With an effort such as this, it’s all good for Chivas USA
Producing the sort of performance that shows why it is one of the contenders in Major League Soccer this season instead of one of the also-rans -- see the Galaxy, among others -- Chivas USA shut out FC Dallas, 2-0, on Satuday night on goals by Maykel Galindo and Ante Razov.
Dallas came into the game as the Western Conference leader with 16 points from nine games, one point ahead of the Colorado Rapids, who shut out the Galaxy, 1-0, earlier Saturday.
Third-place Chivas, with eight points coming in, needed the victory to keep pace with Colorado and gain ground on Dallas, and it achieved those goals.
“If we lose, all of a sudden there are 11 points between us and them,” Chivas midfielder Jesse Marsch said. “We were aware of that.”
Now there is only a five-point difference.
“They played their hearts out,” Chivas USA Coach Preki said of his players. “I thought the whole group really played hard. The mentality was very, very good. I was very happy with the way we approached the game and eventually our quality took over.”
The match was pretty even through the first half. Chivas was a shade unfortunate not to go into the break with a one-goal lead after a hopeful shot by leading scorer Galindo clipped the crossbar at the top of the right post in the 16th minute.
Midfielder Sacha Kljestan also had a split-second chance to give Chivas the lead, when Galindo’s square pass left him alone in the penalty area with only goalkeeper Dario Sala to beat. But Sala rushed out of his net to smother the shot.
At the other end, Dallas managed to earn three corner kicks in the first 45 minutes, but none produced any real scoring chance, and what few shots Dallas did muster were easily handled by goalkeeper Brad Guzan.
The closest Dallas came was when defender Alex Yi sent a header over the crossbar off a corner kick by Ramon Nunez.
A little more than five minutes into the second half, Galindo put Chivas in front.
Stripping the ball from Dallas midfielder Juan Toja, Galindo stumbled but kept his footing, touched the ball once and then unleashed a 30-yard shot into the lower right corner of the net, beyond the reach of diving goalkeeper Sala.
The goal was the Cuban striker’s fifth of the season in only eight games, and his second game-winner. It left him alone in third place in the MLS scoring race behind U.S. internationals Taylor Twellman of New England and Eddie Johnson of Kansas City.
“He worked for the goal,” Preki said. “He pressed the defense. He wanted the ball. It was a good shot. Give him credit, he’s been responding to some of the things we’re trying to get him to do here.”
Said Galindo: “I knew there was only one defender ahead of me so I got up quickly. I looked up and saw that the goalkeeper was back-pedaling a little bit and I took the shot.”
Razov doubled the lead in injury time when he took a long, bouncing pass from Paulo Nagamura and chipped it into an empty net from about 40 yards over an onrushing Sala.
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Before the game, Ramon Ramirez, who played in two World Cups for Mexico and served as Chivas USA’s first captain, announced his retirement. Ramirez, 37, had not played since suffering a knee injury during training camp in 2006.
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