Victorine shows he’s a good pickup
In a Major League Soccer season in which he has had to fill holes in his injury-decimated team on a weekly basis since April, Chivas USA Coach Preki’s best move was made 10 days ago.
That was when he brought midfielder Sasha Victorine home from Kansas City, sending an undetermined amount of allocation money the other way in return.
On Saturday night, the former UCLA and Galaxy player showed what a smart trade it was by setting up the first goal and scoring the second as Chivas USA defeated Kansas City, 2-1, at the Home Depot Center.
The victory kept Chivas (10-10-6) in second place in the Western Conference, behind the defending MLS champion Houston Dynamo, with only four regular-season games remaining.
Winning two of the four might be enough to put Chivas in the playoffs for the third year in a row.
As matters stand, Houston leads with 40 points after being held to a 1-1 tie at Toronto on Saturday; Chivas is second with 36; Real Salt Lake, which won, 3-2, at San Jose, and Colorado, which won, 5-4, at New York, each have 34.
Trailing are Dallas, with 30, and the Galaxy and San Jose, each with 29.
Kansas City fell to 8-10-8, and the Wizards’ chances of reaching the playoffs are becoming problematic.
In a game that seldom rose to any great heights, Chivas USA scored both its goals in the first half, and that signaled a likely win for the home team since the Wizards have never beaten Chivas in Carson.
Preki’s squad, which has won four of its last five in its late-season drive, took the lead in the 26th minute. Ante Razov sent the ball out wide to Victorine on the left flank and the midfielder then cut it back across the face of the net for Alecko Eskandarian to hammer in from close range.
Twenty minutes later, Victorine, 30, applied the finishing touch himself, taking a pass from Atiba Harris and shooting from about 19 yards, high past his former Kansas City and Galaxy teammate Kevin Hartman.
Veteran striker Josh Wolf pulled the Wizards to within a goal in the 70th minute with a bicycle-kick goal, the ball going in off the right post.
That made for a nervous final 20 minutes for Preki, but his players held on, boosted by the presence of such veterans as Claudio Suarez, Alex Zotinca and Jesse Marsch, all of whom have missed significant portions of the season because of injuries.
Also, Cuban striker Maykel Galindo, returning from sports hernia surgery, came on for the final 13 to further boost the team.
The only negative for Chivas was that Razov, the league’s all-time second-leading goal scorer, sustained a right leg injury. It’s been that kind of year.
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