Chivas USA Notes (0-3 Loss vs. DC United, The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA, 9/10/11)
 
·         Carson, CA – Chivas USA kicked off this Saturday night the final stretch of the season with only seven games left in their schedule after the Labor Day weekend lay-off at The Home Depot Center. DC United was in town and the feel of a playoff game was in the air. This was the first time the Goats squared off against DCU, as well as the first of two matches in ten days vs. United. This was a must win match for the Red and White, especially against a team with whom they’re battling for the final playoff position. A crowd of 12,245 were on hand for the match, amongst the contingency of fans tonight there was a numerous amount of Military, Firefighters, Police Officers, Paramedics, and EMT personnel whom were honored with free entrance to The Home Depot Center in lieu of the 10th anniversary of the attacks on America of 9/11. Unfortunately this game was just not meant to be for the Goats as they would fall by a final score of 3-0 on a hat trick from DC United Forward Charlie Davies.
·         The scoreboard would open up early for DCU as Forward Charlie Davis would drop the first of what would turn out to be a hot trick this evening for the New Hampshire native in the 11th minute with assists from Forward Dwayne De Rosario and Midfielder Chris Pontius.
·         Pontius and Davies would hook up again just three minutes later in the 14th minute for Charlie’s second goal of the match. And one last time to complete the hat trick for Davies in the 66th minute in the second period repeating the tandem of the first goal of assists from De Rosario and Pontius to Charlie Davis.
·         The opportunities came few and far in between for the Rojiblancos. In the first half, recently acquired Columbian striker Juan Pablo Angel had a couple of shots at goal that would just not convert tonight for the Goats. And although the Goats seemed to dominate possession of the ball in the second half and have several approaches the Red and White were just unable to get anything good going in their favor.
·         There was a couple of misconduct cards handed out in tonight’s match. The first a yellow for Chivas USA Columbian Forward Juan Pablo Angel in the 29th minute for a reckless tackle, and the second a red, to Brazilian Chivas USA Defender David Junior Lopes. For what was deemed a serious foul play on a powerful collision just about midfield between Lopes and United Midfielder Chris Pontius. Junior a 6ft 3in 190lb back collided at full speed as he was reaching for the ball with the 6ft 168lb Yorba Linda native Pontius. The clash would be so hard that the sound would eco around the stadium and would result in a badly bruised knee for Lopes but a more serious injury would be the result for Pontius, as he was carried off the field by medical personnel. A team Dr would mention that it did not look good. Although he will be reevaluated with an MRI, at simple examination it would appear to be a break in the right fibula or possibly tibia.   
·         Chivas USA’s loss tonight puts their record at 7-11-10 with 31 points, keeping the Goats in seventh place in the Western Conference and quite possibly out of the playoffs at this point. The Red and White look to keep their hope of the playoffs as they hit the road yet again for the final road trip of the season, taking an East Coast swing with stops in the Windy City first next Saturday September 17 as they match up with Chicago Fire and newly acquired Mexican Superstar Midfielder Pavel Pardo at Toyota Park. Kickoff is set for 1 pm (Pacific Time), and will be broadcast on TV through KDOC-TV and Telefutura, and Radio on 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 the game: “The disappointing part is that we didn’t give ourselves a chance, meaning, so early in the game, to give up goals on simple turnovers that lead to goals is just unacceptable. When we’re chasing the game 2-0, from there on end, we have a lot of possession but we’re still not as dangerous as we need to be. Then we get to the second half, and end up giving up another goal by counterattack, tackles being missed, lots of individual small things leading to goals and that’s not good enough.”
 
On moving forward: “One approach is to close the door on it and say it was a bad day and move on, but I’m a little to practical for that. A lot of it, we just have to look at ourselves and look at what mistakes we’ve made and be able to commit to making the same kind of mistakes. At the end of the day, if you give team goals, you are making it really difficult for yourself and I thought the goals we gave away today we’re incredibly soft. We have to be honest in our assessment, we have to be honest with our analysis of the choices we make with the ball and the choices we make without the ball and we have to get better from it. It really doesn’t matter if we played well in this game and the other game, at the end of the day, we all get points and if we don’t get points, it’s not good enough.”
     
·         CHIVAS USA – Forward Juan Pablo Angel
On making the playoffs now: “All the things that we needed to do today we didn’t do them.  We were playing for a chance to be in the playoffs and this was a team that we needed to beat, especially at home.  We weren’t up to the standard that we required to beat this team and win this game.”
·         CHIVAS USA – Captain-Midfielder Simon Elliot
On the teams’ preparation: “We always talk about the right things, we always work on the right things, practice the right things. So to have a great opportunity like this and not execute this again is very disappointing.”
 
