BY ADAM SERRANO
SAN DIEGO, CALIF — Chivas USA escaped the shadow of their big brother to the south on Tuesday night in San Diego.
The Rojiblancos defeated Chivas de Guadalajara on penalty kicks winning the second edition of the Chivaclasico. The match took place in San Diego's Petco Park for 23,216 red-and-white clad fans.
Both teams struggled to finish chances as the match ended in regulation tied up at 0-0. Michael Lahoud was the hero as the midfielder confidently buried the penalty that gave Chivas USA, the ChivaClasico trophy.
The story for Martin Vasquez's crew revolved around missed opportunities. The Rojiblancos dominated the early stages of the first half, but were plagued by poor finishing. Justin Braun had the best opportunity of the match in the 35th minute when a Rodlofo Espionza cross found him alone on the keeper. However, the Chvias USA forward sent the shot just wide of the net.
The poor finishing also plagued the mother club as Chivas de Guadalajara missed several chances to win the game in regulation. Future Kansas City Wizards striker Omar Bravo was the most active early, but missed two clear chances at Zach Thornton's net. Guadalajara's best chance came in the 60th minute when Bofo Bautista was alone on net, but his shot was stopped by a palm save by Chivas USA backup goalkeeper Kevin Guppy.
San Diego native Sal Zizzo made his first start in a Chivas USA uniform and went 45 minutes in front of his home crowd.
23, 000 have they ever drawn this much? Why not SanDiego? LA base fans can still get to games.
Yawn.
i agree, move Chivas to San Diego.
CUSA WILL NOT LEAVE TO SAN DIEGO COMMON GUYS SAN dIEGO IS ALSO IN THE BOOKS FOR SELLING THE CHARGERS YET ALONE BRING AN mLS tEAM???CUSA IS STAYING HERE IN LA THEY AINT GOING NO WHERE FYI SAN DIEGO BOCA!!!!!!!!
i don’t think Chivas SD’s schedule is too busy..
Chivas USA should move to San Diego. We need an MLS team. They would have a good following.
MLS testing the waters in San Diego for a potential Chivas USA move?
Again–can someone help me out. These late season friendlies are basically vital for MLS clubs business plans correct? i understand money is money—but as demonstrated in the case of the Sounders (with an upcoming friendly) scheduling these games can backfire with schedule overload. Just a comment.
Saw this one a little different than Adam. I thought Chivas USA dominated the game. Possession numbers were clearly in favor of Guadalajara, but quality chances from them were few and far between. I counted, on the other hand, 6 balls that should have been goals for Chivas USA.
First Alan Gordon put a free header wide of the net from inside the 6. Then Justin Braun said “I can do that too!”. He follow that with an attempt at a simple finish of a cross into the six, but took it with his ankle, instead of his instep. So, the ball went near post to the keeper instead of far post to an empty net. Then, the cross that Adam talks about. That’s four Chivas USA could have had in the first half alone.
In the second half, it was just as bad. Braun’s replace stuck a foot out at a waist high cross with the goal at his mercy, and missed wide, again from inside the six. By no means an easy chance, but 9 times out of 10, if a forward makes contact with the ball on that play, it goes in. Then Espinoza went in alone on the keeper, deftly chipped him instead of easily rounding him (tons of space to do the latter), but the chip rolled about 1 foot wide of the net.
That doesn’t count the number of chances where you don’t necessarily expect it to go in, but a better shot could have forced a save or won the game. There were a half dozen of those as well.
Adam’s right about the Bofo shot – wicked, swerving, unexpected, on target. Awesome shot, lucky save, really – keeper barely got enough on it to push it onto the crossbar, luckily for him, the top of the crossbar, where it tilted over and behind. Would have been unfortunate for Chivas USA, which clearly deserved to win this one.
Oh, and FYI, I’m a NE fan, not a Chivas fan. Don’t like them much, really, but they were clearly better last night.
Awesome, a win for MLS!
Crap, a win for Chivas…
how do I take this?