Thanks to late heroics from Brian Ching, the Houston Dynamo defeated FC Dallas 4-1 to advance to the Western Conference finals on a 4-2 aggregate score.

A minute into the game, Dwayne De Rosario appeared to have equalized the series, but he was ruled offside after poking the ball in during a goalmouth scramble.

The Dynamo continued to dominate the play until, against the run of play, Carlos Ruiz doubled the lead for Dallas. A cross from Bobby Rhine was headed back across by Kenny Cooper to Ruiz, who one-timed it into the upper corner.

In the 25th minute, Steve Morrow was forced to replace keeper Dario Sala with Ray Burse after the Argentinean netminder was injured.

Ruiz's goal did not demoralize the Dynamo, however, as they continued to pressure Burse throughout the half, but were unable to find a goal in the first period.

The entire series changed, though, less than a minute into the second half when Arturo Alvarez was sent off for kneeing Brad Davis in the groin after the ball had gone out of play.

Once a man up, Dominic Kinnear brought on Stuart Holden and Joseph Ngwenya to give the Dynamo a more attacking look.

The subs soon paid off when Holden was able to grab the equalizer in the 67th minute. Ryan Cochrane played a long ball that allowed Ching to head into the path of Holden, who volleyed into the lower left corner.

Five minutes later, Ching equalized on aggregate for Houston. De Rosario played a seeing eye ball that split the Dallas backline and Ching was able to slot over a sliding Burse.

Houston wanted to win the match in regulation and they pushed for the decisive goal, but Burse was more than up to the task when he stopped attempts from Brad Davis, De Rosario, and Ching.

In the fourth minute of overtime, Davis nearly took the lead for the Dynamo when his curling shot hit the crossbar.

The defending champs were not to be denied, though, when Ching tallied his second of the match less than a minute later. After a defensive mix-up inside of the box, a bouncing ball found Ching, who powered the ball past a helpless Burse.

Davis sealed the game for Houston in the 100th minute. After Drew Moor fouled Ngwenya, the youngster smashed the free kick into the upper left corner to ensure Houston's victory.

Scoring
DAL - Carlos Ruiz 1 (Kenny Cooper, Bobby Rhine) 14'
HOU - Stuart Holden 1 (Brian Ching, Ryan Cochrane) 67'
HOU - Brian Ching 1 (Joseph Ngwenya, Dwayne De Rosario) 72'
HOU - Brian Ching 2 (Joseph Ngwenya) 97'
HOU - Brad Davis 1 100'

Line-ups
HOU- Pat Onstad; Craig Waibel (Stuart Holden 48'), Ryan Cochrane, Eddie Robinson, Wade Barrett, Brian Mullan, Dwayne De Rosario, Richard Mulrooney, Brad Davis, Nate Jaqua (Joseph Ngwenya 61'), Brian Ching

DAL - Dario Sala (Ray Burse 25'); Alex Yi, Drew Moor, Adrian Serioux (Dominic Oduro 80'), Chris Gbandi, Arturo Alvarez, Denílson (Pablo Ricchetti 50'), Bobby Rhine, Juan Toja, Kenny Cooper, Carlos Ruiz