Chivas USA Notes (3-0 Shutout vs. Toronto FC, The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA 9/24/11)

·       Carson, CA – On a brisk Saturday evening at The Home Depot Center in Carson before 14,357 fans, Chivas USA was poised to pick up three points. With a confident stride and focused look, the Goats faced their neighbors from the north, Toronto FC, in a battle on the pitch for their playoff hopes to stay on point! Head Coach Robin Fraser’s Rojiblancos wasted little time in taking the lead as Juan Pablo Angel would take the lead as team goal scorer as well (6 with Chivas USA and 3 for Galaxy). Fraser’s squad, who dominated in every facet of the 3-0 victory, knows the remaining games are crucial if they are to clinch a playoff spot. The Goats came out fiercely defending their home turf, from the opening whistle, the Rojiblancos consistently held possession and kept the action in their final third, as they frustrated a Reds team which appeared throughout the match to not be able to keep up with the Red and White’s attack. With this victory Chivas USA sums 35 points as they remain in 7th place and still in the hunt for a playoff berth.

·       The scoreboard opened up with a header in the 12th minute, which became Angel’s fifth goal since the Columbian forward joined Chivas USA, which began with a beautiful touch sequence down the left sideline in their final third. Justin Braun led Jazic down the line, who then found a cutting Angel inside the penalty area. The recently-acquired striker was not done lighting up the scoreboard for the night, as he slammed a right-footed shot into Toronto’s net in the 77th minute to all but put the game out of reach for the Reds. With his two goals tonight, Juan Pablo now becomes the Goats leading goal scorer for the team with a total of nine in the season thus far (6 with Chivas USA and 3 with Galaxy).

·       The Red and White took a commanding 2-0 lead in the 72nd minute when Justin Braun nailed a header goal of his own.  Marked in the right corner, defender Michael Umaña made a quick turn and centered the assist in front of the near post. 

·       Super Dan Kennedy again displayed why he has emerged as one of the top goalkeepers in MLS. His shutout tonight gives him nine on the season. Kennedy preserved the 1-0 advantage in the 54th minute with a tremendous point-blank save inside the box.  

·       Many positives came from the match this evening, including the much-needed three points for Chivas USA as they continue down the season’s home-stretch. From an offensive stand point, the acquisition of Angel has given the Red and White a new look and has made the roster all the deeper.

·       Chivas USA will start off the month of October at The Home Depot Center and the last of their three regular season games as the Philadelphia Union travel to the left coast next Sunday the 2nd. The match is set to kick off at 5:00 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 the game: “I felt that we started out very well. We were aggressive, we put ourselves into some good spots behind them and we were able to put some dangerous service in the box. I thought it was a very good start for us, getting a goal relatively early was good for our confidence. From there, I thought we were pretty solid; we had a few up’s and downs throughout the game. We bent a few times this year and broke, in and a couple of times we bent but didn’t break and we were able to re-group and come back and finish very strong. To see [the team] start a game well and finish a game well, I think, is a good statement for us at this point and the points are critical. It’s definitely what we needed.  If you look at our last several games, I think the D.C. game aside, we put ourselves in position to get points and through mistakes and broken plays; we’ve definitely let a few things slip away. To win would’ve been great, but to win convincingly is good for our confidence. Looking into our next couple of games, I think this is huge for us.”

On Juan Pablo Angel: “I think Juan is a class act as a person and as a player and I think he came here and took on this as a challenge. This is a team that obviously we needed some help, and I think that’s the impressive thing when you look at him; big-time players rise to big-time challenges. He’s come here and immediately become a leader in the team, not only in the locker room but what he’s doing on the field; when you look at him late in the game chasing balls down, his leadership has been invaluable to us. This has been a good fit for him because we are a team that genuinely appreciates and needs all of his qualities and that’s what I’m most impressed about because a lot can come into difficult situations and really not gravitate themselves and really make the team’s problems their problems and I think Juan has really adapted to us and feels like one of us. You can look at his effort and what he’s given us, it’s been fantastic. At this point, I think he’s been tremendous for him.”

On the team’s lineup tonight: “Without a doubt we’ve looked at a lot of different players, a lot of different positions, and a lot of different formations threw up in the air. I don’t think anything is edged in stone. I think there are always going to be factors, injuries, and other things but starting to look at the performance of the group tonight, I feel like it was a solid performance and that’s been something that we haven’t had. We’ve had inconsistencies from game to game, inconsistencies within games, and I felt like tonight was a really solid consistent performance, and certainly we have to look at this as a potential group to keep together.”

CHIVAS USA – FORWARD  JUAN PABLO ANGEL

On the game:  “In the last four or five games we’ve put ourselves in a difficult position, conceding goals that we should not have. Today was about getting three points. We played a very good 35 minutes. We took the foot off the pedal a little bit, but late in the second half we found the game again.”

On his performance: “I’m finding my game. I’m getting the ball more often in places that I’m good at. I know what I’ve been doing throughout my career and that has not changed. I’m here and I’m proving it again, and I’m delighted.”

