May 25, 2008 4:44 PM
Effort, determination lead Chivas past Rapids
The three taller pieces of Chivas USA's four-man defensive line (Jim Curtin, Carey Talley and Bobby Burling) stymied the Rapids' attack Saturday night, allowing the visitors to collect their first victory in Colorado and their first road win of the season.
Their defensive performance made a one-goal advantage stand up for Chivas USA, which beat Colorado 2-1 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Curtin, Burling and Talley got to 50-50 balls first. Often, they got to 60-40 balls first and made them theirs.
They won the battle in the air. They won the battle on the ground.
I couldn't count the times that Curtin, Burling or Talley stepped forward to intercept a pass. Or how many times one of them would stick a long leg out and thwart a move or disrupt a pass. Or how many times they jumped higher and harder and popped the ball away from a Rapids attacker with their heads.
In fact, the Rapids never managed to do any damage near the goal. The team's lone goal came from about 35 yards away from the net on a rocket blast by substitute Tom McManus.
And the example shown by the back line bled through to the rest of the Chivas USA lineup.
One exchange in the second half sums up the effort. With one Chivas player on the ground, the ball was bouncing up around chest height and three Rapids players were standing, waiting for it to drop to their feet. However, instead of waiting, a Chivas player approached the three, squirted between them and controlled the ball in the air. Three players waiting for something to happen, one willing to do what it takes to make something happen.
Another example came on the game's first goal. Ugo Ihemelu did a poor job of clearing a ball with his head. While facing his own goal, Ihemelu softly directed the ball about 10 yards behind him.
Kosuke Kimura, whom I've praised before as being almost unbeatable, waited for the ball to come to him.
But Chivas USA's Justin Braun had other ideas. He slipped in front of Kimura and took possession. Then Braun passed the ball to Jesse Marsch, who scored into the far side netting.
It was a resounding display of effort and determination, and it's why Chivas won the game.
ONE OF THESE THINGS JUST DOESN'T BELONG HERE: Curtin: 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. Talley 6-foot-1, 178 pounds. Burling: 6-foot-5, 195 pounds. Francisco Mendoza 5-foot-6, 135 pounds. Mendoza is tiny compared to his mates on the back line, but he played a big game on Saturday. Working the left back spot, Mendoza used his speed and ball-handling skills to manuever his way out of jams and navigate through the Rapids' attackers. Strong night for the little guy, playing out of position.
AND ANOTHER THING: Mendoza has been one of Chivas USA's best developments since joining MLS. Why doesn't the team have his picture on its Web site? Even Burling, a second-year player, has a photo on the site. Sloppy oversight from the team.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Paulo Nagamura shut down Christian Gomez, plain and simple. The Chivas USA midfielder was rarely more than five yards away from the Rapids' chief playmaker. Gomez was rarely allowed the luxury of having the ball at his feet, and his ineffectiveness led to coach Fernando Clavijo to remove him from the game late in the second half. Nagamura was on Gomez like white on snow. Like sauce on pasta. Like bitterness on a rural Pennsylvania voter. Like ... well, you get the point. Nagamura's defensive effort was the primary reason the Rapids failed to mount a sustained offense, which, in turn, was one of main reasons the Rapids lost the game. I toyed with voting for Burling, Talley and Curtin, but Nagamura's individual effort was exceptional.
MCMANUS FROM DISTANCE: It's a shame the Rapids were down 2-0 when Tom McManus scored because the scoreboard made the goal meaningless. But his unassisted goal at 80 minutes was spec-freaking-tacular. When you consider Jacob Peterson's cracker from earlier this season, the Rapids have scored two of the most beautiful goals in the history of the team so far this season.
MORE ABOUT THAT GOAL: My son and I were seated right along the end line at the south side of the stadium when McManus scored, and our jaws just dropped. But the angle on one of the video replays is far better than the one we saw live. Go to mlsnet.com to watch a video of the goal. It's worth it.
NOBODY BUT MCMANUS: Now the Rapids have to work on scoring meaningful goals. An ugly one in the final 10 minutes on Saturday would've been welcome. Anything. Facundo Erpen's header in the 25th minute, which made Brad Guzan stretch and dive about as far as he can stretch, was the closest the team came to scoring other than McManus' blast.
TWO GAMES THIS WEEK: The Rapids travel to Carson, Calif., to play the Galaxy in a U.S. Open Cup play-in game on Tuesday. Then the Rapids will host Dallas at 1 p.m. Sunday.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: In the North American Soccer Reporters voting this week, I went with Chicago's Cuauhtemoc Blanco (1 goal, 3 assists in a 5-1 victory over the Red Bulls). My second-place vote went to Dominic Oduro (2 goals in Dallas' 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake.
May 26, 2008
3:38 PM
Allen writes:
Pretty sure Chivas USA had 3 in back with Talley-Curtin-Burling.
May 26, 2008
9:19 PM
George Tanner writes:
y'know, i know mendoza is a midfielder, but he was back on defense so much saturday night that it never crossed my mind that he was playing in the midfield. it never occurred to me that they were playing a three-man back and that he was helping out. my son and i kept scratching our heads over who that tiny defender on the left side was. when we saw it was mendoza, we wondered what kind of crazy experiment they were putting him through on defense. but he was playing a good game back there. he's typically one of their more offensive-minded midfielders, but on saturday he was doing well on D. colin clark recognized that chivas was playing three across the back, but he pointed out in an interview with the league web site that it often seemed like the goats had four on defense: "They were man-marking Christian [Gomez], and I think they did a good job at that. ... The way they were coached to play against our formation was very good. It was almost as if they were playing a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3. Their two outside players would drop deep and cut the angles."