Half Time: Santos Laguna at Chivas USA

Lots of shots on goal from the two teams (a dozen), but only three from Santos Laguna on target so the score is 0-0 after the opening 45 minutes.

The Mexican champions have looked fast and smooth when they transition into attack and gave some idea of their potency with a goal only 60 seconds or so into the game that was called back for offside.

Santos broke quickly in the 12th minute too, Christian Benitez geting behind the defense, rounding goalkeeper Dan Kennedy – and then hitting the bar instead of the open net from eight yards.

Chivas USA have looked considerably less dangerous, frankly.

Their most lively attack in the 23rd minute saw Sacha Kljestan intelligently spray the ball wide to Jonathan Bornstein. Debutante Roberto Nurse completely whiffed on his cross though and hasn’t shown much else.

Quite a few Santos fans here tonight – lots more than Pachuca drew on the weekend – and they’re often overwhelming the home fans in terms of noise.

New England beat Pachuca 1-0 in the early game, by the way, going through to the next round and doing Chivas USA a huge favor, who play the Revolution Sunday.

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SuperLiga: Santos Laguna at Chivas USA

All sorts of changes tonight for Chivas USA including Dan Kennedy in goal, Claudio Suarez on the bench, Mexican Roberto Nurse making his debut up front and young Kraig Chiles getting a rare start (likely as a withdrawn forward).

The Chivas USA lineup: Kennedy, Jim Curtin, Carey Talley, Shavar Thomas, Jonathan Bornstein, Francisco Mendoza, Sacha Kljestan, Paulo Nagamura, Chiles, Nurse and Atiba Harris.

Ante Razov is on the bench, as is Jesse Marsch and Jorge Flores.

Mexican international Oswaldo Sanchez is in goal for Santos Laguna and fellow El Tri international defender Fernando Arce starts in defense with Ecuador’s World Cup 2006 striker Christian Benitez and former Manchester City forward Vicente Vuoso the players to watch up front.

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Chivas USA SuperLiga Gameday & More

Chivas USA plays the second game of its SuperLiga campaign at 7 tonight (live on Telefutua) at Home Depot Center in a must-win situation against Mexican champions Santos Laguna.

I’ll blog from Carson as usual.

Pachuca plays New England at 5 p.m. on Telefutura.

Down the coast from us, the U.S. Women’s National Team plays its final pre-Olympic tune-up at 7 p.m. in San Diego against Brazil (live on Fox Soccer Channel).

Lastly, the U.S. Women’s Under-23 National Team won its Nordic Cup opener Tuesday 1-0 against Switzerland. The UCLA pair of Valerie Henderson and Tina DiMartino went the full 90 for the U.S.

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Chivas USA Signs Mexican Forward & SuperLiga Update

Not wanting to repeat last year’s lack of depth at forward that cost Chivas USA a half-decent playoff run, Preki has signed 24-year-old Mexican forward Roberto Nurse, who has played three (on and off) years in the Mexican first division.

And of course, Chivas USA has been a Mexican-oriented team with few Mexicans lately.

Chivas USA has the likes strikers Maykel Galindo and Alecko Eskandarian out injured.

From the (edited) Chivas USA press release:

“Roberto is a strong, powerful center forward who we’ve been taking a close look at for the past few weeks,” Preki said. “He’s good in the air, good with his feet, and will add another dimension to our attack.”

Nurse made his top-flight debut with Cuernavaca in 2003 at age of 19. He also played for Zacatepec and Quertaro for two years and returned to the first division in 2005 playing 13 games with Atlante. Then it was back to just-promoted Quertaro the next year where he scored 17 goals between the Apertura 2007 and Clausura 2008 seasons.

Chivas USA play their second SuperLiga game against Mexican champion Santos Laguna Wednesday.

An Internet special has tickets on sale starting at just $10, with the highest-priced tickets (usually $45) $10 off. More info here.

SuperLiga scores tonight: Atlante 3 D.C. United 1

While it was Chivas 1 Houston Dynamo 0

But United isn’t necessarily out.

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Galaxy’s Edson Buddle, Six Others Added to MLS All-Star Team & Reyna Retires

Edson Buddle’s exemplary form this season has earned him his first MLS All-Star Game call-up in his eight-year career.

Buddle, whose start to the season was disrupted by yet another in his litany of injuries, – a broken collar bone sustained on the Galaxy’s Australian tour – overcame that to record 11 goals in his last seven games, tying him for the MLS scoring lead.

I’m at a loss for words,” Buddle said. “It’s good when you put in the work and you are rewarded for it.”

Also named to the July 24 game against West Ham United by MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Coach Steve Nicol: the Canadian trio of Jim Brennan (Toronto FC), Dwayne De Rosario (Houston Dynamo) and Pat Onstad (Houston Dynamo), as well as New York Red Bull striker Juan Pablo Angel and the Colorado Rapids duo of Christian Gomez and Pablo Mastroeni.

