Chivas USA Notes (3-2 ‘W’ vs. New England Revolution, Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA, 8/06/11)
 
·         Foxboro, MA – On an overcast evening in Massachusetts, there was a feeling of some kind of storm brewing in the air and all though the rain would never arrive in the form of water it would in the form of GOALS! A total of five to be exact, three for the visiting Chivas USA and two for the home team, the New England Revolution. This win not only puts the Goats right back into the mix of things looking forward to the playoffs, but also extends their winning streak against the Revs to 5 games, dating back to the 2009 season.
 
·         With the three points earned tonight Chivas USA now total 29 crucial points to keep pace with all playoff hopefuls and contenders. The 11,523 fans on hand at Gillette Stadium were treated to a truly entertaining game of soccer this evening. It featured a wide range of contrast, from the debut of veteran 32 year old Frenchman Forward Laurant Courtois for the Red and White entering in the match as a sub for midfielder Jorge Flores in the 66th minute to the first ever appearance in MLS of 16 year old and instant sensation Diego Fagundez also in the 66th minute for Zack Schilawski.
 
·         Chivas USA broke the scoreless tie in the 31st minute with a goal from Alejandro Moreno, whom recently arrived from national team duty with his native Venezuela for Copa America, assisted by Nick LaBrocca and Simon Elliott. The Goats enjoyed this lead through halftime and would add an unassisted second goal by All Star Midfielder Nick LaBrocca in the 59th minute, which ties LaBrocca with Justin Braun as team leading goal scorers with 7 a piece. Oh but emotions would only rise as just 10 minutes later what seemed to look as just a dive on the replay by second half substitute Diego Fagundez and an unjust foul charged to All Star Defender Heath Pearce would become a PK for the Revs, taken by Shalrie Joseph, putting the score at 2-1 still in favor of the Goats. Alejandro Moreno would score his second goal of the match giving him a total of 5 for the season assisted by Ante Jazic and Justin Braun in the 80th minute. And just when we thought the roller coaster ride was done, 16 year-old Diego Fagundez would score his first ever MLS goal and bring the Revolution within 1 goal of the tie at 3 in the 86th minute.
 
·         Special mention is at hand for Chivas USA GK Dan Kennedy for his superb play and ability to preserve and assure Chivas USA three points. Past the 90 minute mark and already in stoppage time Kennedy would produce once again with one of his signature fine saves. As Revs Captain Midfielder Shalrie Joseph would find some space in the area and take a shot towards the near post, that Kennedy would push onto the post to ensure and deny the score.
This ‘W’ takes the Goats to a 7-8-8 MLS record with 29 points, which sustains them in sixth place in the Western Conference. The Red and White now move on to part III of a five piece consecutive road show as they travel to the Emerald State and face Western Conference foes Seattle Sounders in an afternoon matinee on Saturday, August 13th  at CenturyLink Field (formally Qwest Field). The match kicks off at 1:00 pm PT, and will broadcast on Prime Ticket and KWHY Channel 22 as well as W Radio 690 AM. For information on the game, please visit cdchivasusa.com
 
THE WORD FROM THE TEAMS:
 
·         CHIVAS USA – HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
 
On playin with confidence… “At times when we played and played with confidence we were good and were able to play through them, but too many instances when we didn’t look confident and ended up doing a lot of defending. Obviously we’re happy to get the points and happy to get the points on the road, but we have to be better. Great finishes. The goal sequences were very good. I thought a lot of the play that lead to some of the dangerous chances was excellent. So at times, it was exactly what you said. We seemed to have a good run of play whenever we wanted it. So for us, we just have to continue to get better and better and play with more confidence, but we’re very happy for the three points but we have to keep improving”.
 
On playing under pressure… “I thought that, again, when we were confident and really wanted the ball in those pressure situations that we did well and we were able to play through it. You know, they’re a good team, they’re better than their record indicates [and] they have a lot of good players. I thought a number of their players played well tonight and it was definitely a huge challenge for us. At the end of the day we did some good things and we deserved to score the goals. But we also didn’t do some good things and are fortunate not to have given up some more goals. So we’re happy to get the three points, no question, but, again, we just have to get better.
 (Diego Fagundez) didn’t take me by surprise. I just thought we didn’t defend well in situations that he was involved in. We just got out of sorts a little bit and guys just didn’t, in those particular situations, we didn’t defend well. We started off poorly and we put ourselves under a lot of pressure early and the fact that we got through that period without giving up a goal was huge and then we were able to find some possession and then the game became back and forth. But, we were fortunate to get out of the first couple of minutes without giving something up”.
 
