Thornton’s saves crucial in Chivas win
Twenty-four minutes into Chivas USA’s game against the FC Dallas on Saturday night, goalkeeper Zach Thornton pulled off the save of the Major League Soccer season so far.
Flinging himself low to his left, Thornton somehow got a hand on Dax McCarty’s point-blank shot from three yards and palmed the ball away, denying Dallas what looked like a certain goal.
It proved to be a crucial play, and Chivas USA went on to improve its league-best record to 5-1-1 with a 2-0 victory behind Atiba Harris’ second goal of the season and a 90th-minute strike by Alecko Eskandarian, his first goal of 2009.
Chivas was helped by having to play against a Dallas team that was forced to play one man down for more than an hour because of an error by its own goalkeeper, Dario Sala.
Barely one minute after Thornton’s save on McCarty, Sala was confronted by Chivas forwards Chukwudi Chijindu and Justin Braun barreling in, with only Sala between them and the net.
Sala came out of his penalty area to thwart the play, but ended up handling the ball, giving referee Abiodun Okulaja no option but to red card him and award Chivas a free kick.
Needing to replace the ejected Sala, Dallas Coach Schellas Hyndman sent backup Ray Burse in to man the nets and took off McCarty.
Sacha Kljestan, whose play has not lived up to his U.S. national team billing in recent games, sent the free kick soaring over the crossbar, and the scoring opportunity was wasted.
Shortly after the half-hour mark, Thornton again came up with a key save, this time diving low to his right to bat away a shot by Dave van den Bergh.
The first half ended scoreless, but the Home Depot Center crowd of 14,611 was growing increasingly restless.
The second 45 minutes saw Chivas carrying the game to Dallas, and 11 minutes into the half Burse was forced to tip a shot by Braun over the crossbar at the last second before the ball sneaked in at the upper left corner.
Chivas USA Coach Preki then sent Cuban striker Maykel Galindo into the game in place of Braun, injecting some extra pace into the attack, but first it was Thornton who was called upon to make another good save.
This time the 35-year-old, 13-year MLS veteran batted away a fierce shot by Dallas midfielder David Ferreira.
In the 65th minute, Preki yanked Kljestan out of the game, the midfielder having looked out of sorts from the start. Coming on in his place was Eskandarian.
At the 67:50 mark, Harris finally put Chivas is front, sending a sharp downward header past Burse from close range off a perfect cross from Mariano Trujillo on the right flank.
Dallas tried to come back into the game and came close when Pablo Richetti sent a sizzling shot just wide of the left post, but there was little sting left in the visitors’ game. The loss dropped Dallas to 1-4-1 and level with the Galaxy for last place in the Western Conference.
There was still time for Harris to be ejected after receiving his second yellow card, and for Eskandarian to seal the win on a fast break and off a pass from Gerson Mayen.
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