On team’s playoff hopes: “The only thing we can do is control ourselves, what we do on the field. It’s late in the year but you never know what can happen. We have to give it the best try until the end of the year.”

·       CHIVAS USA – DEFENDER ANTE JAZIC

Thoughts on the game: “Overall, I thought we played well. We controlled the match from start to finish. We had a rough patch twenty minutes into the second half, but a great performance. We played well, scored three goals, defended well, and got a clean sheet. All in all, it was a good stepping stone for next week.”

 On Their Playoff Chances: “Absolutely we’re mathematically still alive. All of our games are at home so there’s no reason why we can’t win every game. If we keep playing like we did tonight with the same focus I think we will be fine.”

 

·       TORONTO FC – HEAD COACH ARON WINTER

Overall thoughts: “I think if you see the whole game, Chivas were the better team.  They made a better impression than us.  We were a little bit flat today. I think also the problem is the last weeks, we played against very strong opponents and all the travels, and we don’t have a big roster.  But it’s not good enough, we can’t bring every week the same performance that we have done [tonight].”

On moving ahead to next week: “Today we think back and analyze the game, but from tomorrow we have to be focused.  For us, the CONCACAF (Champions’ League) is a very important league where we must go further and survive.”

On how it went wrong: “We started by giving away a chance.  When they scored to go 1-0, we had the ball and we lost the ball because we were at that moment not sharp.  They’ve got a good team, they’ve got good players, and they anticipated that moment better than we did.  In the second goal, there was a foul for us, the referee didn’t give it, and then [for the third goal] we were not alert enough to take care and they scored. But it’s part of it.  It’s not nice to lose a game, but we’ve got another five games that we have to be focused for.”

·       TORONTO FC – DEFENDER TY HARDEN

On the effect of the schedule: “I don’t really think that’s what it is right now.  We just didn’t come out to play.  For whatever reason it didn’t seem like we were into the game, at least for the start. I think we had a good start to the second half, we had chances maybe to score, we had a lot of pressure on them and then they broke us.  The second goal kind of killed our momentum, and obviously it went the other way.”

On what changes they tried to make at halftime: “We were just trying to keep the ball a little more, keep our backline a little higher.  I think we sat in a little bit too much in the first half and gave them the ball too easily.  So we tried to change that and just keep possession and just score when we had our chances, which obviously we didn’t do.”

On how the team can move on from this result: “I mean, it’s not that easy to just forget.  We don’t forget anything I don’t think.  Obviously we’re going to start looking to the next game and try to put it behind us, but you got to learn from everything.”

 

·       TORONTO FC – DEFENDER ERIC AVILA

 Overall thoughts: “It’s very disappointing.  I think we could have done a lot better.  I don’t know if it was not feeling it, or if the organization of the team just wasn’t there.  There were bits and parts that were good, but other ones that killed us.  The whole team is down right now, but we got to put our heads up because we have a game on Tuesday and that’s very important. It’s a learning experience.  We were in a good run, but we still have to be focused for every game, and I think we lacked that today.”

Chivas USA (8-12-11) vs. Toronto FC (6-13-12)

September 24, 2011- The Home Depot Center

Scoring Summary:

CHV — Juan Pablo Angel 8 (Ante Jazic 7, Justin Braun 5) 12

CHV — Justin Braun 8 (Michael Umana 1) 71

CHV — Juan Pablo Angel 9 (Ben Zemanski 4, Marcos Mondaini 1) 77

Toronto FC — Stefan Frei, Richard Eckersley, Ty Harden, Andy Iro, Ashtone Morgan, Julian de Guzman (Terry Dunfield 46), Eric Avila, Torsten Frings, Nick Soolsma, Danny Koevermans (Danleigh Borman 84), Ryan Johnson (Peri Marosevic 73).

Substitutes Not Used: Doneil Henry, Matt Stinson, Mikael Yourassowsky, Milos Kocic.

Chivas USA — Dan Kennedy, Michael Umana, Andrew Boyens, David Junior Lopes, Ante Jazic, Justin Braun (Michael Lahoud 78), Nick LaBrocca, Ben Zemanski, Laurent Courtois (Marcos Mondaini 64), Juan Pablo Angel, Alejandro Moreno.

Substitutes Not Used: Simon Elliott, Jorge Flores, Blair Gavin, Zarek Valentin, Zach Thornton.

Misconduct Summary:

TOR — Ashtone Morgan (caution; Reckless Tackle) 8

TOR — Richard Eckersley (caution; Tactical Foul) 27

TOR — Andy Iro (caution; Tactical Foul) 43

CHV — Ben Zemanski (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 54

Referee: Kevin Stott

Referee’s Assistants: -Brian Poeschel; Jason Cullum

4th Official: Geoff Gamble

Time of Game: 1:52

Weather: Cloudy-and-65-degrees

Attendance: 14,357