Meanwhile, in the least surprising news of the MLS season so far, Red Bulls injury prone midfielder Claudio Reyna is expected to announce his retirement Wednesday at a New York press conference.

Reyna has been a colossal bust for New York and their fans will unlikely be upset to see him go. The bigger question for Wednesday: can he hobble to the microphone?

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Tuesday’s Column: Turning Points For Chivas USA’s Guzan, Galaxy’s Buddle

It has been a pleasure watching Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan mature into a world-class goalkeeper during his MLS career.

And Edson Buddle has been a bright spot of the Galaxy’s season, just can’t seem to stop scoring goals and is enjoying every moment after a stuttering MLS career so far.

I focused on the two of them for today’s column at a time when both are at a critical juncture of their careers.

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The Week Ahead: SuperLiga & More

Today:
Palos Verdes’ John Thorrington was named MLS Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters after his stoppage time winner against Toronto FC for the Chicago Fire.

Tuesday
As the MLS transfer window opens the Galaxy could announce who gets cut today to make room for new signing Eduardo Dominguez, the Argentine defender. Pete Vagenas? Abel Xavier? Or does he have a guranteed contract? Greg Vanney?

MLS All-Star coach Steve Nicol will announce his five All-Star picks while MLS Commissioner Don Garber will announce his two to complete the 18-player roster for the July 24 game against West Ham United.

Wednesday
Chivas USA plays the second SuperLiga group game against Mexican champions Santos Laguna at 7 p.m. live on Telefutura. The Mexicans lost 1-0 to the New England Revolution on the weekend, which plays Pachuca at 5 p.m.

On Tuesday it’s D.C. United vs. Atlante in the early game followed by Houston Dynamo vs. CD Guadalajara.

Thursday
The 18-player U.S. Men’s Olympic Team roster is announced.

Friday
The U.S. Under-17 Women’s National Team plays the first game of World Cup qualifying against Costa Rica in Trinidad. Forward Samantha Johnson of Palmdale is on the roster.

Saturday
The 6-6-4 Galaxy, who haven’t won in four games, plays at 3:30 p.m. on Fox Soccer Channel against the 5-6-5 Red Bulls in a rematch of last year’s 5-4 New York win before more than 66,000.

Notes:
Galaxy goalkeeper Vito Higgins is out four to six weeks after suffering a fracture of his right foot that was discovered before Friday’s reserve game against Chivas USA.

Results Sunday:
PDL
Lancaster Rattlers 2 San Francisco Seals 3
Orange County Blue Star 1 Ventura County Fusion 0

Standings.

W-League
Real Colorado Cougars 2 Ventura County Fusion 0
Standings.

WPSL
Claremont Stars 1 Ajax America Women 4
SD United 4 Los Angeles Rampage 0

Standings.

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Chivas USA Post-Game

i-9bc246461ed12891d8f05e0a90b4054b-TS14-Chivas-Pachuca.SV-288.jpgSuarez’ miss from the penalty spot.

Photo by Scott Varley

Game story.

Box score.

Here’s Claudio Suarez on missing the first half penalty kick:

“I feel bad for having missed it because it influenced the result. If I’d put it in it would have changed the game.”

Preki thought the “silly free kick” in the 23rd minute against Panchito Mendoza (it looked like a dangerous two-footed tackle on replays to me) that resulted in the tying goal was the “changing point” of the game:

“They are a very good team. You give a team like that a moment or two they’re going to punish you.”

Suarez clearly wasn’t used to the speed a team like Pachuca can play at:

“The match was played at a high rate,” he said. “I hadn’t played Mexican soccer for a while. Pachuca can pass ball around.”

Jonathan Bornstein, who switched positions with Panchito Mendoza and played left half much of the game rather than left back, said Pachuca’s speed on counter attacks was a handful:

If you turn the ball over they were very quick to transition and get down the flanks. They had those two full backs who were kind of playing high all the time. It worked for them I thought the game opened up a lot.”

Preki conceded his team looked a “step slower” after Thursday’s game against the Galaxy and couldn’t quite match the speed and polish of Pachuca’s possession-oriented game:

They are a very good passing team. Against teams like that you have to be patient. It’s different than MLS. Not too many teams in our league base everything on passing like this team does.”

He also observed that goalkeeper Lance Parker was drafted in after Guzan backup Dan Kennedy sustained a “knock” in Friday’s reserve team game against the Galaxy. Preki on Parker’s first ever start as a pro: “pretty decent.”

U.S. Coach Bob Bradley was at the game, by the way, as was Mexico’s new manager Sven-Gran Eriksson.

i-6f110ffd34e0c1227253c9b4c4ddf3b1-TS14-Chivas-Pachuca.SV-186.jpg
Sacha Kljestan: grounded.

Photo by Scott Varley

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