Chivas hits many high notes in 2-1 playoff victory
Francisco “Paco” Palencia sees himself as a rock star.
His long, dark hair is pulled back in a ponytail. He wears tight-fitting leather clothes. His fingernails are painted blue. These are all clues to Palencia’s alter ego.
And on Sunday afternoon, as one of many high points in Chivas USA’s memorable 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo in the Major League Soccer playoffs, the 33-year-old former Mexican national team star lived his dream to the fullest.
Chivas, in its first-ever postseason game, was leading the Dynamo, 1-0, at the Home Depot Center when midfielder Sacha Kljestan delivered a perfect free kick into the scrum of players in front of the Houston net.
Palencia, all 5 feet 9 of him, threw himself at the ball and headed it powerfully past Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad. He then sprinted to the corner flag, ripped it out of the ground, spun it around like a guitar, struck a pose and began strumming some imaginary chords.
It was that kind of afternoon. There was a lot at stake, the 90-degree heat was ignored and the two teams gave it everything. The soccer they played was as good as anything seen in MLS in a decade.
And after Chivas had taken the lead in the two-game, total-goals series heading into next Sunday’s decisive second match in Texas, Palencia held court on a chair in the locker room.
It turns out he does have a favorite guitarist -- Robert Trujillo, the bass player with Metallica. As proof, Palencia brought out a photograph of himself and Trujillo taken at a club somewhere.
The rest of the Chivas players take this all in stride. If the league’s highest-paid player can deliver on the field as he did Sunday, his off-field fondness for the likes of Guns N’ Roses and Led Zeppelin is fine by them.
Kljestan, for one, enjoyed Palencia’s impromptu goal celebration. “It was very cool,” said the rookie from Huntington Beach. “He’s a rock star personified.”
Almost as cool as goalkeeper Brad Guzan’s tremendous save on a penalty kick by Houston standout Dwayne DeRosario in the 86th minute that saved the victory for Chivas.
“It was just instinctive,” Guzan said. “I was fortunate to go the right way.”
Way more cool than Juan Pablo Garcia refusing to shake Chivas Coach Bob Bradley’s hand after being taken off in the 68th minute, then sulking on the sideline and later making bitter comments about being substituted.
One of those remarks, in Spanish, was about not having worked all season to play only an hour in the playoffs. Another was about only the team’s owners and his teammates mattering to him, not the coaches.
Bradley shrugged off the rebuffs. “He’s a competitor,” he said. “No player wants to come out. He wants to be in their every second.”
If Palencia and Guzan were the heroes for Chivas and Garcia was the goat, then forward Ante Razov fit somewhere in between. He had a strange game.
In the 12th minute, Razov, the team’s top goal scorer and third-best in the league, went one-on-one against Onstad, rounded the goalkeeper but failed to get a shot off in time at the open net and was stripped of the ball by back-tracking defender Wade Barrett.
Razov made up for that miscue seconds before halftime, however, when he fired a free kick past the stationary Onstad after Houston’s Adrian Serioux had fouled Palencia on the edge of the penalty area.
After Palencia made it 2-0, Brian Ching scored what might yet prove to be an important goal for the Dynamo off a cross from the right by Brian Mullan.
Guzan’s late save on DeRosario capped a fine all-round performance by Chivas, which needs only a tie in Game 2 to advance to the Western Conference championship match.
“It’s one step,” said midfielder Jesse Marsch, who bounced back from a concussion last week and played the full 90 minutes. “It’s a small step. We’ve got bigger steps to go.”
