Chivas USA (4-7-3) fell to Real Salt Lake, 3-0, Saturday night at The Home Depot Center in front of 13,816 fans. Real Salt Lake (10-3-2) forward Fabian Espindola scored two goals in the match, and Will Johnson also chipped in a goal of his own. With the loss Chivas USA’s four-game unbeaten streak is snapped and the Rojiblancos remain at 15 points in the Western Conference.
- Real Salt Lake broke a scoreless tie in the 41st minute when midfielder Kyle Beckerman centered a pass from well outside the penalty area to the cutting Espindola, who headed the goal in from just outside the short area in front of the Red and White’s net.
- The Argentine added his second goal in the 54th minute when he took a long pass down the right side from midfielder Ned Grabavoy and worked his way near the right corner of the short area. Espindola got around defender Rauwshan McKenzie and tapped in his sixth goal of the season.
- Johnson would find the back of the net in stoppage time when he powered in a shot from about 15 yards out after receiving an assist from sub Javier Morales inside the 18 yard box to close the match 3-0.
- The Rojiblancos looked to work the ball forward in their final third of the pitch, but were unable to find the back of the net. In the second half the Red-and-White knocked on the goal’s door a number of times with several dangerous crosses near the net. Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel crossed a pass to Alejandro Moreno in the 50th minute, but the midfielder was unable to head-in the shot. In the 85th minute, sub Ryan Smith crossed a pass from the left side to a slashing Juan Agudelo who nearly headed in the pass near the left post
CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH – ROBIN FRASER
Thoughts on the match: “I thought it started as a pretty even affair. I thought there was a lot of work in the midfield by both teams. As the game wore on, it became a bit of a game of mistakes and we paid the price for our mistakes for sure. At times it was very good, but it’s a 90 minute game and it’s not good enough for it to be ‘just good’ at times. In the end, as I said, we became a victim of our own mistakes.”
Not creating chances out of possession: “Well, certainly we have players that we think are good players and we have to be able to execute. Tonight I felt like we didn’t execute the attacking end. We took stretches of possession and didn’t turn them into dangerous chances.”
Getting back to action Wednesday: “I think we have something to prove to ourselves. We’ve had a decent run. At times tonight it was good, but the execution wasn’t good enough and certainly that is something that we, as a group, need to get back to sooner rather than later.”
Starting the second half: “I told the team that we should keep our heads up because we were toe-to-toe with them. We really gave up the goal through a mistake, but I thought that it was a pretty even game to that point.”
