Tie Is a Nice Gift for Chivas

Javier “Zully” Ledesma is a likable man who finds himself in an awkward position.

The interim and perhaps future coach of Chivas USA has the man he replaced, former coach Thomas Rongen, peering over his left shoulder.

He has the man who will replace him, coach-in-waiting Hans Westerhof, peering over his right shoulder.

So who gets credit for Wednesday night’s surprise 1-1 tie with the Kansas City Wizards at the Home Depot Center -- Ledesma or Westerhof?

Neither, as it turns out. Credit belongs to the players, who lifted their game in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd of 7,558 to earn their first Major League Soccer point since May 7.

“It was a point against one of the toughest teams to get a point against,” said defender Ryan Suarez, who did an excellent job marshaling a three-man back line on a night when the Ledesma-Westerhof combination switched to a 3-5-2 formation.

“Obviously, when they are on the road, they’re the ugliest team to play against because they sit back, absorb pressure and then counter you,” Suarez said about the Wizards. “And that’s exactly what they did.

“It’s hard to play against a team like that, especially with a new system. We all had questions. At our pregame talk, I think there were 20 questions asked. ‘What do we do here? What do we do there?’ ”

The tie improved Chivas USA’s record to 1-8-2.

The Wizards (4-2-4) looked uninspired. They took only six shots, compared to eight for Chivas, and only two of those were on target.

The Chivas back line of Armando Begines, Suarez and Alfonso Loera was not unduly troubled for most of the first half-hour, and the Kansas City goal, when it came at 29:39, was completely unexpected.

Wizard left back Jose Burciaga Jr. made an overlapping run down the left flank, found himself unchallenged on the edge of the penalty area to the left of the net and floated a cross into the goalmouth.

The ball, apparently mis-hit, sailed over goalkeeper Martin Zuniga, smacked into the right crossbar and rebounded into the net.

“He tried to make a cross,” Zuniga said. “Incredibly, it didn’t come off the way he wanted and it ended up surprising all of us. I think it was a great goal, but if he is going to be honest and you ask him, he would have to concede it was meant to be a cross.”

To its credit, Chivas ignored the setback and pulled level at 37:42 when Ramon Ramirez, the former Mexico national team star who was brought to Los Angeles to be the club’s standard-bearer, scored his first goal in MLS.

Chivas was awarded a free kick after Wizard defender Shavar Thomas fouled Thiago Martins 35 yards from the Kansas City net.

Ramirez struck a powerful left-footed shot that curved away from diving goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi, who got an outstretched hand to the ball but could not prevent it from flying into the lower right corner of the net.

Chivas survived a few scares near the end but had enough to secure the point.

“This is a reflection not only on Hans but on Zully and [assistant coach] Martin [Vasquez’s] work and also Thomas,” Suarez said. “These are Thomas’ boys. We played for him today.”