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Zardes header gives Galaxy victory over Chivas USA

GyasiZardesGalaxyChivasUSA2 (USAToday)

By DAN KARELL

For the second SuperClasico in a row, a homegrown signing scored the opening goal. This time, the Los Angeles Galaxy held on to make it count.

Gyasi Zardes rose high on a free kick from Landon Donovan in the 44th minute, heading home past Dan Kennedy off the far post for the game’s lone goal. The result was a 1-0 victory over Chivas USA in the second SuperClasico of the year, and the end of a four match winless streak for the Galaxy in all competitions.

Though a designated Chivas USA home match at the StubHub Center, and a sparse crowd of 14,575 in attendance, the Galaxy made themselves at home in Carson, California, controlling the match and using both wings to their advantage. The Galaxy nearly took the lead through Robbie Rogers, though his goal was disallowed for an offside call on teammate Robbie Keane.

After Zardes’ goal just before halftime, the 21-year-old homegrown signing nearly scored again, sending a header ricocheting off the post and away. He was a hassle for the Chivas USA defense all match, and was eventually taken off in the 87th minute after putting in a shift.

Chivas USA had a chance early through midfielder Jose Manuel Rivera, but Galaxy goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini was quick to dive to his left to save Rivera’s strike. After that point, Tristan Bowen hit the side netting once, while Jorge Villafaña blasted one that just went wide, but Chivas USA couldn’t get another chance on target the rest of the match.

Here are the match highlights:

Comments

  1. Zardes is a stud. A pure athlete. The sky is the limit for him and he couldn’t have a better mentor than Keane. If he can be half as good as Keane at reading defenders and making smart runs, his physical skills will make him an absolute crusher. He should be comfortably ahead of Villereal and McBean soon.

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  2. Zardes is the real deal. I like what I see. Hopefully, he learns from Keane and LD and grows as a professional. I think we see him in Camp Cupcake next year.

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  3. “Chivas-Galaxy game tonight was a lot different than the ones I used to play in. No atmosphere, no rivalry, no feeling.”

    -@SachaKljestan

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    • I thought the same thing. there weren’t any nasty fouls, physical play, none of that. flat game, flat atmosphere

      where’s all the folks claiming LD can’t play anymore?

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      • Comparing last night to the game in March, Chivas looked like a different team. Maybe it was a flat game, but they weren’t following nearly as much. I wonder how much of their “cleaner play” can be attributed to the new coach?

  4. so did Keane touch Rogers’ goal? you can’t be called offsides for screening the keeper and not touching the ball… right?

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    • u can because you’re affecting the play. Keane could have deflected the shot or done something to change the trajectory of the shot. He is affecting the play directly be screening as well, so it was the right call.

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    • It’s gotta be one of the most subjective calls a ref can make. From the official FIFA “Interpretations of Law 11”:

      “Interfering with an opponent” means preventing an opponent from

      playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s

      line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in

      the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent.

      I’ve seen identical situations as last night’s where the goal stood.

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  5. The name of this rivalry has never made any sense to me, feels like the most forced thing ever. SuperClasico? Ok makes sense for a rivalry to be a classic even though its only been around what 8 or 9 years?

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  6. Rogers is just fine, he needs more time with the team. Give him some time to work out those crosses into Keane and Zardes and he will get better.

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    • He had been training with the team for weeks before the Galaxy made the trade….so fitness wise he should be ready to go….it’s been what about a month now since he debuted? Time for him to start producing if you ask me….the problem is, like when he was playing in England or for Columbus Crew….he has a bad cross or shot when making it to the touchline…..

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  7. Some thoughts from the game tonight…..Chivas sucks. Not the team, the franchise. Place was dead save for the 13,000+ Galaxy fans. The team didn’t suck as much as I thought they would but overall Chivas sucks. Chivas USA needs to die a quick death. Get it over with. The 21st century Cosmos, and this isn’t saying much, will be a tremendous upgrade over the tarpaulin titans, Chivas USA. An absolute joke.

    For LAG, Robbie Rogers doesn’t do much to help this team. He’s just not very good. The Magee trade was a steal for Chicago.

    On the other hand, Zardes is quite the athlete. He’ll get the thinking part of the game in due time. Keane and Donovan lit him up a few times tonight but he had the greatest impact by far.

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  8. Nice to have the win. Hopefully the team can start getting back in better shape with most of the big pieces back. Attack was bad without Keane and the defense bad without Omar. Zardes probably looked the best tonight, good chances, strong play. Defense didn’t really have an opportunity to look bad tonight, so lets hope we are past the troubles with Omar back. The biggest sore spot is Robbie Rogers continued failure to make me forget about Magee:( He almost had the goal tonight but he has been so far from impressive in his early outings…

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    • Rogers will never make us forget about Magee. Magee’s impact on the Galaxy was huge. As someone who vocally opposed the trade from day one, I will say Robbie Rogers is noticeably improving. Last night was his best game so far. He’s taking on players 1v1 and he’s sending in decent crosses. His timing is getting better but he’s gotta work on his accuracy.

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