It's getting hard out here for us loyal fans of El Rebaño.
Coming into last night's game in Santa Clara, CA, Chivas USA had a very impressive 4-0-2 record against the "new" San Jose Earthquakes. If you've been paying attention to this year's MLS season, you know that simply foreshadows an end to the good times. In the penultimate game of a seriously disappointing season, Chivas USA walked off the pitch in Nor Cal blanked 0-3, and saw their chances of climbing out of the Western Conference cellar nearly vaporize.
Chivas did listen to my advice from a previous post, and started Kevin Guppy in goal to see what he could do. The answer was, not a whole lot. Nine minutes into the match, SJ's Cornell Glen banged a shot off the crossbar, putting the Goats on notice. While neither team did much of anything in the rest of the first half, Glen would again be the center of attention for dubious reasons in the 40th. Cornell pulled up with a hammy injury, and this forced the Quakes to play one of the many starters they were trying to rest in the match. Chris Wondolowski was that regular starter who came in as a sub, and his entrance into the match would completely change things.
In the 55th minute, Wondo was dragged down in the box. With the ball on the spot, he easily converted to get San Jose off and running. Just four minutes later, he simply put a ball on goal from 13 yards out, and discovered that Guppy's weak side was the bottom right. His shot tickled the twine to double the lead. Chivas had no fight. In the 72nd, the SJ star would secure his second hat trick of the season, drilling a cross from Ryan Johnson (going from the Canucks to the MLS is pretty impressive) past Guppy. The deal was sealed. The Goats had nothing to throw at the Quakes, and walked off the pitch, humbled for the 17th time this season.
Granted, it wasn't a star studed lineup for either team, being that it was a midweek game, but Chivas clearly had more "regulars" on the pitch than San Jose.
G: Guppy- Even though he got roughed up, I was happy to see him finally get his shot. The life of the MLS Pool Player sucks.
D: Trujillo, Cuesta (Bornstein 62), Umaña (Zizzo 66), and Jaziç- Tough to see both Yamith and Umaña From Heaven go down to injury, but overall, our defense was downright bad. We're probably going to have to stop calling Trujillo "The Trujth."
M: Lahoud, Nagamura, Saragosa (Padilla 46), and Flores- Zemanski was again held out, and this midfield had no bite whatsoever. I'm surprised that The Deacon, Naga, and El Gringo couldn't get it going in the second half. They're just waiting for the season to end as much as us fans, I guess.
F: Braun and Espinoza- Are we so weak with Gordon suspended that we have to move arguably our best midfielder up front? That experiment failed. I guess we never should have loaned out Chuk Wagon and Galindo, eh?
It'll be interesting to see how this team is changed in the offseason, but you'd have to imagine that big changes are on the horizon. At 8-17-4 (28 points, -11 GD), Chivas continue to sit 2 points back of Houston, all alone in the basement of the Western Conferece. That, of course, means that Chivas must beat Chicago (8-12-9, 33 points, -4 GD) and Houston must lose their final game for the Goats to pull up to 7th place to end the year. Chicago, is known as "The Fire," "La Maquina Roja," "Men in Red," and "CF97," and their supporters are known as "Section 8" in reference to the military code for a mentally unfit soldier. It's been a hard road for Chicago this year as well, and both teams will be looking for a little rallying point heading into the offseason.
Hopefully the Goats can extinguish the Fire, because we need this win a whole lot more.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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