Chivas USA keeps momentum
Chivas USA’s front office has been fielding a higher-than-usual amount of interview requests for midfielder Jesse Marsch. See, thanks to Thursday’s on-field shoving match with David Beckham, Marsch has become a popular guy.
Too bad he’s not interested in the publicity.
Marsch, after being interviewed by Ryan Seacrest on a morning radio show Friday, has turned down interview requests with the sole purpose to talk about his fight with Beckham.
“At this point it’s time to move on and talk about our team and what’s going on here,” he said. “I want to kind of keep the attention on the important things and not on extraneous attention.”
What’s going on is that a pretty interesting story is developing for Chivas.
Chivas made things even more interesting Sunday, with Marsch in the middle of things again, by beating Real Salt Lake, 1-0, in front of 11,217 at the Home Depot Center.
Fresh off his 15 minutes of unwanted notoriety, Marsch scored the game-winner in the 30th minute.
Chivas players looked tired at times, the effect of three games in eight days, but with two off days looming the team pushed on to get its third consecutive win.
The Goats could have won by a bigger margin. They tried to capitalize on the opportunities they were creating in the second half, but kept getting turned away by Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando, who faced 14 shots.
Chivas’ aggressive offensive style is something Real Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis really likes about the Preki-coached team.
“What I particularly like about them is that they are very direct. They don’t wait around too much,” Kreis said. “They have guys that are determined to get you a goal. Guys the likes of [Sacha] Kljestan and [Jonathan] Bornstein.
“When you watch them, their first touch is straight at you and make you commit and do something.”
Chivas didn’t finish many of those chances, and it put some unneeded pressure on Chivas goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who wasn’t challenged with a shot until the 85th minute, but had to make a few stops near the end of the game to preserve the shutout.
“We made it really exciting at the end and it shouldn’t have been like that,” Preki said. “But they never quit, they fought and made it difficult for us. At the end they had one or two moments themselves, but Guzan made that one save.”
The Goats (11-6-3 with 36 points) extended a home unbeaten streak that dates to last season to 11. They improved to 7-0-1 this season.
They also moved into a second-place tie in the Western Conference standings with FC Dallas (11-7-3, 36).
Finishing in first or second in the West is key because unlike years past, when each conference would get four playoff spots, only the top two teams in each conference get automatic bids to the postseason. The remaining four spots go to the teams with the best record, regardless of conference.
“We like our chances,” Preki said. “If we play the way we are playing? If we are committed the way we are committed right now? We’ll be there.”
