Chivas USA Notes (6-2 loss vs. Seattle Sounders FC, The Home Depot Center, Carson, Calif., 8/25/2012)

 

·         CARSON, Calif. (Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012) – Chivas USA (7-10-6) fell to Seattle Sounders FC (12-6-7), 6-2, Saturday night at The Home Depot Center before a crowd of 11,973. The visitors were led by an early goal by Brad Evans and three Fredy Montero goals. Chivas USA responded with two consecutive goals of its own by Juan Agudelo and Miller Bolaños. Seattle was able to pull away with two additional goals, one by Sammy Ochoa and the final on an own-goal by the Goats.

·         The Rojiblancos started quick from the opening whistle getting into dangerous spots. In the third minute, midfielder Tristan Bowen – making his first start of the season – worked the ball inside the box and passed it off to Miller Bolaños on his left, whose shot attempt was denied by Seattle’s goalkeeper Michael Gspurning. Three minutes later, it was Bolaños who looked to set up his teammates. The midfielder crossed the ball to a cutting Agudelo who tried to knock it in with a glancing tap-in, but the shot was wide right of the post.

·         In the 15th minute the Goats continued to pepper Seattle’s net, this time with dangerous centers into the box. Left back Ante Jazic crossed it to forward Casey Townsend but his header sailed wide right. In the 32nd minute right back James Riley’s cross from the right wing found Agudelo near the short area for the header, but Gspurning was able make the stop.

·         Seattle took the advantage beginning in the 10th minute when Evans broke free down the left seam and beat Goats’ goalkeeper Dan Kennedy to his left. Seattle continued its offensive attack with two consecutive goals by Montero (27, 34). Montero was assisted on both plays by Mauro Rosales.

·         Chivas USA stormed back with two consecutive goals of its own. In the 38th minute, Agudelo lined up and powered the ball to the back of the net on a penalty kick after Townsend was fouled inside the box attempting to receive a center pass. The goal was Agudelo’s second of the year.

·         As the second half got under way, the Rojiblancos continued to press the action in their attacking third. In the 64th minute, Bolaños made a solo run with the ball on the left wing and created space after receiving a pass from Bowen. The midfielder unleashed a strike near the left side of the semi-circle and powered in his second goal of the season to claw back and make the score 3-2. The assist was Bowen’s second on the season.

·         Seattle’s Montero knocked in his third goal three minutes later on Rosales’ third assist of the match to make it 4-2. Afterwards Seattle added two more goals on the night. Ochoa – who came on as a sub – headed in an assist from Christian Tiffert in the 80th minute to make the score 5-2. The final goal in the match came in stoppage time on an own goal by the Goats for the final 6-2 marker.

·         Chivas USA has a short week as it travels east to take on the New England Revolution, Wednesday, Aug. 29 at Gillette Stadium, for a 5:00 pm PT match. The game will broadcast on television, live on Prime Ticket in English. For more information 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 of the game: “The attacking side was really, really good tonight. I thought we created a ton of opportunities, we could of scored a number of goals. The defending group did not play very well, a lot of individual mistakes or collectively not dealing with counter attacks well enough, but that’s what happens when you play against a good team, you give them opportunities and they are going to score goals. The other side of that is we were extremely dynamic on the attacking end and created a number of chances. This game could have ended a lot to a lot. Obviously disappointed how we defended and pleased with the attacking group.”

 

Thoughts on the six goals: “You look at how the game went and how we played going forward. It was the best attacking night we have had certainly all year, coming out of that I don’t know if you would call it an embarrassment.  Anytime you give up six goals or six goals at home is not what you are certainly looking for. I keep referencing the attacking side and how good I think it was, just defensively we were extremely poor.”

 

On Tristan Bowen’s performance: “Tristan was good, he had a good night -very, very attack-minded, running at the defender all night long. He had a good showing and it’s only the second game in a long time and he is going to get better week in and week out if he continues to play with that confidence. Tristan has matured a lot in the last year and his time away with the Belgium team. He has come back with a renewed vigor. He is a good story of someone who has worked well in the reserves games and as a result has gotten the opportunity with the first team. He obviously did well last week and he earned a start tonight and did well with it. He certainly was a bright spot tonight.”

 

CHIVAS USA FORWARD – TRISTAN BOWEN

 

Thoughts on the match: “It was a tough game; I think we made some strides offensively in creating more chances and actually putting more than one goal in the net. We were soft defensively and gave up too many easy goals, it was tough. We took one step forward and almost two steps back.”

 

On the several goal opportunities for Chivas USA: “The team as a whole is moving forward in terms of offensive movement and being more aggressive, and I think everyone saw that today. We just have to be sharper in front of the goal and have that killer instinct in and around the box. Defensively, as a unit we all need to work harder and make sure we don’t give away easy goals and keep ourselves in the game. We had a few moments in the game where we were down by maybe one and we let some easy goals in, so that killed us.”

 

Thoughts on playoffs: “It’s still a possibility, it’s a lot of work to do but it’s not impossible. We are going to move forward as a group and hopefully we’ll get in.”

 

CHIVAS USA GOALKEEPER – DAN KENNEDY

 

Thoughts on the match: “We’ve had some games where we’ve been up a lot and haven’t necessarily been punished for it. Tonight we faced a hot striker in Fredy Montero and his chances were just golden and he buried them.”

