Luis Angel Landin And The Dynamo Show DC United Who's Boss

It was a display of speed, and a little Luis Angel Landin on Saturday night, as the Houston Dynamo cruised to comfortable of 2-0 victory over DC United. The victory keeps the Dynamo in second place in the Western Conference, tied with the San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake.

As has been the case this year, the Dynamo jumped out on top with an early goal; this time from first-time starter Danny Cruz. The second-year midfielder found the back of the net in the 10th minute. Luis Angel Landin found the young Cruz making a late run from his right, and shot the ball to the opposite post to beat United keeper Troy Perkins.

The goal was not especially sweet for Cruz, who scored his first-ever
MLS goal on his first MLS start. “It’s great for me. I’m more happy for
the team; we needed that win,” he said. “It was real important to get
three points and jump up the table depending on all the results, and now
we have to look forward to Philadelphia next week.”

Head coach
Dominic Kinnear decided to start Cruz because of his performance last
week against RSL, and his training from the past week. “I just felt he
deserved a chance to start and play from the beginning. Sometimes it
works out and sometimes it doesn’t, and I think he took full opportunity
and looked dangerous from the beginning.”

Landin got into assist
mode again in the 55th minute, this time feeding Dominic Oduro for the
second goal. Landin made a run on the right side of the goal, when he
cut the ball back to Dominic Oduro. The Ghanaian striker volleyed the
ball on the first touch to score the team’s second goal.

The Dynamo
are still in the thick of things for positioning in the standings,
sitting in second behind first-place LA Galaxy in the West. Kinnear was
happy with the play of his young players, such as Cruz and goalkeeper
Tally Hall — regular Pat Onstad was away with the Canadian national team
for a game against Argentina in Buenos Aires.

“Some teams jumped
ahead of us in the standings, and this is the time to keep pace. The
first 20 minutes we were excellent, good tempo, and the heat kind of
grabbed both teams for a bit. Overall just happy with the way we played
tonight.”

The Dynamo next host the expansion Philadelphia Union on
May 29 at Robertson Stadium.