HOUSTON - Brian Ching had a goal and assist to help the Dynamo beat Real Salt Lake 4-3 on Saturday night and move into first place in the Western Conference.
Nate Jaqua, Ricardo Clark and Brian Mullan also scored for Houston, which has won three straight and is unbeaten in six games. The Dynamo ended Real Salt Lake's four-game unbeaten streak. Kenny Deucher, Yura Movsisyan, Javier Morales scored for RSL.
Nick Rimando (4) – Was not good at all. Solid throughout most of the year bailing his teammates out when there were breakdowns, that simply wasn't the case against Houston. Chris Wingert (3) – Had a very sporadic performance. Defensively he seemed good at times and very fatigued and bad at other times. The same thing can be said about his passing. At times he sent in decent crosses and at other times he passed the ball directly to the opposition. Nat Borchers (3) – Definitely was not switched on mentally. After a solid start to the match, Borchers was brutal in the final 15 minutes of the second and RSL paid dearly. David Horst (2) – Played a lazy, lazy first half. Got caught ball watching numerous times and was a big reason why RSL's defense was so horrifyingly bad. Maybe it was the heat, but he did not play well in his MLS debut. It was better in the second half, but by then the outcome was well in hand. Robbie Russell (4) – Was a bit rough around the edges, not up to match sharpness yet. There were moments when you could see his physical ability and what an asset it can be.
Quote Sheet (provided by RSL communications):
HOUSTON HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the game …
“It was an exciting game for the fans, with some great attacking play, some loose defending, and a lot of goals. The results were the most important thing to come out of tonight. We won, we are on top of the conference, and we are happy about that.”
On the build-up to the game …
“I knew that we had a good chance because of the way the players practiced this week. Four goals were pretty exquisite. It’s nice to be in first place at this time even though we have plenty of games to go.”
HOUSTON GOALKEEPER PAT ONSTAD
On the game …
“Give our guys credit. We were down one-nothing, we stuck to it, and we just started creating opportunities with the ball.”
On allowing two early goals …
“With Findley and Movsisyan up front, they were able to expose us a little bit. It wasn’t like they were breaking through the middle. They came up with a good game plan, and it worked for them.”
HOUSTON MIDFIELDER BRAD DAVIS
On his assist to Brian Mullan …
“They were tucking up both on Ching and [Jaqua], so they were worried about them and nobody even saw Brian [Mullan] going through. I saw him going, and I wanted to get the ball there.”
On coming from behind …
“This team has come from behind plenty of times; that’s why the game is 90 minutes long. If we stick to our game plan and have faith in our guys and keep playing, eventually we will create chances.”
RSL HEAD COACH JASON KREIS
On Clint Mathis …
“I thought it was important [to play Mathis]. We have to continue his fitness. He looked like he was fatigued before the end of the match. That’s not a good sign. We’ve got to continue on that, first and foremost. Once we get him to a level that we’re all comfortable with, his fitness level, then we know the soccer’s there.”
RSL MIDFIELDER KYLE BECKERMAN
On the game …
“I thought everybody fought. We were out a few guys with suspensions,, some injuries, and guys stepped up. It was to be expected that things would be a little organized with some new guys, but everybody fought and gave ourselves a chance to get a point, and just game up short today.”
On the first-half deficit …
“That hit hard, but then we fought hard. We wanted to come out in the second half, and we thought we could have a chance to tie it up, but we came up just a little short.”
On the heat …
“It’s Houston in August – good luck. For us to get three goals was great. I don’t even know if you should really be allowed to play in this type of heat.”
On scoring three goals …
“I think every one of our forwards who came in got at least point, and that’s a good sign. We’ve got a huge game this week. I know Houston’s got one in the mid-week, and we’ll see what happens, but we might have a chance to get into first. We’ll see. We’ve just got to get back to being stingy on defense and continue scoring goals.”
On the game’s importance …
“It was big for us, we definitely wanted to come get three points and make a statement that we’re for real. We felt like we weren’t getting respect from them, from some of the statements about us, what they felt about us, so we really wanted to come down and really put it to them. But they’re a good team, and they play really well in Houston in all this heat.”
RSL FORWARD ROBBIE FINDLEY
On the game …
“There were good things all over the field. We wanted to come out early and try to press them and get a goal early if we could, and that happened. We’ve just got to go back to looking at tape and seeing defensively where we went wrong. Our heads are still up.”
On playing the Dynamo …
“They were champions a couple of years ago, but I look at them like any other team. I don’t think any one team is that much better than any other team in the league, so I go in with the same mentality as I would for any other team.”
Boz Art...
Boz's RSL Stadium Slideshow: 7/18/08
Boz Note...
If anyone out there fancies a specific photo that I've posted in the past, or perhaps a specific player, just drop me a line and I will email you the raw shot--for Free-Fifty-Free.
Just tryin' to spread that RSL love one photo at a time.