On how the team is currently performing: “There are tough weeks and there are good weeks, and that’s part of the business. You have to come in and be consistent, you’re not going to win every game, and you certainly don’t want to lose every game like we did tonight.”
 
·         DC UNITED – Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the match overall: “Putting aside [the injury], it’s a pretty darn good effort from the guys.  For being out three weeks without real game action it was a pretty good performance.  I thought we started out very good.  We worked on running in behind, and I thought our movement was good.  I saw Charlie Davies back today, which is a great sign for the club.  Dwayne [De Rosario] was himself, just making big time plays.  And the defense [did well] in getting a shutout.  It was overall a good night for us.”
 
On Chris Pontius: “No, [there’s no early prognosis].  He’s in a lot of pain.  He’s a pretty tough kid.  I’m hoping for the best, but we’ll see.”
 
On whether he saw “malice” in the tackle: “Not really, no. Although, I will say, that wasn’t the first time Lopes was in the mix on some hard challenges.  I don’t want to comment on it because it was on the other side from our benches.”
 
·         DC UNITED – Forward Charlie Davies
 
On his mentality going into the game: “This past week after the break did a lot for me.  I was able to really clear my mind, get fit, and this whole week I’ve worked really hard.  I finally felt one hundred percent mentally and one hundred percent physically, and I hadn’t felt like that in a long time.  So I knew I was ready for this game.  I wanted to come out with a bang; it kind of felt like my first game.  Kudos to the guys for finding me.  [De Rosario] was really harping on me being a hard worker and making my runs and it showed today.”
 
On the goals: “Obviously being a striker when you get a goal things start to open up for you.  Fortunately Chris [Pontius] made some great runs to get the ball in behind and basically gave me tap-ins.  That made me more confident.  I made a lot of deep runs to help stretch the team and it paid off.”
 
On the importance of the result: “We know the playoffs are nine games away.  We want to be in the top three, forget the wild card.  The push starts now.  We know this was a very important game.  Chivas has 31 points, we had 31 points.  We came out and showed that if we work hard we’re a very tough team to play against.  We just got to keep it going and make sure we stay healthy, that’s the biggest thing.  Hopefully Chris [Pontius] isn’t injured too bad and he’s back on the field, because I think this new look offense we have is very tough to deal with.”
 
 
·         DC UNITED – Midfielder Santino Quaranta
 
On what worked: “We were confident with our front four or five guys that we were better than their backs.  We thought we could get at them.  The energy was good and the partnerships we created were pretty good.  We wound up scoring goals and that makes the game a lot easier. [Sometimes] you come out and you’re all over a team but you don’t score and you keep them in it.”
 
On the importance of the victory: “Critical going in to next week.  You play a little bit looser, a little bit freer.  We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing to win games.  It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of energy and scoring goals.”
 
 
Chivas USA (7-11-10) vs. DC United (8-7-10)
September 10th 2011- The Home Depot Center
Scoring Summary:
DC — Charlie Davies 9 (Chris Pontius 3, Dwayne De Rosario 9) 11
DC — Charlie Davies 10 (Chris Pontius 4) 14
DC — Charlie Davies 11 (Chris Pontius 5, Dwayne De Rosario 10) 66
Misconduct Summary:
CHV — Juan Pablo Angel (caution; Reckless Tackle) 29
CHV — David Junior Lopes (ejection; Serious Foul Play) 69
Lineups:
D.C. United — Bill Hamid, Perry Kitchen, Brandon McDonald, Ethan White, Daniel Woolard, Andy Najar, Clyde Simms (Stephen King 46), Santino Quaranta (Austin Da Luz 62), Chris Pontius (Marc Burch 73), Dwayne De Rosario, Charlie Davies.
Substitutes Not Used: Kurt Morsink, Joseph Ngwenya, Josh Wolff, Joe Willis.
 
Chivas USA — Dan Kennedy, Ben Zemanski, Michael Umana, David Junior Lopes, Ante Jazic, Blair Gavin (Michael Lahoud 73), Nick LaBrocca, Simon Elliott, Jorge Flores (Laurent Courtois 62), Justin Braun (Alejandro Moreno 57), Juan Pablo Angel.
Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Boyens, Marcos Mondaini, Zarek Valentin, Zach Thornton.
Referee: Ricardo Salazar
Referee’s Assistants: Craig Lowry; Corey Parker
4th Official: Ramon Hernandez
Attendance: 12,245
Time of Game: 1:40
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 69 degrees
cdhivasusa.com