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Bruin punishes D.C. United yet again as Dynamo keep rolling in rout

Will Bruin

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

With seven goals in eight career meetings, Will Bruin returned to RFK Stadium with a reputation as being a constant thorn in D.C. United’s side.

The Houston forward continued his dominance over United on Wednesday evening with two more goals and two assists.

Bruin had a hand in each goal for the Dynamo, who thrashed United 4-0 on a rainy night at RFK Stadium. Houston started and finished strong against a struggling D.C. side which, despite dominating most of the second half action, failed to find the back of the net for the fourth time in their last five matches.

The Dynamo, winners of back-to-back road matches, attacked from the opening whistle. The forward pairing of Bruin and Giles Barnes came close to scoring in the first few minutes, but they were not able to break through until the 16th minute.

The wet field at RFK allowed Oscar Boniek Garcia to take advantage of some United slip-ups in the midfield. Garcia played an excellent through ball to Bruin, who beat Dejan Jakovic with his first touch and lofted a shot over a charging Bill Hamid for the goal.

Houston pounced on another bad moment for the home side 12 minutes later. Jakovic played a last-gasp backpass to Hamid, whose hurried clearance found Bruin inside the box. Bruin laid the ball off to Barnes, and the English forward beat Hamid with a well-placed shot.

After their disappointing first half performance, United came out on the attack in the second half. Chris Korb, Marcos Sanchez and Rafael all put long-distance efforts inches from Tally Hall’s goal right out of the break.

United’s best chance of the match came off of one of their 15 corner kicks. In the 63rd minute, the ball fell to Dwayne De Rosario just behind the line. De Rosario blasted two shots on Houston’s goal, but Kofi Sarkodie blocked both of his efforts right off the line on a great hustle play.

D.C.’s run of control in the second half came to a screeching halt in the 78th minute when Bruin grabbed his second goal of the night. Brad Davis’s free kick found the head of Brian Ching, who replaced an injured Barnes late in the first half. The veteran forward nodded the ball to a wide open Bruin for Houston’s third goal.

Bruin capped off his night with a second assist 10 minutes later. Although he had a chance to grab the hat trick, Bruin laid the ball back to a wide open Andrew Driver for Houston’s fourth and final goal of the night. The forward came off seconds later for Jason Johnson, who was making his professional debut.

Houston (6-2-2) will look to continue the best start in franchise history with a home match against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday. Last-place D.C. United (1-7-1) travels to Western Conference leaders FC Dallas on Saturday night.

Comments

  1. Imperative Voice:
    You seem to have a personal thing against Dominic Kinnear. Week after week you critize him for his errors, but when we have big wins, you continue to focus on the negatives. You are concentrating your attack on Moffat nowadays. OK, he ain’t that great, but this is MLS, with the limited budget, we are going to have some good players, and some OK players.
    Admit it, Dom is one of the best coaches in MLS, if not the best.

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  2. Moffat is hit or miss and he’s been more miss than anything. Sure, he likes to get tucked in and battle for balls and break up plays but his ball distribution is terrible and he causes soooo many turnovers it’s ridiculous. Ricardo Clark spends 1/3rd of his time on the field trying to clean up Adam Moffat’s messes.

    Having good ingredients like Driver and Davis on the pitch at the same time is good because Driver has terrible service on corner kicks and free kicks but is effective at going towards goal. Davis is spectacular on corners and free kicks and dearly needed. Boniek Garcia is the batter that brings it all together and makes everyone better. Top it off with a dash of Barnes and you have the perfect cupcake.

    I loved Andrew Hainault but Kofie Sarkodie is paying dividends. Each game that kid gets better and better. I know Mike Magee and DeRo are salty they couldn’t get past him. LOL!

    I can’t wait for Omar Cummings and Calen Carr to not only get healthy but to get match fit as they’ll be a huge piece of the Dynamo puzzle as we get into the playoffs.

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  3. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fan base. Hope they enjoy watching this team get hammered on a weekly basis in that crumbling ediface they call home.

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  4. I couldn’t see the game live because of the Dynamo foolishly joining the Astros and Rockets in signing up with Comcast-Houston, which shows in less than half the cable households in town.

    Pretty good for game 2 of a 3 games in a week road trip. Basically looked like we killed DC down the flanks, which is something I think we can do all season with our midfield quality. Personally I wish Kinnear would sit down Moffat and get the Third Musketeer of Davis Boniek Driver in the game. Quit playing so close to the vest, unleash the beast. We finally do have an accumulation of middie talent, particularly if you include Barnes in that list.

