Chivas gets a bounce at home
Just when it looked as if the game was going to end in a tie, Chivas USA pulled out the victory.
With the score tied in the second half, and Maykel Galindo having just missed a great opportunity to give Chivas the lead, Francisco Mendoza took matters onto his own feet.
Mendoza put Chivas ahead in the 68th minute when a cross he’d sent in deflected off Columbus Crew player Eddie Gaven and into the goal, resulting in another home victory.
Chivas held on in the final 22 minutes to win, 2-1, in front of 10,214 at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night. Chivas remained unbeaten at home this season, improving to 6-0-1, the best in Major League Soccer.
“I was trying to pass it, honestly,” Mendoza said in Spanish of the go-ahead goal. “I had a little bit of luck.”
Luck may have played a role, but it was a well-deserved win nonetheless for Chivas, which outshot and outplayed visiting Columbus.
The Crew’s lone bright spot was Guillermo Barros Schelotto, a former player on Argentina’s Boca Juniors who joined Columbus earlier in the season. On Chivas’ Argentine night, a promotion held throughout the game, the Argentine player gave the home team lots of problems.
In particular, his corner-kick cross to Stefani Miglioranzi in the 23rd minute.
Miglioranzi’s goal not only tied the score, it was also the first goal Chivas had given up at home in nearly two months. Chivas has given up only two goals in home games this season, the last one by Landon Donovan on May 20 during a 1-1 draw against the Galaxy.
Fortunately for Chivas, Barros Schelotto was one of the few Crew players who played well.
Chivas put more shots on goal, 7-3, and had more total shots, 13-9, with most of Columbus’ shots coming toward the end when it was looking for the draw. Chivas also committed more fouls, 16-10.
But the most important thing is that it outscored Columbus.
And Chivas accomplished that by getting a couple of fortuitous bounces to go its way.
There was Mendoza’s deflection. And the first goal of the game, which was scored by Ante Razov, or was it Galindo?
There was uncertainty as to who actually scored the goal. Galindo, wide to the right of the keeper, saw Razov in front of his defender in the six-yard box. He appeared to send in a cross for Razov when the ball ended up in the back of the net.
Razov did not appear to have touched the ball. Instead, he and the defender collided with Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer.
Somehow, the ball went in for a goal.
“I believe I touched it, but I don’t know,” said Razov, who was credited with the goal. “I kind of just crashed into everyone, and it’s not the prettiest of goals, but I’ll take it.”
So will Chivas’ Jesse Marsch.
“There was a time period in the first couple of months, three months, of the season where you didn’t feel like we were getting a lot of the breaks,” said Marsch, who started the play that ended in that first goal. “Tonight we get a little break there, so, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
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