Back home, below are the farcical scenes that greeted Costa Rica in Denver, where it was the Americans that scored the lucky and deciding goal Friday of the World Cup qualifier, as our sister newspaper, The Denver Post, reports. Watch:
It wasn’t pretty, but it was dramatic. Local rookie scores equalizer a minute from time in local derby. Four yellow cards, two reds. Thirty fouls total.
Quotable: “A lot of people probably thought that game was over once the Galaxy scored,” said Chivas USA goalkeeper Dan Kennedy. “I was really proud of us last week when we came back from a goal down to score three and get a victory. This week I have that same exact feeling. We had everything against us, we were playing with ten men against the two-time defending champs, and we showed that we could still get on the board and make this match competitive.”
Led by Irish talisman and club captain Robbie Keane, the Galaxy would appear to have the rub of the green today at home against their struggling cross hallway rivals in an early season SuperClasico that has an air of mystery about it and a notable absence of hype.
An entertaining, virtuoso performance over an admittedly inferior opponent that showcased the Galaxy’s abundant pipeline of young, local attacking talent wrote another page of club history tonight in Carson.
It’s the sort of tuneup for a derby managers dream about and another early season indication the Galaxy are in a confident, purposeful mood.
Accomplished goals by Inglewood’s Jose Villarreal — who received a standing ovation from a crowd aware it was witnessing a special, blossoming talent as he came off late in the game — and Newport Beach’s Jack McBean were highlights, but wiley Robbie Keane led by example and helped himself to a goal, too.
Staff Writer Phil Collin has the game story and quotes from the colorful Chivas USA coach Chelis, who reminds me of former U.S. national team coach Bora Milutinović (incomprehensible in all of the multiple languages he spoke, was the joke).
In just two press conferences the metaphorical and regionally colloquial Chelis has spoken of dandruff, rifles and now a barrel of you know what in press conferences that have baffled even native Spanish speakers attempting to translate.
To wit: “In this team we are all obligated to play soccer, but nobody is obligated to do the impossible. However, this team today got to the edge of the impossible.”
In the battle of quotes that is Chelis verses Schellas, Dallas coach Hyndman had this to say:
“The first two goals, I think, were defensive errors which are going to happen, and the third goal we put everything forward. I think we played well enough to win the game, we just did not play smart enough. ”
I’ll say.
The Dallas goal was a comedy of defending with two Chivas USA players left eating dust and goalkeeper Dan Kennedy seeing the effort go between his legs.
Dallas had nothing to laugh about, however. The defensive lapses that led to the first two Chivas USA goals were inexcusable, but to Chivas USA’s credit they punished the Dallas back line mercilessly.
I’m not convinced Chivas USA won the game as much as Dallas lost it, but at least it has set up a more interesting SuperClasico next Sunday that will have a larger audience than Sunday’s game:
Officially, there are 6,801 at the #ChivasUSA game in #Carson. Unofficially, I’d say its closer to half that.
Kamara is still expected to come off the bench Saturday as he works his way toward match fitness, despite the hype, but he sounds like he’s thoroughly enjoying the limelight so far:
It’s really a Dream/Blessing to be on a train in United Kingdom and seeing someone reading an article bout u in the newspaper. #butterflies
