It was a memorable year for ex-Zag

That Brian Ching won Major League Soccer’s distinction for Goal of the Year was hardly a surprise.

But how did they pick which one?

There was the shootout penalty kick that made the Houston Dynamo champions of MLS. Or the overtime header that tied the title match against New England at 1-1 and sent it to a shootout. Or any of the remarkable four goals he scored in the team’s Houston debut.

But of course the one that couldn’t be topped for sheer degree- of-difficulty was Ching’s whiplash bicycle kick that beat D.C. United and clinched a playoff berth – and especially impressed his wife, Charisse.

“I didn’t think you could do that,” she told her husband.

Sounds like an epitaph for a season.

Since he left Gonzaga University in 2000, he’s grown into an MLS All-Star and made the U.S. national team, but letting go of 2006 may be the challenge of Ching’s career.

Most valuable player of the MLS Cup, an all-star game victory over Chelsea, a trip to Germany for the World Cup with the U.S. team and baptizing a new soccer market in a major-league way – Ching crammed the memories of a soccer lifetime into a single season.

“I set out to achieve a goal in this game, a big goal,” said Ching, who was in Spokane over the weekend for a jersey retirement ceremony at Gonzaga, “and I attained it. That’s forced me over the past couple of months to set new goals – and I’ve struggled with that. I didn’t know what else I wanted to accomplish.”

For the moment, he’s settled on something easily articulated: more. More consistency in his game, a more prominent role on the national team. Perhaps, down the line, more rings.

The national team aspect will have to wait a bit. The U.S. team launches training camp this week for an exhibition next month against Mexico, but Ching declined an invitation to further rehabilitate a knee that required surgery last August.

Instead, he’ll start a slower buildup to the Dynamo’s second season in Houston, understanding that expectations may be off the charts after a storybook first season.

It was about this time a year ago when Ching and his teammates with the San Jose Earthquake learned the franchise was being moved to Houston. Then before the season, there was a furor when team ownership at first announced the team’s nickname as “1836,” upsetting many Hispanics who related the date to Texas’ war for independence from Mexico. Lease negotiations with the University of Houston for Robertson Stadium were also a political football.

At least a good first impression was made on the field – thanks largely to Ching, who had four goals in a 5-2 victory over Colorado.

“It was something surreal at the time,” he admitted. “I’d never scored four goals in any game to that point – I don’t know what got into me. And I didn’t realize the impact it would have on the fans.”

Nearly 19,000 fans a game would watch the Dynamo over the course of the season, with two raucous rooting groups – the Texian Army and El Batallon – becoming a motivating force. For many, Ching was the face of the franchise – even when he missed stretches for the World Cup (he didn’t see any game action) and because of his knee injury, and went nearly two months without a goal.

Then came the defining moments – ending with the title match miracle, when New England scored in overtime and he answered just 71 seconds later.

“That’s the thing about being a forward,” he laughed. “You don’t have to play particularly well all game, but if you’re in the right spot at the right moment you turn out to be the hero.”

And amazingly, with the game on the line in the shootout, Ching calmed himself by reflecting on the bigger picture.

“It had been tremendously disheartening to fall behind and, to tell you the truth, I didn’t think we were going to come back,” he said. “The shootout was really not that nerve- wracking by comparison. Before I stepped up to the spot I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this has been a pretty good year regardless of whether this goes in or not.’ It made it easy to finish.”

Ching has a handle on perspective. After his MLS rookie year in 2001, he was cut by the Los Angeles Galaxy and wound up playing the next season with Seattle in the USL First Division – not exactly a recipe for stardom.

But it turned out to be a watershed moment.

“I’d been thrown in as a starter my first game and wasn’t ready for it,” he recalled. “Our team went down 3-0 in the first half and we’d all played bad, but I was a rookie and got pulled out. It took me all year to get my confidence back, but by then it was too late. But I learned from it and carried it through that year with Seattle and the next with San Jose and kept progressing.

“You could say if not for that year, I wouldn’t be here – I wouldn’t have accomplished what I have.”

Including the bicycle kick?

“I have to admit, I’ve watched it a couple of times in the offseason,” he said.

Turns out he wasn’t sure he could do that, either.