Chivas USA falls to Seattle Sounders FC 6-2

Chivas USA (7-10-6) fell to Seattle Sounders FC (12-6-7), 6-2, Saturday night at The Home Depot Center before a crowd of 11,973. The visitors were led by an early goal by Brad Evans and three Fredy Montero goals. Chivas USA responded with two consecutive goals of its own by Juan Agudelo and Miller Bolaños. Seattle was able to pull away with two additional goals, one by Sammy Ochoa and the final on an own-goal by the Goats.

• The Rojiblancos started quick from the opening whistle getting into dangerous spots. In the third minute, midfielder Tristan Bowen – making his first start of the season – worked the ball inside the box and passed it off to Miller Bolaños on his left, whose shot attempt was denied by Seattle’s goalkeeper Michael Gspurning. Three minutes later, it was Bolaños who looked to set up his teammates. The midfielder crossed the ball to a cutting Agudelo who tried to knock it in with a glancing tap-in, but the shot was wide right of the post.
• In the 15^th minute the Goats continued to pepper Seattle’s net, this time with dangerous centers into the box. Left back Ante Jazic crossed it to forward Casey Townsend but his header sailed wide right. In the 32^nd minute right back James Riley’s cross from the right wing found Agudelo near the short area for the header, but Gspurning was able make the stop.
• Seattle took the advantage beginning in the 10^th minute when Evans broke free down the left seam and beat Goats’ goalkeeper Dan Kennedy to his left. Seattle continued its offensive attack with two consecutive goals by Montero (27, 34). Montero was assisted on both plays by Mauro Rosales.
• Chivas USA stormed back with two consecutive goals of its own. In the 38^th minute, Agudelo lined up and powered the ball to the back of the net on a penalty kick after Townsend was fouled inside the box attempting to receive a center pass. The goal was Agudelo’s second of the year.
• As the second half got under way, the Rojiblancos continued to press the action in their attacking third. In the 64^th minute, Bolaños made a solo run with the ball on the left wing and created space after receiving a pass from Bowen. The midfielder unleashed a strike near the left side of the semi-circle and powered in his second goal of the season to claw back and make the score 3-2. The assist was Bowen’s second on the season.
• Seattle’s Montero knocked in his third goal three minutes later on Rosales’ third assist of the match to make it 4-2. Afterwards Seattle added two more goals on the night. Ochoa – who came on as a sub – headed in an assist from Christian Tiffert in the 80^th minute to make the score 5-2. The final goal in the match came in stoppage time on an own goal by the Goats for the final 6-2 marker.
• Chivas USA has a short week as it travels east to take on the New England Revolution, Wednesday, Aug. 29 at Gillette Stadium, for a 5:00 pm PT match. The game will broadcast on television, live on Prime Ticket in English. For more information please visit cdchivasusa.com. Follow us on Twitter @cdchivasusa and Facebook.com/chivasusa

 WORD FROM THE COACHES:

CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH – ROBIN FRASER: 

Thoughts of the game: “The attacking side was really, really good tonight. I thought we created a ton of opportunities, we could of scored a number of goals. The defending group did not play very well, a lot of individual mistakes or collectively not dealing with counter attacks well enough, but that’s what happens when you play against a good team, you give them opportunities and they are going to score goals. The other side of that is we were extremely dynamic on the attacking end and created a number of chances. This game could have ended a lot to a lot. Obviously disappointed how we defended and pleased with the attacking group.”

Thoughts on the six goals: “You look at how the game went and how we played going forward. It was the best attacking night we have had certainly all year, coming out of that I don’t know if you would call it an embarrassment.  Anytime you give up six goals or six goals at home is not what you are certainly looking for. I keep referencing the attacking side and how good I think it was, just defensively we were extremely poor.”

On Tristan Bowen’s performance: “Tristan was good, he had a good night -very, very attack-minded, running at the defender all night long. He had a good showing and it’s only the second game in a long time and he is going to get better week in and week out if he continues to play with that confidence. Tristan has matured a lot in the last year and his time away with the Belgium team. He has come back with a renewed vigor. He is a good story of someone who has worked well in the reserves games and as a result has gotten the opportunity with the first team. He obviously did well last week and he earned a start tonight and did well with it. He certainly was a bright spot tonight.”

SEATTLE SOUNDERS HEAD COACH – SIGI SCHMID

Thoughts on the match: “We knew it was going to be a strange game just because of where they are at on the standings. We knew that we would have to take some risks and go forward, and one thing we talked about was the desire to go forward, we knew it was going to present us opportunities, which it did. We were very fortunate that they didn’t get more goals, we made some desperation saves.  I thought that Michael [Gspurning] came up with a couple of good reactions on crosses on clearing them.”

On Fredy Montero: “He’s playing well, I think the one goal that he made where he played the ball to Mauro, he got the ball back and just chipped it over Kennedy as he was coming out, I thought that was a quality goal, a quality finish. He’s very sharp right now and very confident and obviously that’s a good thing for our team.”

On Chivas USA’s offense: “It’s the first time Chivas has played in a true 4-4-2, they really haven’t played in a true 4-4-2 in a while, that caused us a little bit of surprise. Their forwards are young, they were busy, and they were active. Our guys didn’t know that much about them and maybe weren’t as mentally prepared as they should have been for them.”

On Seattle Sounders’ midfield: “It was good offensively, I thought their movement was good and popping up in different places was good. Defensively when we lost the ball we had way too many guys standing there. There were times when Chivas was attacking us seven against five or seven against six and we had four guys standing up front. It was a matter of getting back and recovering. The place changing is something that we encourage, we allow them to do that, and the key to doing that and making that work is you have to keep the ball.”