Chivas USA plays through it
New year, new players, same ol’ Chivas USA.
With contributions from three off-season acquisitions, Chivas picked up right where last season ended -- which is to say, winning at home, with forward Ante Razov hurt and playing in a stadium with plenty of empty seats.
Playing in front of a half-empty stadium at the Home Depot Center, Chivas beat Real Salt Lake, 3-1, in its home opener on Saturday night. The announced attendance was 17,251, but it didn’t look as if there were that many fans at the game.
The team is used to playing in front of sparse crowds, however, and it lost only one game at home last season, so that’s not news. Neither is beating Real Salt Lake, which Chivas accomplished for a seventh consecutive time.
Sacha Kljestan scored a goal and had an assist, and newcomers and former Salt Lake forwards Attiba Harris and Alecko Eskandarian each had a goal in the second half.
The Red-and-White (1-0-1) looked impressive in stretches, but injuries seem to be holding the team back.
Razov, who suffered a left calf strain last week, was not available; neither was defender Lawson Vaughn, who strained his left hamstring during practice on Friday. Midfielder Raphael Wicky and forwards Maykel Galindo and Eskandarian are still working their way back into shape after missing most of the preseason.
Wicky and Eskandarian came off the bench -- and combined for a goal late in the game -- and Galindo, still recovering from sports hernia surgery in January, started in place of Razov. The Cuban labored through pain for 77 minutes and it’s a good thing he played because most of the team’s offense was generated by him and Kljestan.
“In a way you could tell tonight that we are not in tune with what we do on the field,” Chivas USA Coach Preki said. “I think it’s going to take us some time before we start playing the way we are capable of playing.”
Midfielder Jesse Marsch, the team’s captain in the absence of Claudio Suarez -- who was in Mexico all week mourning the death of his father but watched the game from the stands -- said some players are, in essence, only a month into preseason.
“Because they missed a lot,” he said, “we are not, by any means, our sharpest and we know we have a long way to go.”
After flirting with scoring a goal, Galindo and Kljestan put one on the scoreboard in the 32rd minute. Kljestan calmly put away a precise pass from Galindo on the play. Francisco “Pancho” Mendoza also had an assist on the play -- he had two on the night.
After getting his first goal of the season, Kljestan then got his first assist when he found Harris in front of the net in the 55th minute.
With Chivas up, 2-0, Preki made his usual substitution of midfielder for forward (Wicky for Harris in the 69th) and switched his formation to 4-5-1. The move almost backfired as Salt Lake controlled most of the ball in the second half.
Salt Lake, however, found it hard to beat goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who was linked again to Arsenal this week. Guzan had two saves.
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