Chivas USA Notes (3-1 loss @ LA Galaxy in SuperClásico, The Home Depot Center, Carson, Calif., 7/21/2012)

 

·         CARSON, Calif.  (Saturday, July 21, 2012) – Chivas USA (6-8-5) fell 3-1 Saturday night to the LA Galaxy (9-10-3), before a crowd of 25,180 at The Home Depot Center, in the second of three matches in this year’s SuperClásico series. Led by a Robbie Keane goal in the first half and a pair of Landon Donovan goals in the second, LA was able to hold off a second-half rally from the Red-and-White. Sub Paolo Cardozo knocked-in his first goal of the season in the 52nd minute. The series is now even at one win a piece.

·         The Galaxy broke the ice in the 14th minute of play when David Beckham made his way with the ball near the half-circle and threaded a pass to the cutting Keane, who was able to find the back of Dan Kennedy’s net. Juninho was also credited with an assist on the sequence.

·         The Rojiblancos had a number of solid looks in the first half, as they took more shots (4-3) than Galaxy. Miller Bolaños was active from the opening whistle and was able to work the ball into the box from the left flank a number of times, taking a shot on-goal in the fifth minute and later setting up Nick LaBrocca for a strike inside the box in the 22nd. 

·         Fellow midfielder Ben Zemanski also attacked the Galaxy’s net. In the 43rd minute he unleashed a powerful strike from about 25 yards out, but Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders was able to get his hands on the shot and prevented the damage.

·         After the Galaxy went up by two in the 48th minute on Donovan’s first goal of the night – a long through-ball from Keane inside the mid-field line – The Rojiblancos got on the board to cut the lead in half. Midfielder Ryan Smith, from the right wing worked the ball from just outside the box, leaving behind in a sequence of moves, three Galaxy defenders, before dropping it off to Cardozo on his left, who gathered the assist and served it to the back of the net, as he beat Saunders to his left. The assist was Smith’s fourth of the season.

·         The Goats applied plenty of pressure in their final third in the second half, as they knocked on the door on several plays. In the 60th minute, Cardozo nearly found the equalizer after a scrum broke out near the short area, but Saunders was able to deflect the goal attempt to narrowly preserve the lead. Throughout the match Chivas USA took a number of dangerous free kicks, none more dangerous than sub Juan Pablo Angel’s kick in the 81st minute that sailed just right of the post.

·         Galaxy found the third and final goal in the 78th minute, after a corner kick produced a scrum inside the short area, where Donovan recovered the loose ball and tapped it in for the final 3-1.

·         Chivas USA continues its Western Conference push when it travels to take on the Portland Timbers, Saturday July 28 at JELD-WEN Field, for an 8 pm match. The game will broadcast on television, live on Prime Ticket in English and KWHY 22 in Spanish. For more information about the game please visit cdchivasusa.com. Follow us on Twitter @cdchivasusa and Facebook.com/chivasusa

 

THE WORD FROM THE TEAMS:

 

CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH – ROBIN FRASER: 

Thoughts on game: “In the first half I thought we were a little too passive. In the second half pressure was much better and we were able to force their defenders to make difficult decisions and we were able to win some turnovers.  In the first half I thought that we turned the ball over too many times and in bad spots. I felt like in the second half through our pressure we were able to win more balls further up the field and that always makes a difference.” 

On Chivas USA’s performance after Galaxy’s first goal: “For the rest of the half we had moments where we just turned the ball over in bad spots and kept ourselves under pressure.  In the second half we certainly had a very bright spell, where we were aggressive and obviously scored the goal. We created some chances, we had been pushing for a while there.  We definitely had good moments but at the end of the day, again, self-inflicted wounds, I feel like is the story for us.”

On the team’s chemistry: “We know what we have to do in terms of building up with the ball and we just have to execute.  When we executed it was good, and for us in the second half, we executed quite well and we put ourselves in pretty good spots, but when we don’t execute we put ourselves in trouble.”

On Paolo Cardozo’s performance: “Paolo brought us some life in the middle part of the field, in the attacking part of the field, and as a result obviously he scored a goal.  He was involved in a number of good attacks.”

CHIVAS USA DEFENDER – ANTE JAZIC:

Thoughts on game: “We didn’t play well today, the Galaxy applied pressure they dictated the game.  We showed them too much respect, we let them have too much time on the ball and they dictated the tempo where we had to do a lot of defending.  The game got stretched out, which favors them, and overall not a great night for us.  We weren’t very compact; we didn’t make it very hard on them.”

On missed opportunities: “In the second half I thought we showed a bit more urgency but we weren’t able to capitalize on the chances that we had. I thought the guys tried and gave a good effort for 90 minutes – in the end we just don’t put away our chances.”

CHIVAS USA MIDFIELDER – RYAN SMITH:

Thoughts on game: “I think today we just didn’t show up. From the first whistle we just didn’t play how we know we can.”

On the importance of the SuperClásico: “For me it’s a game obviously of huge importance, probably the biggest importance of the lot. At the end of the day three points were at stake and we can’t get over hurt on this fixture because it’s L.A, it’s like any other game we have to go in with an objective and completely forget about what they do and just focus on us.”

On his assist: “I went to the ball and ran in behind the defender.  James played a good ball over the top and I tried to get on the ball and beat a few players and create a goal, and it worked.  Sadly, I had to come off shortly after it.”

On his injury: “I just felt something as I started my sprint, I felt a pop in the back of my leg.  Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.” 

On the team’s mindset: “Everyone’s disappointed, this is not a good result. This is our job, we know that if we lose a game we have to quickly forget about it and focus on our objective for the next game.  Hopefully, next week we can get a win.”

