Geoff Cameron

2009 Quarterfinals: Geoff Cameron unanimous choice as Player of the Round

July 21, 2009 by

Houston Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron’s two goal performance for his club earned him the TheCup.us Player of the Round for the Quarterfinals. Just four days shy of his 24th birthday, Cameron netted the game-winning header 16 minutes into the match, and rounded out the scoring on another header in the 73rd minute as the Houston Dynamo defeated the Charleston Battery 4-0 to move onto the Semifinals against the Seattle Sounders.

Voters rewarded Cameron’s stand out performance with a unanimous vote for Player of the Round, while Charleston Battery’s Mike Ambersely earned runner-up honors in an almost unanimous vote, losing one vote to Sounders goalkeeper Kasey Keller, who finished in third.

Cameron joined the Houston Dynamo in 2008 as a third round draft pick (42nd overall) and quickly developed into a pivotal member of Houston’s defense. He saw action in 23 matches in 2008 – with eight starts – and was nominated for the 2008 MLS Rookie of the Year Award. Along with the Rookie of the Year nomination, his consistent play earned him a call-up to the U.S. Mens National Team Training Camp in January 2009, where he unfortunately sustained a hamstring injury on the second day. In 2009, Cameron has started all 17 matches he has played in, and has one assist.

The Player of the Round is selected by the staff of TheCup.us and members of the North American Soccer Reporters, a group that consists of members of print, television, radio and online media. More information about the NASR can be found at www.soccerreporters.com.

2009 Quarterfinals: Dynamo purge two years of Open Cup frustration; thrash Charleston 4-0

July 7, 2009 by

Blackbaud Stadium – Charleston, SC
Match Reports: Charleston | Houston | Post and Courier | Houston Chronicle

	0	FT	4
				16’ Geoff Cameron (Hayden) 47’ Bobby Boswell (Hayden) 52’ Dominic Oduro (Unassisted) 73’ Geoff Cameron (Mullan)

After defeating the Austin Aztex 2-0 at Nelson Field in Austin last week, the Dynamo travelled again to face another USL First Division opponent in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, this time going up against the Charleston Battery. For the second straight week, the Dynamo would win by a shutout. This time, doubling their output from the previous round, beating the Battery 4-0 in a Quarterfinal match at a rain-soaked Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.

It was a bit of revenge for the Dynamo, who have been eliminated from the tournament by the Battery in each of the last two years, with both games being played at Blackbaud Stadium. In 2007, Stephen Armstrong scored a goal in extra time to sink Houston and last year, the Dynamo scored a late equalizer, but were knocked out in penalty kicks by the hosts. The 2009 edition

For the Dynamo it only took 16 minutes to put a goal on the board as Geoff Cameron would score on a header off a John Michael Hayden corner kick to put the Dynamo up 1-0. The Battery nearly drew level in the 37th minute when Randi Patterson’s pass played Chris Williams into the box, but Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall came off his line to smother the shot.

But any momentum the Battery may have been carrying into the second half was quickly snuffed out when Houston’s John Michael Hayden played a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box to the far post that Bobby Boswell knocked home to put the Dynamo up 2-0 just two minutes into the second half. Fifteen minutes later, the Dynamo would widen the lead when Dominic Oduro’s blast from 20 yards out slipped just inside the far post past diving goalkeeper Dusty Hudock, to make it 3-0. Geoff Cameron would complete the scoring with his second goal when he headed in a Brian Mullen cross in the 73rd minute to give the Dynamo a 4-0 victory.

With the win, the Dynamo advance to the Semifinals for the first time since their inaugural season in 2006. There they will travel to Tukwila, WA to face the Seattle Sounders on July 21 with a spot in the championship game on the line. Seattle defeated the Kansas City Wizards in the Quarterfinals on a Sebastian Le Toux penalty kick in the 89th minute.