Chivas USA captured a critical home victory over the Eastern Conference leading Columbus Crew on Saturday night, winning 3-1 at The Home Depot Center in Carson. The Red-and-White (5-9-3, 18 points) rode goals from three of its youngest players en route to the team’s fifth victory in the MLS regular season.
Forward Justin Braun opened the scoring for Chivas USA, scoring his team-leading seventh goal of the season in the 37th minute. Recent acquisition Rodolfo Espinoza floated a cross into the box, and Braun rose above the defense to head home from 10 yards.
Just before halftime, the Red-and-White doubled their lead when rookie midfielder Blair Gavin took advantage of a Crew miscommunication to score his third goal of the year. A Dan Kennedy punt was misplayed by Columbus defenders, and Gavin slipped in to nick the ball past William Hesmer in the Crew goal in the 45th minute.
In the second half, Chivas USA iced the game when Carlos Borja, who was filling in for Mariano Trujillo (suspended due to yellow card accumulation) at right back, scored his first career goal. After a corner kick was cleared, Ben Zemanski blasted the ball back into the box, and Giancarlo Maldonado chested the ball down for Borja to drive home from 15 yards.
It was a night of firsts for several members of the Red-and-White, as Espinoza, Darío Delgado, Zemanski and Maldonado all notched their first assists in MLS play, while Borja scored his first goal as a professional. All three goalscorers for Chivas USA were 23 years of age or younger.
The win improved Chivas USA’s record to 5-9-3 on the season, and 2-0-2 in the last four MLS regular season matches. In eight games (including U.S. Open Cup and SuperLiga) in the month of July, the Red-and-White had a 4-1-3 record.
Chivas USA Head Coach Martín Vásquez, on tonight’s match: “This has been our biggest win this year. From the first minute until the 90th, we played well. We scored some nice goals. We see some of our younger guys keep stepping up and some of our new players helping. All around, it was a great result for us.” Post-game audio from Vásquez, as well as Ben Zemanski, Paulo Nagamura, Carlos Borja, Blair Gavin and Rodolfo Espinoza, are available on Dentro del Rebaño, the official blog of Chivas USA.
The Red-and-White will take Sunday and Monday off before returning to training on Tuesday at The Home Depot Center. The team will travel on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s match against Toronto FC, the first time Chivas USA will take on former head coach Preki, now at the helm of the Canadian team. The match will kick off at 1:00 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on Prime Ticket, TeleFutura, and W Radio 690 AM.
