Chivas is out with a 1-1 tie
Ante Razov scored his sixth goal in as many matches, but Chivas USA was only able to tie the New England Revolution, 1-1, Sunday in the final group match of the SuperLiga tournament, played at Fullerton.
Chivas was eliminated from the tournament when Pachuca tied Santos Laguna, 1-1, in a later match. Pachuca held the tiebreaker because of its 2-1 win over Chivas on July 13.
Chivas was ahead Sunday until the 79th minute, when New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph put a header off a corner kick through the arms of Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy to tie the match.
Kennedy got a hand on Joseph’s ball, but it trickled through. The ball rolled ever so slowly past Kennedy and crossed the line.
“We’re disappointed. We were 12 minutes away,” Chivas interim coach Mike Matkovich said. Matkovich took the place of Chivas Coach Preki, who missed Sunday’s game to attend to a family emergency in Serbia. “We lose a mark on a dead ball, and we feel we gave up a soft goal.”
Razov’s goal came in the 59th minute, the end result of a one-on-one with New England goalkeeper Matt Reis. Razov took an initial shot from the top of the box with Reis coming out to close Razov’s angle. The ball deflected off Reis’ leg and went behind him, where Razov regained control and put it in the net.
Razov came up empty in a similar scenario seven minutes earlier. He had a one-on-one with Reis, who came out to meet him. Razov fired a shot, which deflected off Reis. With Reis on his heels, Razov had an open look at the goal off the rebound, but he sent the shot wide left.
The match was played away from Chivas’ regular home field at the Home Depot Center and instead was in front of 4,738 on the worn-down, bumpy field at Titan Stadium at Cal State Fullerton, which did not sit well with some of the players.
“If we were going to come down and play on this, we might as well have played in the parking lot,” Reis said.
Chivas out-shot New England, 17-6, and put seven of them on goal. Matkovich said more might have gone in if not for the field conditions.
“The field was tough. It was bouncy. A lot of times the ball bounced up on us, and we couldn’t put it in. It took a bad bounce, it took a bad hop,” Matkovich said. “But on the day, I’m happy with the guys. They played well, we out-chanced them. I thought for the most part, we were the better side.”
The two teams played a rather uneventful first half, with neither posing a consistent threat. Offside calls wiped away four potential chances for Chivas.
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