Chivas USA Post-Game

When Chivas USA went up 2-0 someone in the press box joked how that was ‘the most dangerous lead in football” and most of us chuckled at the absurdity of the old cliche only to walk into the press conference and hear Preki say:

“The most difficult thing in football is to win 2-0. Do you attack? Do you defend. What do you do?”

Alrighty then.

Columbus Crew Coach Sigi Schmid had harsh words for referee Fernando Galvan, suggesting he was biased against the Crew all game long:

“We were a man down from the time the game started,” he said, adding that he didn’t understand the ejection of Assistant Coach Robert Warzycha (apparently for making a hand gesture). “(The referee) was more concerned with us than he was with the game.”

Schmid also railed against the lack of protection given to the rapidly improving Robbie Rogers, whose shins covered in red welts and bruises were testimony to the attention Chivas USA meted out:

“Unless we want to make sure Robbie Rogers doesn’t ever play well in this league we should let him continue to get kicked and beat up the way he’s getting beat up right now. Its been ridiculous. … The last three games teams are just kicking the crap out of him and he’s getting no protection. Is it like the NBA where you have to be a veteran to get calls? … I pulled Robbie out because they were just kicking the crap out of him and the referee wasn’t protecting him.”

Here’s Schmid on Rogers’ strengths – and a weakness:

“He’s so confident. He’s willing to go at people. … He found his confidence within himself. He knows he can score goals, he knows he can take people on and beat people. … He probably needs to learn how to – I’m going to get in big trouble for saying this – he needs to learn how to embellish when he gets kicked. There are a number of big time players in this league who do it very well including a couple who play in LA. He’s honest to a fault. .. He doesn’t yet have the respect of referees in this league.”

Rogers agreed with Schmid, but recognized he needs to adapt to the, um, compliments other teams have started paying him:

“Maybe when I go down in the box and there’s a little contact, maybe sometimes I should go down a little easier. Some of the guys in the league have mastered that, but I’m still young so maybe I will. … It’s just another challenge for me I need to overcome, maybe play a little bit quicker. … I’ve got to figure out what I’ve got to do, but something has got to change because we haven’t scored in the last two games.”

By the way, the soap opera of Legion 1908 continues.

After boycotting the last two Chivas USA home games in protest because a member of their group was banned from the stadium for fighting with a member of the Ultras (another Chivas USA fan group), Legion 1908 returned. Except they decided to do a tour of the stadium, yell at the Ultras en masse, and when one of their members climbed atop a railing and ignored a security guard’s demand to get down the fan was tossed from the stadium.

Expressing their solidarity (again) Legion 1908 walked out too.

So they missed the team they allegedly support getting a share of the Western Conference lead.

Not surprisingly, the best line of the night went to Schmid talking about Frankie Hejduk’s repeated transatlantic treks for the U.S. National Team: