The Houston Dynamo posted their third win in a row and fourth straight clean sheet Saturday night at Robertson Stadium, beating a toothless FC Dallas side 1-0 on Kei Kamara’s goal in the 57th minute. Houston’s scoreless streak now stands at 403 minutes.

“In the first half, we were excellent, and in the second half, they gave a good push, but we held strong,” Houston coach Dominic Kinnear said.

“I thought our guys battled very well. It was very difficult for us to get a grip of the game or control of the ball. It was disappointing,” FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said.

Hyndman made wholesale changes after Dallas’ 2-1 loss at DC United last week. There was a new pairing in central defense of George John and Steve Purdy, and David Ferreira replaced Dax McCarty at attacking midfield. Jeff Cunningham returned to the starting lineup at forward alongside Kenny Cooper, who had been a lone striker last week.

Houston captain Wade Barrett was still out with the calf injury that he picked up in last week’s win at New England, giving Andrew Hainault his first MLS start at left back.

Houston should have gone to halftime up at least a goal, as they dominated possession, and Brian Ching put a gilt-edged chance in the 38th minute over the bar from 10 yards out. Dallas defender Blake Wagner cleared Bobby Boswell’s header off the line in the 10th minute, while Stuart Holden could have done better with an open shot from the top of the box in the 30th minute.

Houston was not playing as brightly at the start of the second half, but the winning goal came when Holden ran down a Brad Davis pass in the left corner and crossed to the far post, where Kamara leaped over Steve Purdy to head across Ray Burse for his first goal of the season.

“We talked at half time about Stuart trying to make some late runs behind their back four because their back four was playing kind of a high line,” Kinnear said.

“It was a great service. All I had to do was touch it,” Kamara said.

Kinnear said after the game that he hadn’t been concerned about Kamara’s lack of scoring so far this season.

“He’s been doing well, and the team has been doing well. I think last week was probably his best game for us in a while. As long as he’s playing well and the team’s winning, we don’t talk about (scoring),” Kinnear said.

Dynamo right winger Brian Mullan had abused Wagner most of the evening, and he blew past the defender again in the 64th minute to get a shot from the right side of the box that Burse did well to get down and parry away.

While Hyndman had publicly criticized McCarty earlier this week, it was after McCarty entered the game in the 73rd minute that the Dallas offense woke up briefly. Dallas went to a 3-5-2 formation and held possession better, leading to Cooper’s best chance of the match in the 76th minute, when he was open inside the box but shot wide right from a Ferreira pass.

“It was ugly both ways. We just played long balls back-and-forth. They had one good opportunity, and you have to give it to them because they pounced on it like a championship team,” Dallas midfielder Dave van den Bergh said.

FC Dallas was not credited with a shot on goal until Purdy headed into Pat Onstad’s arms in the 93rd minute.

After the 0-2-2 start to the season brought back memories of the slow starts in the previous two seasons, the Dynamo have again righted the ship behind a solid defense.

“I think we’ve been saying all year that we’ve been playing great soccer, even in the games we’ve tied and lost. We play good team defense. That’s our claim to fame – how hard we work,” Boswell said.

“Our preseason is totally different from anyone else. We don’t really get to train all that much. We’re playing games right off the bat [in the Champions League]. We’re finally sorting things out and getting used to guys,” Davis said.

MATCH FACTS

FC Dallas at Houston Dynamo, May 9, 2009
Robertson Stadium, Attendance: 16,932

Scoring Summary:
HOU – Kei Kamara (Stuart Holden, Brad Davis) 57

Misconduct Summary:
DAL – Blake Wagner (caution; Reckless Foul) 31
DAL – David Ferreira (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 62
HOU – Brad Davis (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 62
DAL – Kenny Cooper (caution; Reckless Foul) 75

Shots: Houston 11, Dallas 6. Shots on goal: Houston 4, Dallas 1. Fouls: Houston 9, Dallas 9. Offsides: Houston 6, Dallas 2. Corners: Houston 5, Dallas 4. Saves: Houston 1, Dallas 3.

Lineups:
Houston
G – Pat Onstad
D – Richard Mulrooney, Geoff Cameron, Bobby Boswell, Andrew Hainault
M – Brian Mullan, Ricardo Clark, Stuart Holden, Brad Davis (Corey Ashe 83)
F – Brian Ching (Ade Akinbiyi 85), Kei Kamara (Chris Wondolowski 94)

Substitutes not used – Tally Hall, Mike Chabala, Julius James, Craig Waibel

FC Dallas
G – Ray Burse
D – Drew Moor, George John, Steve Purdy, Blake Wagner (Dax McCarty 73)
M – Andre Rocha (Eric Avila 76), Marcelo Saragosa (c), David Ferreira, Dave van den Bergh
F – Jeff Cunningham (Peri Marosevic 84), Kenny Cooper

Substitutes not used – Josh Lambo, Bruno Guarda, Daniel Torres, Anthony Wallace

Houston player ratings, 1-10 scale, 10 being best

Onstad 7 – his defense made sure he had very little to do
Mulrooney 6.5 – van den Bergh did get in a few balls from the left
Boswell 7.5 – stellar against Cooper, with one exception
Cameron 7 – solid, not as noticeable going forward as in earlier games
Hainault 7 – neutralized Rocha
Mullan 7.5 – back to his Energizer Bunny ways
Clark 7.5 – helped make Ferreira invisible
Holden 7.5 – great hustle on the goal
Davis 7 – given an assist on a ball that was almost too strong for Holden (Ashe 83’ 6 one good burst behind defense)
Ching 6.5 – had to work hard against John, bad miss in 1st half (Akinbiyi 85’ 6 couldn’t get off shot on a chance in the box)
Kamara 7.5 – the goal was an easy chance, good jump to get over Purdy for it (Wondolowski 94’ NR)