SuperClásico Ends in Stalemate
Chivas USA's Alecko Eskandarian battles Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez.Photo by Getty Images.
Neither team was able to assert itself in the early stages of the first half, but as is customary when the two teams face each other, things started heating up early and it wasn't long before yellow cards started to fly.
Before things got too chippy, Chivas USA slowly began to assert itself and gained a greater share of control of the flow as the match entered the 15th minute. Galaxy 'keeper Donovan Ricketts made his debut with the blue-and-gold and was called upon a couple of times to keep the score even as Chivas USA pinned the blue-and-gold in their defensive half for a good portion of the middle portion of the half.
By the time the Galaxy managed to build some momentum of their own, midfielder Stefani Miglioranzi and Eddie Lewis had both already picked up yellows. Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan and defender Shavar Thomas would join the booking sheet by the time 36th minute.
More importantly, Chivas USA Paulo Nagamura picked up a yellow at the 25th minute and a hard tackle on Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan at the close of the first half would lead to his second yellow and ejection from the game.
Chivas USA made some adjustments at the second half, with midfielder Bojan Stepanovic replacing Gerson Mayen and Alecko Eskandarian making his season debut as he replaced Eduardo Lillingston. On the other side, the Galaxy would begin the second half with the same line up as in the first.
Despite having a man advantage, Galaxy struggled to generate offensive opportunities and fight through the bottleneck in the midfield. Chivas USA's combination of Stepanovic and Eskandarian slowly began to have an impact on the game as the Galaxy defense fought hard to contain the latter and the former helped free Kljestan.
Galaxy forwards Jovan Kirovski and Bryan Jordan would enter the game for the blue-and-gold at the 58th and 61st minutes respectively, but before either could have a serious impact on the game, the Galaxy lost a player as well. Galaxy forward Alan Gordon, who had come close to opening the scoring on a couple of occasions in the first and second half gathered in the span of three minutes for his inability to keep his mouth shut.
The teams played even from the 71st after Gordon's ejection, but it wasn't long before referee Tim Weyland whipped out the red card again. This time, it would be Galaxy defender Gregg Berhalter -- also making his debut with the team -- who would exit. His foul would come at the 79th minute as the Galaxy defense was struggling to contain the Chivas USA attack, in particular Eskandarian. Eskandarian was headed for a certain breakaway and Berhalter was left with no options other than to drag Eskandarian down in order to prevent the goal.
Berhalter's actions preserved the tie, but also put the blue-and-gold a man down -- after being a man up.
With the Galaxy a man down, Chivas USA began to exploit the extra space, gradually picking apart the Galaxy defense. The red-and-whites nearly opened the scoring on several occasions after nice build ups in the midfield between Kljestan, Stepanovic and Eskandarian, but Ricketts and the blue-and-gold defense met the challenge.
In the end, time would be the red-and-whites worse enemy and the blue-and-gold's best friend. Had Berhalter's ejection come a few minutes earlier, it is unlikely the Galaxy would have been able to salvage a tie as the Chivas USA attack was relentless in the final minutes.
Next up for the Galaxy is the California derby in San Jose, while Chivas USA hosts Seattle, who lost their first game last night by a score of 1 - 0.