Despite coming out from the opening whistle with much more urgency, it was the same storyline as the Houston Dynamo stunned the home side first, then used a stingy defense and a bit of luck for the 1-0 victory in front of 7,225 fans in Denver.

Colorado midfielders Clint Mathis and Kyle Beckerman drove the play early on as the Rapids continually pushed into Houston’s third of the field only to see finishing chances elude them. In fact, despite their improved possession game Colorado managed just one shot on goal in the first half, a blast by Mathis that overpowered Dynamo keeper Pat Onstad but went over the crossbar for a harmless corner kick.

In the 16th minute, Houston won a corner kick from the right side. Forward Brian Ching, who has scored all 5 of his goals against Colorado this season, fired a powerful header directly at Rapids keeper Joe Cannon. “Set pieces are a huge part of my game,” explained Ching. “We have guys who put the ball exactly where you want it. My job is to make good runs in the box and lose my defender.” Cannon stuffed the shot on the line, but the rebound fell directly to Ching who buried his second attempt past a prone Cannon for the gamewinner.

Houston Head Coach Dominic Kinnear told his team beforehand to treat the game like mini-games to ward of the pressure he knew the home side would bring. “I told them in the first 15-20 minutes I know they’re going to come out (fast) because they finished their game against Dallas pretty well. I said the first 5, 10, 15-almost in 5 minute increments- we’ve got to come out and match them.

We got the goal early, which kind of helps your confidence. We didn’t have our best game tonight, but I thought we held well and the guys worked their tails off.”

Colorado Head Coach Fernando Clavijo is getting tired of seeing his side dig themselves into a hole off of set pieces. “One set piece, one goal. We knew they were dangerous and they made us pay,” lamented Clavijo. “We need to correct it. We can train all day long, but it’s an individual responsibility who’s marking who and how you’re making runs. It’s just wanting the ball more than we do.”

“It’s not because of something they create, it’s just something we did not mark well-the freekicks, a corner kick we should not give up. You have to look at how they finish the play, but also how we give up a corner kick for nothing. We have to treat the ball better and come out and have confidence in our players that when you play a ball that ball is going to be well treated. We’re very careless. We give them an opportunity for nothing and they finish it well.”

“We’ve been chasing the score this year and we need to make sure the message is loud and clear that we need to start out that way. The other people need to start chasing us.”

Houston did not really threaten the remainder of the half thanks to a Rapids backline that was fairly organized the rest of the night after Ching’s goal. Thanks in part to the defenders Mike Petke and Pablo Mastroeni in the middle, Houston managed just one more shot on goal in the first 45 minutes.

With the damage already done, Petke admitted he and his mates knew what they were up against going in to the game. “They came in and were effective. Ching is the best player in the league in the air by far. They get a goal and the rest of the game they do what they gotta do to get out with a win.”

Luck was also not on Colorado’s side for the night as forward Nicolas Hernandez saw two late first half opportunities slide by. A nice feed by Beckerman in front of the Dynamo goal ended with Hernandez sending a flyer over the crossbar in the 36th minute. Also, a nice ball by midfielder Terry Cooke was flicked on by teammate Dedi Ben-Dayan for an open Hernandez who lost his footing just before getting to the ball.

“We tried everything too quick,” Clavijo explained to soccer365. “If we just put a foot on top of the ball, make sure we have an opportunity, when we have an opportunity to make a run at those positions. We create we just couldn’t finish it.”

The second half almost began just as the first half did with Ching getting on the end of another dangerous corner kick in the 65th minute. Again Cannon made the point blank save and hung on to release the ball safely. Colorado’s best chance to equalize came in the 75th minute off a freekick taken by forward Jovan Kirovski. His bullet clanked off the near post as a frozen Onstad watched hopefully.

“I figured Ricardo (Clark) was going to match up on me one on one, and Kyle with (Dwayne) DeRosario, so we wanted to open it up in there,” Mathis explained of the gameplan. “If it was me pushing and try to keep it. For the most part I thought we did a pretty good job of that. The chances we did create we didn’t finish. I thought we were doing alright, but you win on goals and that’s what we need to continue to search for.”

“Give Houston credit-I thought they did really well defensively on free-kicks,” noted Mathis. “They seemed to get that nudge or head on the ball or just barely get that clearance to give us another corner. We kept working and getting some of the services, but as long as we keep creating those chances some are going to go our way.”

Kinnear was proud not only of the result, Houston’s first shutout on the season, but also of the effort as well. “We got our first shutout of the year against a team pretty capable of scoring goals. I like the way that you saw 11 guys, wherever the ball was, you saw 11 sets of legs running. Sometimes on the road you can’t bring your best game, but if you try and will yourself to win good things can happen.”

The other story was the amount of fouls committed by both sides, 32 in all called by the referee. Many of which gave both sides time to move their attackers up field into position while Houston tried to hang on to their lead. “I think they were getting a lot of free kicks and getting a lot of balls sent in the box,” said Dynamo defender Wade Barrett. “A lot of it was not in our favor. We said at halftime that that was one thing we wanted to prevent was keep giving up free kicks because it gives them opportunities to get in the box. You never know what’ll happen on something like that.”

Petke, always the diplomat, was also not happy with the amount of whistles breaking up any rythym to the game’s second half as evidenced by his praise (?) of the officiating crew. “If there’s anybody’s fault it was ours. It wasn’t the refs’ fault because they’re the best refs in the world. I was watching EPL this morning and the whistle didn’t blow for a good two and a half minutes-that’s not soccer. You have to crack down on the little touch fouls, the glaring looks, you have to call those and disrupt the game like that. I’m being honest I think we have the best refs in the world.”

Fans will have to see how their Rapids respond to the early breakdowns as the season goes on. However, no one in the Colroado locker room is panicking just yet, according to Petke. “I don’t think we played very attractive soccer tonight, but we fought hard. It’s a long season. I think we have more talent this year. Working hard doesn’t always translate into wins. We’re going to put it together it’s just a matter of when.”

Reserve Notes—

On a brighter note, the Rapids reserve squad avenged the previous night’s bad feelings by defeating Houston’s reserve side 2-0 on Sunday morning. Colorado easily controlled play thanks to Dan Gargan and a solid game by Luchi Gonzalez. One goal in each half scored by new addition Thiago Martins, both setup by some nice play from the Gargan, was enough to secure the win.

Houston had an early opportunity on a breakaway on the Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul, but the athletic Senegal native made a quick reach save above his head as he also went to ground to stop the drive.

Gargan then sent a beautiful cross from the right side to an unmarked Martins. The Brazilian had time to bring the ball down and hammer his shot past Dynamo keeper Zach Wells.

Houston almost equalized at the first half whistle as Ronald Cerritos fired a perfect header into net, but was called offside on the play as time expired.

The second half again saw Gargan slip a low ball in front of Houston’s goalmouth forcing Wells to make a diving stab. He couldn’t hang on and the ball spilled to Martins for an easy tap in and the 2-0 lead.

Lineups:

COL- Coundoul, Wingert, Keel, Harvey, Wasson, Clarke (Kobilka), Gargan (Traeger), Gonzalez, Peterson (King), Martins (Elbaum), Gotsmanov.

HOU-Wells, Goldthwaite, Aloisi, Cochrane, Gray, Wondolowski (Nash), Ianni, Chabala, Holden, Cerritos, Storey.

by Brian Jennings

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