Chivas USA Wins Again, 4-1
It may be hyperbole to label Chivas USA as hot as the temperatures this weekend in the Southland. But it was still time to break out the red, white and blue confetti, sparkling firecrackers and oversized balloons Saturday as Chivas USA entered uncharted territory.
A 4-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids at the Home Depot Center gave the club its first consecutive wins in its two-year history.
With a win in the Super Clasico against the Galaxy on Thursday, Chivas would match its victory total of last season -- with 23 games remaining. The team also left its fellow tenant alone in the Western Conference cellar, after the Galaxy lost, 2-1, to the Houston Dynamo on Saturday for its sixth straight defeat.
“We know we’ll have a tough time ahead of us,” Chivas Coach Bob Bradley said. “They’ll have lots of energy, and we need to be able to handle that and play better.”
Last year, attacking forward Juan Francisco Palencia was brought in at midseason to add some scoring to Chivas’ stagnant offense.
This year, Ante Razov has lifted much of that burden from his shoulders.
Palencia and Razov each had a goal and two assists against the Rapids (4-4-2).
Razov dribbled from near midfield and squirted the ball past Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul for his score in the 24th minute. It was the sixth goal of the season for Razov, a UCLA graduate acquired in a trade from New York in January. The goal, already a franchise best, was also the 90th of Razov’s career, third on MLS’ all-time list. “I didn’t even know about that, but I’m sure my parents will like it,” he said.
Palencia and midfielder Francisco Mendoza provided the padding for Chivas with second-half goals.
Similar to its previous match, a 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire, Chivas got on the board early.
Five minutes into the game a diving Mike Petke attempted to clear a centering pass from Chivas defender Jonathan Bornstein. But Petke muffed the attempt, redirecting it squarely into his own goal to give Chivas a quick advantage.
Coundoul entered the game sporting a minuscule .77 goals-against-average, tops in the league. But the revamped Goats kept him busy all night.
Chivas pressed early and often, keeping the ball in Colorado territory for much of the game. The team finished with 14 shots.
“The hope is we can continue to improve,” Bradley said. “There’s still a long way to go here.”
Colorado’s score came in the 31st minute when Rapids forward Dedi Ben Dayan calmly ignored traffic to line a shot past Chivas goalkeeper Preston Burpo.
It was all the Rapids would get against Burpo, who earned the shutout in his MLS debut last week, and spent a relatively quiet evening securing three saves.
Even with the win, Bradley wouldn’t say that Burpo had officially wrested the job from incumbent goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
“At this point, it didn’t make sense to change the lineup when things are starting to come around a little bit,” he said. “But we’ll still absolutely open things up and see how things are going.”
