Despite having played in just 12 of his team's games this season, Houston Dynamo striker Brian Ching has pounded home 10 goals, good for second in MLS.
Thanks to that strike rate, Ching was named to D.C. United head coach Peter Nowak's 2006 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game roster as a replacement for league goal-scoring leader Ante Razov of Chivas USA. The MLS All-Stars will play Chelsea FC on Aug. 5 in Bridgeview, Ill. (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN).
"It's a pretty impressive stat and he's been very good not only in goal-scoring, but obviously on set pieces for and against and his overall hold-up play," Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said in a weekly Q&A with fans last week on Dynamo's official Web site, HoustonDynamo.com. "I would put him up there against any forward in the league."
Based mostly on his early-season MLS performances - he scored four times in Dynamo's season-opening 5-2 win over the Colorado Rapids - Ching was named to the United States team that competed at the FIFA World Cup in Germany in June. The only Hawaiian man to ever suit up for the U.S national team, Ching didn't see the field on the world's biggest stage.
When he returned to Dynamo after missing out on six of his team's games and not seeing action in Germany, Ching was worried he might have lost his match fitness and, consequently, his scorer's touch.
"That was a big concern of mine, coming back and being game fit," he said. "It took me a couple of games to get back into things. I think my first two games back, I didn't perform as well as I'd like to, but I'm just happy enough to get back into sync with the team."
After going goalless in his first two matches after the World Cup, the "Hawaiian Superman" tallied in each of his next three games to start the month of July and prove he hadn't fallen out of rhythm. Incredibly enough, Ching feels he could have scored even more.
"I've been getting a lot of opportunities in the past couple of games, and I'm a little disappointed sometimes that I only come away with one goal," Ching said. "I'm missing opportunities that I should be putting away."
According to Ching, the fault for his not scoring more in the last month lies only with him. He lauded his teammates for their efforts, which have made his life at the sharp end of the Dynamo attack easier.
Only one of Ching's goals this year has gone unassisted, and most of the primary assists on his strikes have come from the men patrolling the wings - Brian Mullan, Brad Davis and Wade Barrett.
"A lot of my goals come off of great service from my teammates, great passes from my teammates, so I owe a lot to them," Ching said. "I think it helps that we've been playing together for a long time now. The more we play together, the better we get."
Ching's focus on his team's performance is evident in the goals he has set for this year's All-Star Game. Laughing off the suggestion he might have an advantage over Chelsea's world-class defenders, Ching said his primary concern is staying healthy for Dynamo's stretch run.
"We have a good stretch of games leading up to it and after it," he said. "My main focus is to enjoy the experience, but by the same token, keep what's important to me in mind and get fit and try not to get worn out for the Dynamo season. The most important thing for me is doing well in the MLS season."
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