LA Galaxy – Head Coach Bruce Arena

On the win:“It’s a good win for our team. I thought we played well from start to finish. It got a little sloppy in the second half but we could have scored a number of more goals tonight, we were very good going forward, I think, obviously Donovan and Keane’s passing, Beckham’s passing… It was a good team effort for the most part, we did a good job defensively, got a little sloppy in the second half but the game opened up and I thought it fell in our favor. The guys did well on short notice this week and playing on difficult surfaces; on Saturday in Portland and Wednesday in Vancouver we played on concrete and for our guys to recover and put in the effort they did tonight is outstanding. ”

On the partnership between Donovan and Keane up front: “I think those two combined for a number of opportunities tonight and were outstanding. Certainly David as well in that group.”

On Robbie Keane’s recent run of form: “Well you said it, he’s scoring. He’s had a number of chances, he’s putting his chances away, I think the partnership with Landon helps, there’s better coordination of the players. We made a big mistake in having players loaned out right until the start of the season, and although they played together at the end of last year they still needed time together. We started with a group of players that hadn’t had a preseason together, which is a major mistake. I accept the responsibility for that. Now we’re building into the second half of the season, they’re much more familiar with each other and they’re playing better.”

LA Galaxy – Midfielder Landon Donovan

On the team’s form: “We’re playing well. With that, our guys that we depend on to make plays are making plays and, candidly, we’re probably leaving a few goals on the table each game. So as good as we feel about this, we know we can still do better and I think little by little defensively we’re getting better so that’s a good combination right now.»

On the offensive chances: “Yeah, could have scored more, that’s for sure. But we’re also happy with getting the chances and the way we played. I know Robbie had another one that should have counted. We’re content with how it’s going and want to keep the roll going.”

On Robbie Keane’s play: “He’s been fantastic. He’s creating chances for himself, he’s creating chances for others, his passing is good, his movement is good and also, probably underrated, he’s been working hard defensively and helping us in that way. So when he does all that, we’re pretty hard to beat.”

On the play of David Beckham: “He can do it in a lot of ways and he’s been playing great. It’s a shame he’s not going to London to play. He’s been terrific and I think most teams in the world would want a guy like that on their team right now.”

LA Galaxy – Forward Robbie Keane

On what the forwards did well: “I think we combined obviously quite well. We made it difficult for their defenders with our movement and the way we were linking up. Overall it was a good effort.”

On the recent scoring: “It’s not me, it’s about the team improvement. We weren’t good enough before the European Championships. Collectively as a group we weren’t good enough, simple as that. It was always going to come around that we were going to start picking up results and start playing well and that’s been the case.”

On what is going differently lately: “The team is performing better. We’re playing better as a team so, it’s simple as that really. We have the same team we had last year when we were playing well. Some reason or another, before the break we weren’t playing well as a team.”

LA Galaxy – Defender Bryan Gaul

On his performance: “I thought I did okay. I wasn’t as good on the ball as I should’ve been but defensively I thought I was pretty good.”

On fitting into the team: “It has been different. I have been playing all these different position and I am just trying to do whatever the team needs. Todd [Dunivant] got injured, he’s a good player. I just have to try to hold on till he gets back.”

On defending against Ryan Smith: “I thought it was going to be tricky. There was a lot of film that we watched on him. He has a lot of moves and a lot of trick in his bag but I thought overall he wasn’t as effective as he has been in the past.”

Chivas USA (6-8-5) vs. LA Galaxy (9-10-3)

July 21, 2012 – Home Depot Center

 

Scoring Summary:

LA – Robbie Keane 9 (David Beckham 8, Juninho 3)

LA – Landon Donovan 8 (Robbie Keane 5, David Beckham 9)

CHV – Paolo Cardozo 1 (Ryan Smith 4)

LA – Landon Donovan 9 (Bryan Gaul 1, Omar Gonzalez 1)

 

Chivas USA — Dan Kennedy, James Riley, Danny Califf, Rauwshan McKenzie, Ante Jazic, Blair Gavin (Paolo Cardozo 46), Ben Zemanski, Ryan Smith (Juan Pablo Angel 57), Nick LaBrocca, Miller Bolaños, Jose Correa.

Subs not used: Tim Melia, John Valencia, Jorge Villafaña, Alejandro Moreno, Casey Townsend.

 

LA Galaxy – Josh Saunders, Sean Franklin, A.J. DeLaGarza, David Junior Lopes, Bryan Gaul, Hector Jimenez (Omar Gonzalez 68), David Beckham, Juninho, Marcelo Sarvas (Michael Stephens 81), Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane

Subs not used: Brian Perk, Tommy Meyer, Bryan Jordan, Jose Villareal, Jack McBean

 

Misconduct Summary:

CHV – Ryan Smith (yellow, foul) 18

LA – David Beckham (yellow, dissent) 32

CHV – Ben Zemanski (yellow, foul) 36

CHV – Rauwshan McKenzie (yellow, foul) 47

LA – Landon Donovan (yellow, foul) 53

Referee: Jorge Gonzalez Referee’s Assistants: Fabio Tovar, Mike Kampmeinert 4th Official: Mark Declouet

Attendance: 25,180 Time of Game: 1:52 Weather: Clear, 77 degrees

cdchivasusa.com

 

About Chivas USA

Founded in 2004, Los Angeles-based Club Deportivo Chivas USA has achieved remarkable success in seven full seasons in Major League Soccer. From 2006-2009, the Mexican-owned club qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs in four consecutive seasons, to the delight of its passionate supporters. In addition, Chivas USA’s innovative grassroots programs demonstrate its deep commitment to the Southern California community, while the club’s youth teams and Soccer Academies offer unprecedented opportunities to the region’s best young talent. For more information on Chivas USA, please call 1-877-CHIVAS-1 or visit cdchivasusa.com.