As bad as United struggled to open the season, the Houston Dynamo have taken the worst of it. Like United, the Dynamo began the MLS season with high expectations, coming off of CONCACAF Champions' Cup success. Houston also had the auspicious task of defending their MLS Cup.

While the Dynamo have been unable to turn their season around, United came into Saturday night's match unbeaten in three games with wins in their last two. Before 18,078 at RFK Stadium, United extended their winning streak and compounded Houston's woes with a 2-1 victory.

The win was punctuated by Christian Gomez' return to form. Though Gomez had found net twice this season, he had been without an assist and largely unable to replicate the danger he presented to opposing defenses during last year's MVP campaign. That all changed Saturday when the Argentinean led United to victory during a phenomenal first half.

During his team's early struggles, coach Tom Soehn spoke of a lack of energy and team-wide defensive effort. United's newfound commitment to the concepts yielded tangible results against the Dynamo. Focused and determined from the start, United scored in only the fourth minute. After earning a free kick 30 yards from the goal, Christian Gomez bent his shot around Houston's wall and into the upper left corner of the net.

United appeared to have earned a penalty kick when Luciano Emilio sent Guy Kpene into the box with only defender Eddie Robinson to beat. Robinson brutally knocked Kpene to the ground, but the play was ruled to be a legal shoulder-to-shoulder challenge. Instead of allowing their frustration to manifest itself in their play, United redoubled their efforts and were rewarded with another goal.

United's offensive-minded players -- Emilio, Fred, Kpene, even Gomez -- maintained defensive pressure on Houston's midfield throughout the game and by doing so created chances for themselves. After Emilio captured a harmless-looking turnover near midfield, he passed the ball off the Gomez, who ran at the defense. Wary that Gomez would take a long-distance shot, as he had done previously in the run of play, the defense closed in on him. Gomez meticulously served a perfectly weighted ball through the cracks of the defense for Ben Olsen, who one-timed his blast past Onstad.

The second goal was a huge boost for United, and was indicative of several improvements in their play over the last month. The aforementioned team-wide defensive effort contributed to the goal, as did Gomez' recovery of his creativity. We have to give credit to Brian Carroll as well. Without his improved play in the back of the midfield, Olsen would not have been able to sustain the offensive positioning he employed for most of Saturday.

After the game, Soehn iterated an age-old soccer cliche.

A two-goal lead is a dangerous lead coming out of halftime. It gives you the idea that you think you're fine; you've got cushion, but that's a tough lead.

In addition to the disarming sense of security the winning team feels, that lead often leads to a desperate attack from the losing team. This is just what happened during the second half.

Houston's pressure earned them several chances. They found success along the wings; second half sub Corey Ashe's play on the left wing posed a serious threat to United. The speedy rookie sent several crosses into the box, but none were successfully converted.

Brian Ching's headers had been ineffective for most of the day and the U.S. International had been bothered all night by Bobby Boswell's man-marking. Even so, Josh Gros couldn't take the chance of letting perfectly placed cross get to the 6'1" Hawaiian in the 71st minute. Gros' hand ball earned him a yellow card and gave Houston a PK.

Troy Perkins, who gave a solid effort throughout the night, had his biggest moment on the Penalty. Perkins stared down Houston standout Dwayne De Rosario and flung himself to his right, blocking the blast with authority. After the ball was cleared for a corner, Perkins slammed the goalpost with both hands, letting forth a battle cry of bravado. To our knowledge, it was the first PK he's stopped in his MLS career. His phenomenal stop would be negated just a minute later when De Rosario latched onto a ball in the box and scored.

United was able to withstand the Dynamo's subsequent attacks. This was due in part to the tactical substitutions of Soehn. Clyde Simms replaced Fred in the 77th, and was effective at maintaining possession, particularly in the attacking half. Rod Dyachenko's first appearance of the year in the 89th minute (replacing Gomez) energized the team and took some of the pressure off of their defense.

United deserved the three points they received Saturday night, even though the Dynamo had their chances. The Dynamo are a struggling team, but they are still the MLS champions and employ some of the best players in the league; the quality of the win should not be understated. United will try and extend their winning streak to four games next Saturday when they visit Landon Donovan and the Galaxy. United's players will likely have last year's 5-2 thrashing at RFK on their minds. We'll see if they can return the favor.