USL Feature
Friday, November 18, 2011
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
At the start of the Major League Soccer season, not many people envisioned the Houston Dynamo being in the MLS Cup Final.
According to Dynamo forward Brian Ching, that sentiment was also felt by people within the club.
“Nobody gave us a chance, we probably didn’t give ourselves a chance at the beginning of the year, to actually bring home the cup,” Ching said by phone last week. “It was always our goal to make the playoffs and win the cup, but realistically at the beginning of the year if you’d said we’d be in the final with a chance to win it all, not many of us would have believed you.”
That the Dynamo will face the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday night at the Home Depot Center says a lot about the club, its coach Dominic Kinnear, and a group of players that has rapidly come together to put in an impressive late-season run to win the Eastern Conference, upsetting Sporting Kansas City to do so.
And while Ching hasn’t had his finest season, should he win his fourth MLS Cup, it would go down as the most special of them all.
“To win this one will probably be the most special, because I’m a captain on a young team, a team that has struggled throughout the year, a team that is kind of maturing and has come into its own over the past two months,” Ching said.
Ching, of course, has been a model of dedication and perseverance throughout his 11-year career. After winning USL PDL Rookie of the Year honors with the Spokane Shadow while attending Gonzaga, and being drafted by the Galaxy in 2001, it took a spell in the USL First Division with the Seattle Sounders for Ching to find the confidence he needed to become a consistent force in MLS.
“I think for me my first year in L.A., mentally I don’t think I was prepared for such a big jump, and I struggled with confidence,” Ching said of his early professional experience. “I went back down to Seattle, where I could play in games and was getting opportunities on the field and was able to mature as a player, to gain that confidence in myself and my abilities, and that really took me a long way as far as the next time I got back in [MLS].”
While Ching regained his confidence in his game, the Galaxy still released him after the 2001 season. But that proved to be a blessing for Ching, who continued his strong play after signing with the Sounders and earned All-League honors as Seattle finished top of the Pacific Division in the regular season.
“I think that really prepared me, just in the sense that it allowed me to gain confidence in myself and learn that I needed that at the next level,” Ching said. “That’s probably one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned was just that confidence in myself and belief in myself that I gained over those two years playing games in Seattle.”
That belief, and the desire to continue proving himself year-in and year-out, remains a major motivator for Ching. Despite his 45 appearances for the U.S. Men’s National Team, his 11 goals, and his previous MLS Cup victories, Ching continues to try to prove himself.
“I always felt like I was never good enough to be where I was and that kind of forced me to work that extra hard week-in and week-out, day-in and day-out, just trying to prove to myself that I belong and I’m a good player,” Ching said. “I look back and it still doesn’t hit me sometimes the amount that I have accomplished, and part of that’s good, that’s what keeps driving me, that’s what makes me want to work harder day-in and day-out.”
Something else Ching reflects on? How far the league has come since he was drafted 10 years ago. With the Dynamo set to open their new stadium next year, something Ching believes will open up a number of major opportunities for the club, and the growth of the league in all areas, Ching is pleased to have been able to play in an era where this transition took place.
“To see it grow to what it is now is pretty special,” Ching said. “There’s always been the demand at the youth level for soccer, but now you’re seeing kids grow up that played soccer that are more likely to take their kids to MLS games or professional soccer games, and it’s pretty cool to see. When you look at all these franchises coming into the league, Seattle, Toronto, Portland, Vancouver, and you see the excitement and new teams getting stadiums like us, Kansas City, Red Bull Arena, it’s hard not to feel like soccer is on a big upswing here and people are finally getting it, finally appreciating it.
“Hopefully it’s not done growing, hopefully we can continue to get a lot more fans out to games and continue to see the growth. … Just to be in the era when you’re seeing soccer start to take off is pretty special to see.”
Almost as special as Ching’s journey in professional soccer continues to be.