On Simon Elliott’s role… “He has been extremely important. I think he’s added a measure of calm and composure in otherwise hectic situations and I think he’s been able to help kind of set the tone for our team sometimes. We’re a young team that certainly has our ups and downs and I think that he has been able to provide us some stability at times. It’s very important that we get this result and we come out of this with some confidence and feel that we can get some results on the road”.
 
·         CHIVAS USA – MIDFIELDER ALEJANDRO MORENO

General toughs on the match… “Well, I thought that at times we had pretty good sequences together; we were able to create some chances and take advantage of those chances and score three goals on the road. Perhaps we didn’t close the game the way we would have wanted to, but in the end we grabbed three points that are very important to us”.
 
On his goals… “The first goal – a great pass by Nick (LaBrocca) – behind the defenders, a difficult ball to defend and I just tried to get behind the centerback and try to put the ball in the back of the net and I was able to do that. The second goal, it was a good sequence for us, we put some passes together; good crossing”.
 
On closing the game… “I think it was more of us not taking care of the situation that should have been taken care of defensively. We got a little bit disorganized at the end of the game and we not able to close out the game the way we would have wanted to. Our organization was not what we needed it to be and regardless of who was on the field we needed to do better. That’s something that we’ve talked about and addressed already and hopefully it will get better for next week. I think managing the game in the last 10, 20 minutes. It’s important to have the ball; it’s important to pressure in the right spots and be able to keep the ball when we have it. We were just not good enough at times. That is something we’ll work on. But in the end, three points and that’ something that makes this trip back to LA a little bit better”.
 
·         CHIVAS USA – MIDFILEDER NICK LABROCCA
 
On the teams play in general… “Those were the three points we needed. I don’t think we’re happy with our performance, especially closing the game out. We had a couple leads and we let them back into the game and we made it a little too interesting. And obviously had to rely on some great saves from Dan (Kennedy) tonight and you don’t really want to do that. It’s always great to get three points on the road”.
 
On his play… “I’m not entirely happy with how I played, but just glad I could contribute to the team and help with them putting some goals on the scoreboard … I don’t think I was sharp enough in those crucial moments, which gives me something to think about and something to focus on next time”.
 
·         CHIVAS USA – GOAL KEEPER DAN KENNEDY
 
On making the saves… “Definitely coming into games on the road you have to expect to make some saves. The first half, really all they had was set pieces and we were giving them to them. We were giving them those opportunities. And then the game opened up at 2-nil and the ref calls a penalty kick and that changes the game; it changes the momentum of the game. I thought 2-nil, were doing a pretty damn good job of killing the game off and that was really a momentum changer. You know, from there we were fortunate enough to get another goal. Then we let them back in, but we were able to close it out and on the road, the environments you’re going to face, it’s going to get hectic. We’ve got to give us credit: we put ourselves in a tough situation but we dealt with it in a way that we were able to get three points.
 
On the PK… “Well what changed the game was the penalty kick. After looking at it on the replay, I thought it was a clear dive. So I don’t know. I’d have to see it again to be sure”.
 
On how they feel on the road… “Yeah, we feel very confident and very comfortable on the road. So, we go to Seattle next week and we’re going to play in a little bit bigger atmosphere, but it’ll be a synthetic pitch so it’ll be the same type of hectic game I suspect. Hopefully we can build on this result”.
 
·         NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION – HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
 
On the goals… “The goals we gave away were atrocious, bottom line. We could’ve scored seven ourselves. I could have been standing here with a 6- or 7-3 victory; instead we lose 3-2. We go in at halftime one down; we should have been two up. And again we come in at the end 3-2 down and we could have been 5, 6-3. The three goals were atrocious. I’ll always defend the players, but occasionally when your defense gives up goals like that, there’s no hiding place. The goals were atrocious. And really, defensively, we let down the rest of the team tonight. We made some great chances – fantastic chances when you think about when we should’ve scored – and we’ve lost again”.
 