 

On Chivas USA offense: “We were real dynamic, Tristan [Bowen] was real dynamic and buzzing around. We had our opportunities that could have tied them six-to-six. With that being said, the defense was just not good enough and I take responsibility for that too.”

 

Thoughts on playoffs: “We need every game, we’ve needed every game ever since the SuperClásico and now it’s just about pride, it’s all about pride. Every week going out there and playing for the team, playing for yourself and giving everything you’ve got.”

 

SEATTLE SOUNDERS HEAD COACH – SIGI SCHMID

 

Thoughts on the match: “We knew it was going to be a strange game just because of where they are at on the standings. We knew that we would have to take some risks and go forward, and one thing we talked about was the desire to go forward, we knew it was going to present us opportunities, which it did. We were very fortunate that they didn’t get more goals, we made some desperation saves.  I thought that Michael [Gspurning] came up with a couple of good reactions on crosses on clearing them.”

 

On Fredy Montero: “He’s playing well, I think the one goal that he made where he played the ball to Mauro, he got the ball back and just chipped it over Kennedy as he was coming out, I thought that was a quality goal, a quality finish. He’s very sharp right now and very confident and obviously that’s a good thing for our team.”

 

On Chivas USA’s offense: “It’s the first time Chivas has played in a true 4-4-2, they really haven’t played in a true 4-4-2 in a while, that caused us a little bit of surprise. Their forwards are young, they were busy, and they were active. Our guys didn’t know that much about them and maybe weren’t as mentally prepared as they should have been for them.”

 

On Seattle Sounders’ midfield: “It was good offensively, I thought their movement was good and popping up in different places was good. Defensively when we lost the ball we had way too many guys standing there. There were times when Chivas was attacking us seven against five or seven against six and we had four guys standing up front. It was a matter of getting back and recovering. The place changing is something that we encourage, we allow them to do that, and the key to doing that and making that work is you have to keep the ball.” 

 

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FORWARD – FREDY MONTERO

 

Thoughts on the ability of the team’s midfield: “They are all really good with the ball, and obviously they are players who can defend. We are going to use that for the team because we need to go forward but at the same time we need to be compact in the back to keep the result.”

 

Thoughts on goal opportunities: “[Chivas USA] was going forward and left a space behind the defense. We tried to use those, and it was good for us to come in those spaces to score the first goal. After that we saw that we could use that again to keep scoring more goals.”

 

Thoughts on the teams performance: “I’m just happy to keep it up. We know that it is not the end; we have nine more games where we have to make as many plays as we can. We have a really good team, we have players who are ready for the opportunity to come in and perform well.”

 

SEATTLE SOUNDERS DEFENDER – MAURO ROSALES

 

On his team’s performance: “I think we did great offensively, and making many situations for goals. For the strikers, they were very effective and very calm with the ball. Almost every time that we could make a good pass or a good pass through to them, they did very well and we are very happy that the production of the team was very good. We are very happy about how the game finished.”

 

Thoughts on his position: “We have the freedom with Chris [Tiffert] to change every time, when we think the game is going to work out. When we see the space we try to occupy the space. We are trying to keep the ball, it’s a good thing to not have to defend. If we keep the ball, and keep possession it’s something that we have to work on.”

 

On the teams confidence:  “We have other guys that are fresh and they want to play also, and we have a team that we can play down in Trinidad and back in Dallas, and we are all trying to do our best. We want to keep this mentality and the whole team has to be in a high mentality. The guys that didn’t play today have to know that they will have their chance in the same level. Every day we work together, we have enough players to face the other teams.”

 

Chivas USA (7-10-6) vs. Seattle Sounders FC (12-6-7)

Aug 25, 2012 – Home Depot Center

 

Scoring Summary:

SEA – Brad Evans 2 (Fredy Montero 5) 10

SEA – Fredy Montero 9 (Mauro Rosales 11) 27

SEA – Fredy Montero 10 (Mauro Rosales 12) 34

CHV – Juan Agudelo 2 (PK) 38

CHV – Miller Bolaños 2 (Tristan Bowen 2) 64

SEA – Fredy Montero 11 (Mauro Rosales 13) 67

SEA – Sammy Ochoa 1 (Christian Tiffert 1) 80

SEA – Ante Jazic (OG) 90+1

 

Chivas USA – Dan Kennedy, James Riley, Bobby Burling, John Valencia, Ante Jazic, Tristan Bowen (Jose Correa 69), Shalrie Joseph, Nick LaBrocca, Miller Bolaños, Casey Townsend (Juan Pablo Angel 86), Juan Agudelo

Subs not used: Tim Melia, Danny Califf, Jorge Villafaña, Ben Zemanski, Alejandro Moreno

 

Seattle Sounders FC – Michael Gspurning, Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez, Mauro Rosales (Mario Roberto Martinez 78), Osvaldo Alonso, Christian Tiffert (Steve Zakuani 84), Brad Evans, Fredy Montero, Eddie Johnson (Sammy Ochoa 80)

Subs not used: Josh Ford, Marc Burch, Zach Scott, Alex Caskey

 

Misconduct Summary:

SEA – Osvaldo Alonso (yellow, foul) 54

CHV – Miller Bolaños (yellow, off the ball) 90+3

Referee: Jose Carlos Rivero Referee’s Assistants: Ian Anderson, Fabio Tovar 4th Official: Baldomero Toledo

Attendance: 11,973 Time of Game: 1:52 Weather: Clear, 72 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.