some things were going on to try to draw him into some confrontations, but he kept himself away from it. He was professional."
Kamara was very happy with his overall performance Saturday, and his teammates echoed that in their postgame comments.
His goal was important, his discipline paramount, but even the man of the match was sure to put the team first after a hard-fought win that moved the Orange to within a single point of second-place Seattle.
"The team has been playing good and we have been on bit of an unbeaten streak here," said Kamara. "That is all we want to do is just keep going.
"Dom just told us to keep playing and get three points. If you see the board in the back of the room there, it says 'get three points' and that is all we set out to do tonight.
"We weren't worried about anything else."
Andrew J. Ferraro is a contributor to MLSnet.com