    Saying Sarkodie cleared two balls off the line is almost an understatement in terms of the athleticism involved. And he seemed to be getting down the wings well.

    The one worrisome development is Barnes’ exit because as-is he’s a fill-in forward. As much quality midfield depth we have, we have little quality forward depth, off the cliff.

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  5. I’m a Dynamo fan who was at the game in DC. Will Bruin’s movement was driving the defense crazy all evening. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, ANDREW DRIVER IS THE REAL DEAL! What a fantastic acquisition. I wonder if this is going to be the line up we continue to see with Driver on the left, Boniek on the right, Davis in the middle, but Clark as the D-mid. The more Barnes pushes up with Bruin, the better the success in the attack that this team has.

    I love Moffat, I don’t know what’s going on with him this year, but maybe a little bench time will help him out. He’ll be needed come Cup time and CONCACAF qualifiers.

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    • I agree, i was hoping Dom left Driver on the left and slotted Davis in the middle, then have either Rico or Moffat in the middle with Davis. Hopefully Barnes is not too banged up. He might have a few extra pounds but he is very efective. Sarkodie’s two stops were incredible.

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    • What I am loving is that Barnes, Driver and Boniek all are driving the attack. If they are not driving with the ball then they are making the runs which is putting the oppositions defense under a ton of pressure. Haven’t seen this dynamic midfield in Houston in a long time. Bruin had a monster game.. He and Barnes really are synced up.

      As for Moffat, he still has the hustle but his distribution has been really poor. For the most part I think his ability to break up plays out weighs his passing but only by a hair.

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    • Moffat is a circus act on offense — one spectacular goal every few months — and surplus to needs with Clark back. This should be an easy decision. Sometimes the best defense is sitting on the other end….which is more like how the old Dynamo would kill games, keepaway with DeRo and Holden on the other end. Now we bunker too much. I prefer this approach, and I think it’s better preparation for games late in the playoffs when you might need a couple, three goals to get your result against a team like LA.

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      • I think the ideal situation is we push Barnes back where we have attacking subs at mid if we play all 3, and then we sign a real second forward, perhaps at the expense of cutting Camargo or trading Weaver or something like that.

      • The plan right now is to get Cummings and Carr healthy. Unless its an amazing deal or we start struggling to score goals I don’t see the Dynamo going out for a forward. The focus right now is to keep Driver after the loan terms come to an end.

      • Carr will get you 3-5 goals a season, which will feel nice when it happens but is paltry performance for the position. I think we also witnessed last year that he was not enough to win MLS Cup.

        Cummings can’t even stay healthy.

        I know we beat the stuffing out of DC but they are awful. If we stand pat I think we risk not having enough firepower, and only having the same bunch of depth forwards we had as last year, which proved not enough.

        I’d make a move, and if we have to trade or cut someone like Camargo to do it, so be it. This team has some talent where if you got in 2-3 more pieces it could beat LA. But as it stands you can’t run out our same team (give or take Driver, who I do like) against them plus some new DP and expect an improved result. I felt like the weekend win was against the run of actual play…..

  6. Hurried clearance?

    I can put a ball 40 yards with 1 step to wind up. Bil Hamid had the ball rolling at him from his side and managed to shank it on the ground just 10 yards.

    How is there not an entire paragraph dedicated to how bad that was? He had all the time in the world to just blast that to the sideline or wherever he wanted.

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    • Not excusing Hamid, cuz it was a huge gaffe, but these guys are professionals. They can likely do stuff with the ball us normal peons can only dream of. They know what to do and how to do it. That said, sometimes in sports weird sh*t happens. Sometimes inexplicably, and generally enhancing us viewers’ overall entertainment. Some of the best moments in sports are mistakes. I’m just saying it’s not that unexpected that stuff like this happens every once in a while.

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    • He got caught not just flat footed but apparently unaware of where the attackers were. I could understand if it was a reaction play off a corner or something but this is a pass back situation and he seemed shocked it came back, and over-nervous considering the closest pressure was someone like the guy he delivered the ball to.

      I don’t blame the defender that is still marginal passback distance, it’s not like the attacker was so close he kicked it into his body and it deflected in. He had 6-12 yards of space and just froze.

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