Red cards continue to hurt Dynamo

Ching continues growing streak of Houston players receiving early send-offs

First, L.A. Galaxy goaltender Donovan Ricketts made several remarkable saves to secure a tie in the match that was dominated at times by the Dynamo.

And with his parents in town for just the second time ever to watch their son in an Orange uniform, Geoff Cameron recovered from a small mistake and saved what would have been a goal by Edson Buddle in the 52nd minute.

At the goal line, Cameron cleared a shot out of harm's way just before the ball would have given the Galaxy a 1-0 lead.

More importantly, the match featured another Dynamo player making the long walk to the locker room after being ejected in an important game.

This time, and in his second home MLS game in a row, Brian Ching was ejected. Following a hard tackle by David Beckham on midfielder Ricardo Clark, Ching was given a yellow for arguing with referee Kevin Stott.

Then, the fourth official and a linesman saw Ching hit a Galaxy player. There was no way out of that one, and Ching was done for the match and next Sunday's game at Chivas USA.

"I touched a guy in the face, and the refs saw it and gave me a red card," said Ching. "Stupid play on my part, but it was an intense game.

"It was a stupid play on my part and two red cards in the last two (home) games doesn't look good. I let my team down, but better now than come playoff time."

Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said he does not care that it was arguably his most talented player that was ejected from the game and that Ching will miss the next game as well.

Kinnear said it's disappointing because it simply happened again. Last week it was Cam Weaver after a reckless tackle against Kansas City.

"It's not because it is Brian Ching," said Kinnear. "It's because it is a player who plays, who is an important player. And if you look at the guys who have been red-carded, they are all important players.

"They are guys that play significant and important minutes for us. And today, it's not just about the six minutes that he missed. It's 90 next week.

"We've talked about it, but I can't put an earpiece in their ear and tell them to just walk away from situations. Our guy just made a bad decision today."

Cameron could have been a star, Sunday.

He made the save of the game, as he and Pat Onstad teamed up for another shutout. And he had several chances on corner kicks that were either inches out of his reach or were stopped by Ricketts.

"I made a mistake that led to that save," said Cameron. "I made a step into a place where I should not have been. I don't know who headed it over, but I saw the ball bouncing toward the net and I just got up and sprinted right over to it.

"I was just hoping I could get to it, get any piece of the ball. Luckily, I got the whole ball and got it out of there."

Lucky is right, for a Dynamo team that now likely needs to win next Sunday just to have a shot at home-field advantage in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.

The Orange managed just two points in their last two home games in crucial matches. And because of missed chances and a surprising lack of discipline, there now could be some questions about the team's chances of making another serious run at the MLS Cup in November.

"We've been hurting ourselves. Almost everybody in here at some point has received a red card," said Brad Davis. "The game against Chivas, we need Ching, but now we don't have him. We just need to calm down a little bit and keep our heads in the game. I know we all want to stick up for each other, but we need to know that that stuff is going to hurt us."

Andrew J. Ferraro is a contributor to MLSnet.com.

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