“We should’ve been two up. But we never took them, and then we give them a terrible goal, and we’re going in down at halftime. We know we’re going to make more chances, but we have to make sure defensively when we’re going forward we’re filling the holes, and that’s what we didn’t do. As much as the two goals had a couple of ricochets, the source of the problem was when we were actually attacking the other penalty box. We need to fill the holes in behind so that when the ball is knocked out and we’re defending, we’re either winning the next ball or making it difficult for them to get out. And we didn’t do that well enough and that’s why we lost the three goals. That’s what I’m talking about with the three goals. We certainly pressured them. But we said before the game we knew we were going to make chances tonight. We felt we were better than Chivas, but we had to make sure that when we went forward, we filled in the gaps, filled in the holes behind the guys going forward. And we didn’t do that. You end up getting balls knocked out of the opposition’s penalty area and because we don’t fill the holes in and everyone’s having to run 60, 70 yards to make a last-ditch tackles or to defend a corner”.
 
On Diego Fagundez… “We were hoping to get a spark (from Diego Fagundez). We had thoughts about playing him at some stage tonight anyway because he’s been doing great in training. He just likes to play, you can see his enthusiasm. It looks like he’s got a footballer’s brain. So it was a no-brainer to get him on. He did a fantastic job – he gets the penalty, he gets the goal: what more can you ask for? It’s all timing. Things have settled for (Diego Fagundez) tonight. We were obviously getting everything forward early so it was a good time to come on. Starting the game might be a little bit not there yet, but as you can see, he wants to play. He’s done everything to get a game and it’s been a great night for him”.
 
·         NEW ENGLAND MIDFIELDER DIEGO FAGUNDEZ
 
On his debut in the MLS… “Probably a little bit (nervous), but not too bad. Once I got the first ball, the nerves just went away”.
 
On the penalty kick… “Benny (Feilhaber) slotted the ball to me and I faked the pass into the middle and just took (the defender) one on the. The guy just caught me from behind and I just went down. I’m glad we scored on that (play). I was really excited for that (penalty kick). That proved that I helped the team a little bit, and then when I scored that, it helped a lot”.
 
On scoring his first MLS goal… “Kevin Alston played it over the top. Shalrie (Joseph) was about to head it and I just said ‘leave it,’ and the ball bounced and I put my body around a player. Right when the ‘keeper came out and I shot lefty and the ball went in.
When I saw the ball go into the net, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ The first thing I did was a heart (with my hands) to my family that’s standing in the club seats”.
 
On the coach calling his number… “Right there, I was like, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe this.’ (I was) really excited when he told me that. (The) First thing I thought was ‘I’m going to have to try and help the team score a goal,’ and I did. I thought we were going to come back in the last 10 minutes. We attacked the whole time, and then they probably had a couple of chances. We defended (well) and when we attacked, we were dangerous in the box.
           
Chivas USA (7-8-8) vs. New England Revolution (4-9-10)
 
August 6th 2011- Gillette Stadium
Scoring Summary:
CHV — Alejandro Moreno 4 (Nick LaBrocca 4, Simon Elliott 2) 31
CHV — Nick LaBrocca 7 (unassisted) 59
NE — Shalrie Joseph 7 (penalty kick) 69
CHV — Alejandro Moreno 5 (Ante Jazic 6, Justin Braun 4) 80
NE — Diego Fagundez 1 (Kevin Alston 2) 86
Misconduct Summary:
CHV — Dan Kennedy (caution; Dissent) 70
Lineups:
Chivas USA — Dan Kennedy, Zarek Valentin, Michael Umana, Heath Pearce, Ante Jazic, Nick LaBrocca, Simon Elliott (Paulo Nagamura 76), Blair Gavin (Ben Zemanski 56), Jorge Flores (Laurant Courtois 66), Alejandro Moreno, Justin Braun.
Substitutes Not Used: Michael Lahoud, Francisco Mendoza, Marcos Mondaini, Zach Thornton.
New England Revolution — Matt Reis, Kevin Alston, Ryan Cochrane (Pat Phelan 82), Darrius Barnes, Zack Schilawski (Diego Fagundez 66), Stephen McCarthy, Shalrie Joseph, Chris Tierney, Benny Feilhaber, Milton Caraglio (Kenny Mansally 62), Sainey Nyassi.
Substitutes Not Used: Zak Boggs, Ryan Guy, Otto Loewy, Bobby Shuttleworth.
Referee: Mark Kadlecik
Referee’s Assistants: Craig Lowry; Corey Parker
4th Official: Daniel Fitzgerald
Attendance: 11,523
Time of Game: 1:55
Weather: Cloudy and 79 degrees
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